Thread: Will never complain about traffic again

Cairo is no better,after we stood at the side of the road for 10mins waiting to cross, a local told us to close our eyes and just start walking , seems to work as they go around you. And in KL you arent even safe on the footpath as the scooters will get you as they cheat the traffic lights .

The traffic in Bali is definitely heavy, but as long as you are on a motorbike/scooter it is absolutely fantastic, and once you are out of the main centres it calms down quite a bit.

You just zip around everywhere, stop anywhere, and it all just works.

The only people to watch out for are the tourists with no idea of the local ways.

Same goes for many other asian countries as well.

What I can't stand is coming back to Oz where no-one gives way, bloody lights everywhere, and everyone has the attitude of a ******.

If you want a driving experience, go to Algeria....spent about 6 mos there some years ago and on top of coming to terms with LH driving they had this lovely system whereby the donkey carts had complete right of way at all intersections and joining roads. Cars of course had to obey the lights, but the donkey carts (and there were a lot of them) simply just walked on through anything and you had to give way at all times.....some interesting times there.
The pedestrians were something to deal with also, the females covered from head to toe did not bother to look and at anytime you could expect what appeared to be a floating sheet just wafting across the road in front of you.

Rome has a good system....the city has plenty of Piazzas where all roads just converge, no lanes apply so you simply lean on the horn when entering and try to head for the exit you want by avoiding anything bigger than you. Scooters are good there, you just hang on and go where-ever you want, all the time praying.

Cheers
Mick

Originally Posted by midal

at anytime you could expect what appeared to be a floating sheet just wafting across the road in front of you.

Originally Posted by midal

Rome has a good system....the city has plenty of Piazzas where all roads just converge, no lanes apply so you simply lean on the horn when entering and try to head for the exit you want by avoiding anything bigger than you. Scooters are good there, you just hang on and go where-ever you want, all the time praying.

The only problem with Rome is those bloody cobblestones, man they're bumpy.

Originally Posted by nice1guv

The only problem with Rome is those bloody cobblestones, man they're bumpy.

Yes indeed, we were in the old city as opposed to the newer section and the combination of a scooter, cobblestones, traffic, and not having a clue where we were going really made for a fun few days. We decided not push our luck quite so much and hired a little Fiat car, at least that way we didn't have the problem of the cobblestones

Cheers
Mick

I love Bali and never really felt uncomfortable being driven when we were there in May.
Perth drivers are worse. The drivers in Bali are at least fluid. Drivers in Perth are just dangerous.

Wife and I were in New York City last year. Traffic there is an experience. We were on 9th Ave which runs south and is about 5 lanes wide and hailed a cab. A cabbie drove straight across 4 lanes of traffic to pick us up, cutting off cars in each lane. No one cared.
If there were cars parked on the street and someone hailed a taxi, they would just pull up next to the parked cars to accept the fare. The traffic behind them never stopped they would just move around them.
Our last night we stayed on the 18th floor of a hotel, looking right down Broadway to Times Square. Watching the cabs was like watching ants. It was correographed chaos.

We also drove down to Virginia, and had to drive past Washington D.C. They had a 7 lane interstate, aswell as a 4 lane transit lane which changed direction in peak hour. Apparently a 30 minute trip can take in excess of 2 hours during peak hour.

Funny how traffic in Rome / Italy seems to copme up very quickly when ever driving is discussed. While it can seem chaos to us outsiders there is often a system in there somewhere if you know the local rules.

My Rome memory was in a taxi attempting to cross 2 lanes of traffic. Car had just started to move forward and had to stop when we were cut up by a Fiat Panda which was full of Nuns who were all waving out the windows and through the sun roof to us with their middle fingers extended. Seem to remember even the driver had both hands up waving to us.

In Europe based on accident rates Greece is the most dangerous place to drive. Had a taxi driver scoot up the hard sholder at 50 miles an hour in an attempt to beat 2 lanes of traffic which had just started to move off. Cars in the lane beside us had the ability to turn in front of us if they wanted as it was a cross road.

What surprised me was that Southern Ireland was the second most dangerous place to drive. Now I do a lot of driving there and after finding this out asked a few questions. Seems that once you have a learners permit you can drive for life on your own. There is no need to actually pass your drivers test. If you do take the test and fail can just drive home and keep driving. This might explain the person who over took me at speed on the side I was turning towards while I was stopped with my indicator on waiting to turn on a T junction.

When was home at the end of last year was surprised by the generally poor standard of driving I saw. Would though rate the general standard of the actual roads roads as better than what I see in the UK yet with lower speed limits. Queensland roads used to remind me of Southern Ireland however the change for the better over the last 10 years is remarkable.