5-25, Kampala
Most significant impression of Uganda so far?
I’m not driving here. Ever.
Take, if you will, the craziest, most infuriating drivers drivers you ever see in the States, barring the drunks (driving drunk here would be tantamount to suicide). Yes, all of them. Take the aggressive drivers, the speeders who weave in and out of traffic and start flashing their lights at you if you’re too slow, the people who cut you off on the freeway, the people who cruise along at 40 in a 60 mph zone, the people who drift randomly out of their lanes or, alternately, don’t seem to recognize that there are such things as lanes, and the people who pass on a hill, and stick them all in a country together.
To get an idea of the drive from Entebbe to Kampala, take a typical county road from exurban Seattle, two to three lanes in width. Give it a nice shoulder on either side, and people it with various cars, pineapple trucks, mopeds, and lots and lots of minivans (the standard form of the “taxi” around here). Line it with legions of exceptionally heedless pedestrians in brightly-colored clothing.
Make all the drivers completely insane....
Multiple-car passes into the teeth of oncoming traffic is par for the course. Admittedly, I’ve not traveled widely outside of the United States, and I understand traffic is very bad in a lot of places, but ... Christ on a pogo stick. The only way this system works is that everybody plays by the same rules, and the rules seem to go like this:
Thou shalt flash thy lights to alert others to thy presence. This shall be the one nod in this direction required of you.
Thou shalt pass thy sluggish neighbor at first opportunity.
Thou shalt regard an opportunity to exist whenever an oncoming driver in the other lane either 1) is absent or 2) can probably see you.
Thou shalt consider the shoulder to be an extension of the road, and use it routinely for the avoidance of head-on collisions.
Thou shalt take little or no notice of pedestrians.
If thou hast something to say to thy neighbor, thou shalt pause in the midst of passing and open thy window to shout it. Thou mayest await a reply, or not, as thou dost see fit.
The white line is a fnord. Do not see the fnords.
Thou shalt disregard the yellow line at convenience.
... yeah. This strikes me as social darwinism in its purest and most spirituality-inspiring form. I’ll be staying off the roads as much as possible, thanks. Good thing I brought good footwear. Puff adders and cape buffalo ain’t got nothin’ on the traffic.
I’m not driving here. Ever.
Take, if you will, the craziest, most infuriating drivers drivers you ever see in the States, barring the drunks (driving drunk here would be tantamount to suicide). Yes, all of them. Take the aggressive drivers, the speeders who weave in and out of traffic and start flashing their lights at you if you’re too slow, the people who cut you off on the freeway, the people who cruise along at 40 in a 60 mph zone, the people who drift randomly out of their lanes or, alternately, don’t seem to recognize that there are such things as lanes, and the people who pass on a hill, and stick them all in a country together.
To get an idea of the drive from Entebbe to Kampala, take a typical county road from exurban Seattle, two to three lanes in width. Give it a nice shoulder on either side, and people it with various cars, pineapple trucks, mopeds, and lots and lots of minivans (the standard form of the “taxi” around here). Line it with legions of exceptionally heedless pedestrians in brightly-colored clothing.
Make all the drivers completely insane....
Multiple-car passes into the teeth of oncoming traffic is par for the course. Admittedly, I’ve not traveled widely outside of the United States, and I understand traffic is very bad in a lot of places, but ... Christ on a pogo stick. The only way this system works is that everybody plays by the same rules, and the rules seem to go like this:
Thou shalt flash thy lights to alert others to thy presence. This shall be the one nod in this direction required of you.
Thou shalt pass thy sluggish neighbor at first opportunity.
Thou shalt regard an opportunity to exist whenever an oncoming driver in the other lane either 1) is absent or 2) can probably see you.
Thou shalt consider the shoulder to be an extension of the road, and use it routinely for the avoidance of head-on collisions.
Thou shalt take little or no notice of pedestrians.
If thou hast something to say to thy neighbor, thou shalt pause in the midst of passing and open thy window to shout it. Thou mayest await a reply, or not, as thou dost see fit.
The white line is a fnord. Do not see the fnords.
Thou shalt disregard the yellow line at convenience.
... yeah. This strikes me as social darwinism in its purest and most spirituality-inspiring form. I’ll be staying off the roads as much as possible, thanks. Good thing I brought good footwear. Puff adders and cape buffalo ain’t got nothin’ on the traffic.