I am born and brought up in Chennai. Yesterday evening I was driving from Medavakkm to Sithalapakkam, and I think I just herd only 1 bike honk, apart from that nothing. For reason unknown, people in Chennai have become civilized and don’t honk as much as say other cities in Tamilnadu or India. Drivers in my city seem to observe the road and drive rather than honk and rush.

Not everyone follows this less, or no honking stuff. Especially people who do not have the privilege to get educated honk a lot, like cab divers, politicians etc, apart from them, and some uncivilized psychopaths, Chennai seems to be slipping into civilized driving culture.

I am not sure how long this will last, or if this culture will improve. Yes, chennai has its challenges, its filthy, its looted by both DMK, and ADMK, left, right and center. Only VIP areas are clean, with stray dogs, and so on, there is rampant use of drugs, and drug related violence, there seems to be a land mafia here, grabbing the lands of innocent. I think recently homicide, and murders have gone up. Yet among this darkness, I notice that Chennai’s roads are getting quieter.

I find that people in the area I grew up, Adyar, exhibit very civilized driving culture. People around OMR too exhibit civilized driving culture. But as you move towards Tambaram, people drive like mad. I am not sure what is the cause of lack of civility?

When I drive, old family members if they travel with me, often ask me, why I am not honking even at turnings, they simply don’t notice that I drastically slow down, observe and turn slow.

Another thing is controllability of vehicles. With modern digital controls, we can control the vehicle in a ways that’s not possible say 15 years ago. Many cars today do not crash. I think all these things are contributing to safer and relaxed driving conditions.

I don’t expect other cities in Tamilnadu, and India to follow Chennai’s example. But I think it’s a good thing that Chennai is not following the example of other cities. I hope that people in Chennai will be more civilized in the future.