If you cram everyone in, there is room in the tuk tuk for five people: the driver, someone sitting next to him in the front seat, and three people shoved in the backseat. You may be unsurprised to learn that Tuk-tuks are best for going short distances rather than for long roadtrips.
Besides walking, tuk-tuks are my favorite form of transportation in Delhi. Imagine climbing into a fast golf-cart and zipping through traffic, dodging cars and feeling the wind go through your hair- it's so much fun!
It's also very useful for the days where walking seems too difficult. Whenever my friends and I have a heavy load of groceries or are tired after a long day, it's so easy to walk onto the street and flag down an auto to ride home. Sometimes, when we are running late for school, we will take a ride too. It costs us about 50 rupees ($0.70 USD) to travel to our school from our home using a tuk tuk!
Tuk-tuks are a very important of Delhi life. Rickshaws (a cart pulled by a bicycle) used to be more common in Delhi before tuk-tuks mostly replaced them. This change helped many rickshaw drivers since they no longer had to bike riders around all day, but the change from pedal power to motorized transportation has hurt the environment. Pollution is a big problem in Delhi, and more motorized vehicles on the road means more smog in the air. This smog makes it hard for people to breathe and also makes people very sick.
