verbingnouns

Driving Me Crazy

This morning, on my daily perusal of USA Today, I came across this article on the dangers of foreign roads. Of course, it reminded me of my time in Thailand and the adventure I faced every time I got in a vehicle. Road travel was not something I was worried about when I was thinking about traveling to Asia, but after about 5 minutes in a car there, I realized that the traffic rules there are not really “rules” so much as loose guidelines.

Of course, they drive on the other side of the road there, which is hard to get used to as an American, but as I didn’t ever actually drive a car, it wasn’t a big deal. The biggest problem is the motorcycles. I would say that at least 50-60% of the traffic was small motorcycles, usually occupied by more than one person (I saw as many as five), occasionally a dog (or two), and usually without helmets. Of course, the motorcyclists dart in and out of traffic, which is dangerous both for them and the vehicles on the road. The roads are also occupied by the famous Thailand tuk-tuks, as well as bicycles. Since speed limits are almost unheard of, you have to watch carefully for people going very fast or (more often) very slow. They also have no concept of when one should pass. Driving uphill and around a curve? Go ahead and pass. No problem. No matter that someone is headed directly toward you and there are people driving on the shoulder anyway, which would prevent anyone from moving over. It’s a free-for-all. Incidentally, the concept of “making the block” to turn around is unheard of. They’re all about the U-turn in unpredictable places. At one point, I was riding with someone and, because there was not a convenient exit on the freeway, they actually drove on THE WRONG SIDE of the divided highway (on the shoulder, naturally) so they could get to their turn faster.

From Thailand 321-42

The Thais will readily admit that driving there is dangerous. They know they drive crazy. Even though it was risky to ride with people there, I’m actually glad that I never had to drive myself. At least the locals know what kind of behavior to watch out for.

The other major concern is that there is no such thing as “911”. There are very few ambulance services and the ones that do exist are typically non-profit agencies who get there when they can get there. We visited one such agency and they had pictures of some of the more gruesome accidents hanging on a bulletin board for all to see. I took one glance and had to turn around. I can’t even tell you what I saw.

I know this is not exactly need-to-know information, but I was fascinated by the traffic because it was so different than what we have here. It makes me thankful for road signs, ambulance service, vehicle safety regulation (and don’t even get me started on the pollution problem), and even traffic law enforcement. We have it very good.

Posted by christin at August 14, 2007 11:41 AM | TrackBack