Existing state of traffic

Delhi is a city that hosts around 16 Million people according to Wikipedia article. It is a capital city with high population density. With high population density, the city is bound to have issues related to traffic. But luckily the city has made significant effort for making popular markets, tourist attractions and important infrastructures accessible. This effort has also reduced a lot of carbon emissions.

Popular modes of transport and market accessibility

If you want to go around the city, you have various options. I'm going to list them taking various parameters like availability, ease of use and price in consideration. We found that most popular markets, popular tourist attractions and historic monuments were easily accessible from their nearest metro station. Delhi Metro has made the city more accessible. I cannot stress the importance of their super intuitive mobile application called "Delhi Metro" for making it very simple to navigate the city on their very reliable high speed metro rail network. 

1. E Rickshaws:-

E Rickshaws in Delhi are great option if you want to cover one or two kilometers. According to our experience, this mode of transport works best if you are a city veteran or a local. E Rickshaws are generally not recommended for "beginners" or people who don't know how to bargain. E Rickshaws can be a great option if you want to travel to your nearest metro station but it is recommended that you consult your hotel for standard rate.

2. Auto Rickshaws

Auto Rickshaws are most common form of transport. They are everywhere. In terms of availability, auto rickshaw easily beats any other form of transport. If you want to see the streets up close, this can be your best option. Like E Rickshaws, you need to have a bit of bargain skills to be able to use the Auto. It also helps if you know key landmarks leading to your destination with the help of Google Maps before hand while taking the Auto.

3. Taxi Cabs and Ride Sharing Services

You also have the option to book Taxi Cabs which offers a premium experience for reaching your destination. Just like above mentioned transports, it greatly helps if you know the standard rate before hand for covering certain distances. 

Ride Sharing Services have really proved to be a game changer when it comes to navigating any city they operate on. For our experience, Uber Rentals proved to be a life saver for covering all our navigation needs such as visiting more than 3 monuments, few markets, dinner and round trip back to our hotel. There are other popular ride sharing services like Ola Cabs and Blu Smart that operate within Delhi. It is important to note that Blu Smart operates solely on E vehicles which is a good initiative considering the carbon emissions from a number of vehicles in the capital city.

2 Hours traffic and losing faith

Well, it was around 3rd or 4th day of our stay, we were constantly checking in our hotel late despite leaving early. This was quite a frustration and draining experience. One day it was raining heavily and for some reason, we were stuck in traffic for about 2 hours. The worst part was, even our auto-rickshaw driver suggested we take  alternate route for us to reach home early which left us quite depressed. So, the next day we decided to take the metro and we never faced another traffic jam again. This just goes to show how reliable Delhi Metro has proved to be for the people living in Delhi. So, I guess you could say Delhi Metro restored our faith and we enjoyed our stay ever since we learned how to use the metro.

Now, imagine your favorite band is playing a show in Delhi, you want to come to Delhi for shopping, business trip, you know what to do. I hope this experience proves to be helpful for anyone new to Delhi. I would also suggest you to manage a sim card and data pack. Trust me, it makes your stay a lot more easier. I hope this guide helps you in some ways.

Note: The images of auto and e-rickshaw are not the ones we used and the auto and e-rickshaw drivers were mostly co-operative in general but I think the fares must be constant.