Oh hell, none of you have seen traffic and bad drivers until you've seen it here. Take the worst city you know for driving, that has the heaviest traffic, then remove all of the traffic laws (or have them so under-enforced that they're just a joke) and make sure that in most places you can't see the lane markers so everyone just drives every which way they want. No one can just drive in a straight line, one car behind the other - everyone at every second is trying to get around the person in front of them no matter what speed the traffic is moving at.
And merging? Not if you turn on a turn signal. Just push your ass in and hope not to get hit.
And don't forget - honk your horn all the time, at everything and everyone.
I hate driving in Amman.
Same in Saudi Arabia, and in Turkey when I was there in 75-76, and actually in quite a few of the countries I've been in. There actually are traffic laws - in Saudi Arabia, you can be flogged for speeding, reckless driving, etc - but they are widely ignored. Worse, in some countries, if your driver (cab driver, chauffer, whatever) is involved in an accident, you are personally at fault, the reasoning being he would not have been where he was when he had the accident if you had not hired him to take you wherever you were going. We were advised in Turkey that, if our cab was involved in an accident, throw a wad of lira at the driver and run like hell.
Yes, exactly. I've heard that it is similar also in Cairo, Damascus, Beirut and Islamabad. In fact, some say Amman is the best of them all, except for U.A.E. - they actually built a proper infrastructure and enforce the laws.
It's hard to describe it accurately to someone who hasn't ever lived it. I wish I could strap a camera to the front of my car so that I could really show what it's like - beyond belief. And the buses, taxis and trucks hauling sheep or produce are the WORST and most hazardous. They all have a terrible tendency to "create" space on the road where none exists - the general idea being to get out of the way or get PUSHED out of the way. Quite literally; I have a recent scrape on the side of my car that proves that I didn't move fast enough when a taxi recently decided he wanted to create a space where I was driving. (And by the way, if the accident isn't bad enough to stop traffic, you just keep moving - the police only show up for extreme accidents.)
I was excited to have driving freedom when I bought my car and to be away from taxi drivers who loved to spout anti-American sentiments, but as it turns out I try to stick to driving only where I have to - to work and home and very little else.
