Traffic Report

Side-seat and backseat drivers beware, this post may make you a little nervous and cause you to grab your seat!

Now, I thought when I moved from Ohio to Chicago it was shocking to see what traffic was like. No longer was I briefly delayed on my way to work as I waited for a chance to pass a tractor, but then I had to time green lights on Harlem and yell at the occasional pedestrian or the car that tried to make a left-turn during rush hour. However, since my first hour in Bangkok, I've got to say that Chicago has nothing even close to the awful traffic that Bangkok does. Not even the Dan Ryan/Eisenhower split can compare. Perhaps a picture can help illustrate this better. First of all they drive on the left-hand side, and our vehicle is in the farthest legal right lane. During rush-hour here all traffic laws are thrown out the window, precisely when they should be used to make things less chaotic. That pink taxi and bus in front of us are in the oncoming lanes that people pulled into thinking they could get out of this jam, only the oncoming traffic had no where to go and as they were making left hand turns our lanes couldn't move forward because they were blocking our road. Road markings such as lanes are merely directional aids for most cars because they don't actually use them. 4 lane freeways are usually 6 or 7 leaving no lane for emergency vehicles. I hope I never have to go to the hospital, I'd probably die by the time I got there. The only vehicles that occasionally follow traffic signals are busses and some cars. Tuk-tuks and motorcycles just weave in and out of traffic and often go in any direction they want or they drive on the sidewalk. I've had more than one motorcyclist look at me like I was the one in the way walking on the sidewalk. Children and even babies ride on motorcycles all the time without any type of protection or safety strap. In the country most people ride in the back of a truck. Pedestrians in the city rarely ever cross the road at street level unless it's somewhere where there is a crossing guard. Everyone else uses elevated pedestrian walkways. Everyone including dogs. No kidding! I actually saw one two days ago and had to do a double-take.