Great developing world driving article
4 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Tuesday, November 29 at Tuesday, November 29, 2005.
Michael Totten, a blogger and reported based in Lebanon, has a great post talking all about the nightmare-that-becomes-comfortable that is driving in Lebanon. It might as well be written about Egypt, because it is spot on, and gave me so many flashbacks to life on the roads in Cairo.
Like Totten, I love crazy traffic like this, and the boring, plodding, goody-two-shoes system of orderly traffic in the West utterly bores me.
Totten also has a great article up on Tech Central Station covering a lot of first person experiences in the Lebanese - Israeli border zones, which I highly reccomend reading.
"When I first arrived in Beirut I thought Lebanese drivers must be among the worst in the world. They don’t stop at red lights. They drive the wrong way down one-ways. Seat belts are verboten, and the concept of lanes is utterly alien. Speed limits? No way. Traffic circles are unbelievable clusterfucks. Stop signs are suggestions that translate into “slow down just a tad if it’s not too much trouble.” The soundtrack of the city is an unending cacophony of blaring car horns and screeching tires................"Read the whole thing. At the end he mentions that his brother instantly "got" the system, after living and driving in Argentina. I wonder if there is a general way in which developing world traffic works? I can imagine factors like relatively loose policing, low budgets for road awareness and maintentance, and general public acceptance of chaos and disorganisation all push traffic culture in a certain direction.
Like Totten, I love crazy traffic like this, and the boring, plodding, goody-two-shoes system of orderly traffic in the West utterly bores me.
Totten also has a great article up on Tech Central Station covering a lot of first person experiences in the Lebanese - Israeli border zones, which I highly reccomend reading.
All over the Middle East, Mediterranean and Latin America there is a there is a method to the madness; a tacit language that is spoken and understood by all behind wheels. It's less about the written law but more about the law of the road. There are things that you do and don't do. Everyone is on the same page.
Different honks can mean different things, and nobody mistakes their meanings:
- I'm passing you
- don't cut me off
- slow down
- my right of way
- thanks
- jerk!
- I'm downstairs, come down and get in the car.... etc
In China there is no method nor communication, they just drive.
that reminds me with all trainees who came to egypt, 1st cultural shock, experience and skill they ve to go thru and learn is crossing the streets of egypt, with no stop signs lights...you just close ur eyes, pass the street and u ll go to the other side without being hurt.
check out shireen's blog, she talks about driving in Cairo as a new experience!
But let me point out, that Cairo is heaven compared to Delhi!
The extra ricksaw's and cows and the millions of people make a difference.
Ahh.. on China, particularly Beijing and Guangzhou where I've had the delightful experience of being caught in rush hour traffic; all movement is restricted to the beating of your heart and breathing of your lungs. Should you care so much as to wonder when the traffic will clear, you could consider exhaling deeply and turning the little wheels inside your head.
For the most part, you simply contemplate how life's fantastic journey brought you to that exact spot out of the millions of other situations you could have been in at that time.
Then again - I wouldn't trade this in for anything in the world! :)