Somehow, It Works

I have been here nearly a week now, and I thought driving in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) was mad. Through what I consider a hundred or so kilometers of experience as a passenger, I can firmly attest that I have absolutely NO desire ever to drive in Addis Ababa.  Period.  My experience is now sufficient, from the passenger seat of three different vehicles, that I am actually starting to recognize places, thoroughfares, and the highly articulated, experienced habits of local drivers.

My vantage point as a "back seat driver"

Oh yes, that "back seat driver" position has enabled me to observe and distill ten absolute truths about driving and drivers here:

1. Pedestrians have no right of way, even in a cross walk with a walk signal
2. Movement of vehicles is mostly HIGHLY congested, where lane stripes are optional, and even, the right side of the road is sometimes optional
3. Driving is not for the timid.  Minnesota nice will not work here.  But so too, aggressive driving is not widely seen.  Why? Traffic rarely moves fast enough to be aggressive in the first place.
4. The horn is mostly a proximity indicator as useful as a rear view mirror, and not an occasion for a one finger salute.
5. In the heaviest of traffic, be prepared to distance yourself and another vehicle by centimeters not meters.
6. Slipping in front of a another vehicle when it appears impossible, isn't.  Just takes guts and the willingness to assert your position until a vehicle flinches - not the driver, but the vehicle -  for eye contact is rarely made.
7. Nice cars don't exist.  Bad taxi's and busses do.  And old Fiat's and VW's
8. Livestock seem to have priority - horses, sheep, and an unusually frequent herd of untethered donkeys running in a group, followed closely by their herder who seems to keep them out of harm's way. Horse-drawn carts and human power push carts manage to snake through.
9. Driverless Googlecars would bluescreen on overload, and could not process the positional data fast enough to make adjustments, much less go forward one meter before data panic sets in.
10. When all is said and done, it somehow works.  It is as a ballet, two dancers locked into a tight choreography, their lips never touching, arresting or advancing movement at just the right moment with split second accuracy, and just the right muscular effort.

Ass-inine traffic!

I have walked much thus far, and pedestrians outnumber cars significantly.  Sidewalks are largely optional, and often in such poor shape as to be wholly unwalkable.  Utility work is done without protection of any kind, and often leaves mountains of dirt to navigate, requiring, quite casually really, that walkers take to the streets.  Often whole lanes are left to the walkers.  And there is a casual air about pedestrians that you will not hit them, that they will accommodate your passage. Even, as in one case, you are wearing not a stitch of clothing rambling through a busy street does this dance stop. (I think I saw my dreams some alive - you know, the one where you are naked and nobody notices you?) Again, it just seems to work, even pedestrians making mad dashes across the higher speed ring roads (because transportation planners did not provide frequent enough crossings).

Crawling through

Today we drove quite far to the perimeter of the city to the Addis Ababa Science and Technology University.  There is one chronic pinch point so utterly clogged with big trucks, cars, buggies, goats and pedestrians that it took us 45 minutes to go 1/2 mile, with big trucks a mere inches from our car. The amount of choking, gagging, eye-watering dust and diesel exhaust is frankly unbelievable. I do welcome fresh air.

And there are some intersections and roundabouts that defy belief (there are relatively few traffic lights).  There is one that is merely the size of a football field that is really a free-for-all, for cars and pedestrians alike.  And the traffic police, appearing largely ceremonial in most cases, do occasionally regulate this wild mess, if just for a moment. But again, it works.

  

But please, take not my narrative solely into account, you must see this to believe it - a time lapse of one of those famous intersections. Take note of the pedestrians!   

YouTube: Driving Through Meskel Square

Move over Tegus!