Delhi is home to breathtaking architecture, delicious food, and...well, the world's highest rate of traffic accidents. The chaotic streets are virtually lawless, filled with cars, cows, tuk tuks, motorcycles, and even the odd camel. Host Andrew Younghusband gets a crash course in veering and dodging from perhaps India's most-fearless taxi driver, who pushes Andrew to drive into any available space - even if it's on the wrong side of the road!
It may be the backpacker's must-see, but if you go to the Venice of the East, don't drive! The streets are teeming with seven million vehicles - and 1,200 new ones are added, every day! Host Andrew Younghusband gets an introduction to the madness beside a Hollywood stuntman for a whirlwind ride and a daring lesson on how to really move in this city.
Mexico City is the hemisphere's most populous city. And for every baby born, two new vehicles hit these already over-burdened streets. More people have been killed on the roads than in the country's apocalyptic drug wars - and yet, there is no driving test in Mexico!
Getting around the most densely-populated city on the planet is like navigating a bee hive. Except the bees are driving cars, trucks and adult-sized trikes. A glamourous race car driver teaches host Andrew Younghusband the merits of offensive driving.
One of the foodie capitals of the world, Lima is known as the Garden City, but driving here definitely isn't a walk in the park; there are over 50,000 traffic accidents every year! Almost half of those involve vehicles called combis - risky public transit that locals rely on. Andrew helps a combi driver solicit passengers and then gets behind the wheel to experience first-hand the manic and harrowing traffic of downtown Lima.
Half of Mongolia's population lives in the capital of this horse-loving country. And they drive their cars like they ride their horses: fast and furious. Just five per cent of the roads leading from Ulaanbaatar are paved. That means, potholes, sinkholes and, did we say potholes? Host Andrew Younghusband learns to drive on the addled downtown streets and how to cross the street in a place where tourists are simply told: don't cross the street.
East Africa's largest city is filled with thousands of two-legged obstacles: people! People who walk on all major roads, alongside such contraptions as Mkokotenis - massive handcarts that are pulled through thick, belching traffic. Traffic dominated by matatus - huge, rickety buses that stop wherever they want - if they can stop at all.
Home to more than 5 million motorbikes, Ho Chi Minh City is a veritable river of two-wheelers where drivers carry everything from windows and doors to entire families on their scooters. Host Andrew Younghusband learns how to flow with the crowd - surviving crazy roundabouts, cyclos, trucks, jeeps - even sidecar motorbikes leftover from the war.
Port-au-Prince is Haiti's capital and if you think there are no manhole covers because of the 2010 earthquake - you'd be wrong. They were always missing! This densely populated city is dominated by big and small buses called tap-taps - ornately decorated and badly-driven beasts that move and scare almost everyone.
If the altitude doesn't get you, the traffic will! That's what Andrew Younghusband learns in this exotic South American city, where rules of the road are optional and definitely quirky. He learns how to calm traffic like a local, dressed as a zebra (seriously - drivers pay attention and slow down.) He braves the infamous "Death Road" to witness the treacherous cliffs up close.
All roads may lead to Rome, but you don't want to drive on them. Host Andrew Younghusband learns that the hard way... from 14-year-olds (yes, they can legally drive here!), pizza delivery boys, street cleaners, couriers - even the mayor! Rome may be dotted with spectacular landmarks, but it was not built for today's traffic -cobblestone, narrow streets, and archeological wonders tend to muck up the flow - not to mention, fire up those famous Italian tempers!
If you thought samba and soccer were what Sao Paulo was famous for, think again. It's also known as home to the worst traffic jams in the world! Andrew Younghusband braves the gridlock, and rides with the fearless (some say reckless) motoboys - the couriers on motorcycles who deke in an out of the traffic like it was child's play. Andrew makes a delivery in the notorious favela which gives new meaning to close quarters
