I am in the Baltics at the moment and I just saw a crazy bit of driving this morning. Whilst on a medium sized roundabout in town a taxi driver stopped, and reversed 10 meters back to take the exit he had just passed.
I have no idea why he didn't simply carry on round! There was nothing in front of him. It would have probably taken less time as he had to wait for a couple of cars to exit behind him (including me) before he could back up.
This took place during light morning traffic and the roundabout was a brand new, ordinary 4-exit one about 100 meters across. I can only guess he was not used to this new roundabout since it was new and there simply aren't that many over here.
Anybody else got some jaw dropping tales of crazy driving abroad?
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After a week drving in the area around Naples, including driving through the centre of town, you will have to wait for my book, choc full of hilarious tales and brown trouser moments. Why the fiat 500 carrying 2.4 metre planks through the window surounded by swarms of families* on Piagio scooters all doing 50 miles an hour and rapidly swopping lanes warrants a chapter on its own.
*A family on a piagio is Dad driving, Mum on back, baby squashed between mum and dad, and dog on the footboards with its head poking out one side, and the other end deposting dog poo down the road at no less than 50 mph
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< Ulla>
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I could also write a book on what I saw on trips to India - car overtaking bus, overtaking tut tut, overtaking biycyle overtaking pedestrians, elephants and cows on a two way road with no pavements and barely wide enough for the bus never mind all the other vehicles.
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Cairo is the one.
Multiple lanes (no markings), and nowhere to cross the road or turn safely. Combinations of goats, cattle, horse drawn carts, bikes, motorbikes, cars, taxis (7 seater Peugeots, mostly from 1970s) all jostling for space, undertaking, overtaking and frequently colliding.
There is one, purely ornamental traffic light, as functional as the loudly ticking taximeters (marked in Francs and centimes and absolutely never used on runs.)
Few cars actually equipped with headlamp bulbs, less still using them (only to flash seconds before life threatening impact.)
And constant blaring of horns all the time, everywhere.
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Try Doha in Qatar. You have mad, arrogant , wealthy , speed crazed Arabs in Land Cruisers , Hummers , Ferraris , Porches etc sitting literally inches from your bumper. Roads are treated like racetracks. As a foreign national I keep well out of the way of trouble when I drive there becuse an accident is never the fault of a local Arab and foreign nationals may even be deported if they have an accident.
The attached is from the British Embassy website.....
Driving in Qatar is of a lower standard than in the UK. Road discipline is very poor, speeds are high and minor accidents commonplace. In the first 10 months of 2007 240 people died as a result of road traffic accidents (source: Qatari Government figures). This equates a ratio of 30 road deaths per 100,000 of population and compares to the UK average of 5.5 road deaths per 100,000 of population in 2005
Nuff said.
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For Altea Ego - those Piaggios in Naples seem to have been relatively lightly loaded. When I was in Indonesia, they got Dad, Mum, and 3 kids on board. { No dog though } I must admit to doing a double take when I first saw it, but later didn't really notice because it was so commonplace. Dad driving, Mum sitting side-saddle [ Muslim ladies are required to be decorous about open legs ] holding baby, eldest riding the boards, middle one hanging on behind Mum.
In Java, everyone drives as close to the centreline as possible, so using our method of turning right at an intersection causes absolute chaos. The code of practice there is to make a dive through the traffic about a hundred yards before the intersection, hurtle up the right-hand curbside lane [ which is invariably empty ] and nip around the corner. It took me a few intersections to get used to that way of doing things.
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Kiwi - reminds me of taking a bus from Jakarta towards Krakatau and having 7 crashes in a 4.5 hour ride. Also seem to recall that at intersections, if you were going straigh on you use your hazard lights (which is fine for traffic in front and behind but I suspect not so good for traffic on your sides!!)
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Cairo - yes, I well remember my time driving in Cairo. 18 years ago I drove to Egypt from UK in a Land Rover 110 to spend a couple of weeks touring around all over. Had a great experience.
I tell people that Cairo, with the constant hooting, is the only place a blind man could get a job as a taxi driver (as long as he had good hearing). Each car horn has a different tone and is sounded every few seconds so, building up a mental picture, he would just have to steer slightly away from the horns getting louder (i.e. nearer) and he would be fine. Speeds never got too much above a fast walk, most cars were comprehensively dented and his fares could shout directions (over the cacophony of hooting).
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