Cool. Soon there will be 15 hydrogen-powered ‘green’ trishaws plying the Galle Fort (where trishaws are currently banned, apparently, though I’ve seen them there). This is funded by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Dev) and I’m assuming the trishaws are Mahindra HyAlfas, which have previously debuted in Delhi. This is only a test in Sri Lanka, but a damn cool one.

Until yesterday this was a multiple choice question. In my experience you can definitely fit six (plus driver). So theoretically eight plus. Today, of course, the answer is simple. Three. You can only put three passengers in a trishaw. Or they’ll cop you, for reals.

I’m selling my car, so I’m always on the lookout for alternate transport. This electric bicycle from Specialized seems pretty damn cool, if Sri Lankan roads weren’t so damn hostile. There’s one bike path near Independence Square and, randomly, Mattakuliya, but besides that, riding a bicycle in Colombo can be quite dangerous.

Gossip Lanka has published a list of actual vehicle prices after the recent price hike. It’s both enlightening and terrifying, as embedded above. What really grates, however, is that the government is continuing to offer ‘privileged imports’ to certain people, like CEOs, local government members, and professional. Since it’s an application process, this inevitably goes to the connected. There’s a saying that the hand with the spoon serves itself first. While average people are struggling to buy a Maruti, it’s really not cool.

Traffic accidents in Sri Lanka are on the rise. I and Mahina Bongso are speaking just spoke with Rohan Abeywickrema on Good Morning Sri Lanka on MTV Sports. He’s from the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics. Here are some the issues he’ll highlight:

Taxes have spiked on car imports, like, a lot. Sri Lanka traditionally has high taxes on cars – up to 300%. After the war the taxes were dropped (briefly to near zero on hybrid cars) and people went on an orgy of vehicle buying. Now, however, it looks like the party is over. The price of a motorbike has gone up by Rs. 50,000, a Maruti costs Rs. 450,000 more and the price of a hybrid has gone up by almost 1 million.

If you ever want to drive through walls, drive over double-parked cars, and survive the inevitable landmines, this is the car for that. It’s called the Marauder, it costs about 300,000 pounds, and I can’t believe Top Gear was able to put it through the paces it did. They literally drove over cars and put kilos of C4 under it. Quite a test drive. It’s filmed in South Africa.

The A9 is the mother road, connecting north to south. From Omanthai, however, it’s one big construction site. Rumbly, one lane in parts, severe delays. The impasse you see above happens like every few kilometers, they shut one lane down to pave it and all the cars have to wait and go single file. Cars is perhaps a misnomer. On one stretch I counted and there were 21 construction/industrial vehicles for every 12 that could be considered civilian transport. The A9 is under construction, which is good. It just means that right now, travelling on the A9 is very bad.

There are private buses on the Southern Expressway. I noticed because the bus smelled slightly more of fried food. And because a friend asked. On the plus side, the in-drive entertainment was WAY better than the usual blasting music show, and they gave a customer satisfaction survey, shown above. I remain impressed with the new bus culture.

Everything I need to know about personal philosophy I can learn from trishaws. For example, love is like a Chinese mobile phone. No warranty. Also, Che Guevara want me to rebel. And this gem from Bob Marley, the patron saint of Hikkaduwa, ‘No Women, No Cry’. How true.