Tanzania Drivers

...never went to Driver's Ed. I thought things were bad in Moshi, but Dar Es Salaam was worse.

So in Moshi, if you're in the middle of town, roads are decent enough. You can drive just fine. There isn't a single traffic light anywhere, but things work out well enough. There are lots of turnabouts, which cuts down the need for intersection lights and makes things very interesting for pedestrians. (There's definitely a reason why there's a high accident rate.) However, the second you turn off the main few roads, you're in all dirt roads, potholes that have their own potholes, and mini hills that make everything more interesting. Unsurprisingly, on these roads people seldom follow the traditional stay on the left to drive idea. (Yes, they drive on the left like the Brits.) Drivers become adept at locating the best place to maneuver next on the dirt roads and often even this is a bumpy circuitous route. Even on main roads, if there's no one else there, it's common to drive in the middle. There are few lines to speak of so people pass each other in the oncoming traffic lane. Seatbelts are common in the front but not guaranteed in the backseat. (So all in all, I see why people are in wheelchairs for auto accidents.)

Dar was worse. They do have traffic lights, but either they follow a pattern I can't fathom or people completely ignore them. (I think the latter.) It can be very confusing to see a red light and then under, a green arrow, and then your driver goes right through. That might be legal. But then there's seeing five people pass under a definitely all-red light... When I put my seatbelt on, my Dar friend said people don't use seatbelts in Tanzania. The roads are better in Dar, so they can drive faster. There are more lines on the road, but people often make their own lanes when they feel like it. Passing is a nightmare and drivers are crazy aggressive.

Then there are the traffic jams. I was taking a taxi to this hotel in Dar that someone wanted to show me, and we came up to a huge line of cars that were backed up maybe 30 deep. Unperturbed, our driver went into the oncoming lane and passed all of them... until he came face to face with a driver going the other way. As the traffic inched forward in the lane we should have been in, he edged in. However, some other cars had seen what our driver did and had followed suit several cars deep... so no movement in two directions. And people wonder why there are traffic delays. (I suspected that a similar thing had happened farther up in our real lane, but when we got there, I saw that it was the HUGE crowd of people that were far into the street waiting for the dali dalis/buses). We decided to turn around after that... the trip wasn't worth it, because what was supposed to be a five minute trip had taken 30 minutes to even just get to that point.

We may be providing wheelchairs, but I think we're missing the problem...