У России две беды – дураки и дороги

“U Rossii dve bedi – duraki i dorogi”

The rhyme and alliteration  of this well known Russian saying don’t sound quite so good in English, but here’s my attempt at capturing the essence of it:

“Russia has two burdens to bear – thick-heads and thoroughfares.”

 

And that brings us to this post.

After 10 months without one, we finally have a car! I have never been so grateful for ‘wheels’ in my life!

Although I do not consider Krasnoyarsk particularly spread out geographically (I do come from Melbourne which seems to sprawl further and further every year), it seems to take an eternity to get from one side to the other. And doing it by bus seems to at least double, if not triple, the time it takes.

For example, there is a shopping centre that is about 15km from here. In peak traffic I was able to get there in about 40 minutes by car. By bus it takes about an hour and a half. Our church is about 12 kms away. We drove there in 20 minutes on a quiet Sunday morning, whereas by bus it takes about an hour and a quarter from the time we leave home. I could not even begin to add up the amount of time we have spent sitting (or worse, standing next to smelly armpits) on buses since we’ve been here. I don’t even want to relive the memories of doing it with bags of shopping in tow, or the hours of time standing in the (literally) freezing cold while waiting for an elusive bus connection. Or the time I missed a bus and found myself stranded at 11pm by myself kilometres from home and trying to figure out how to get a taxi (and oh the stories I could tell about taxis!).

No, I am incredibly grateful that now we can at least sit in a traffic jam whilst controlling the ambient temperature, choosing the music we listen to, not having to stand up and hang on for dear life, and being able to control how erratically we drive. Not to mention how nice it is, knowing that we now have seatbelts and airbags!

However, driving in Russia is most definitely not for the faint-hearted, nor for the inexperienced. Every single time I have been on the road, whether for a short trip or long, I have seen things that make my mouth gape in wonder or have the potential to make my blood boil. While every driving experience is not as bad as those you can find if you google “Russian dash cam” or “Crazy Russian driving” (thankfully!), I am realising more and more why people have those dash cams here*. One of them is high on our ‘to buy’ list (so if you have any tips for the kind we should purchase, please send them our way as I really don’t know much about them), and hopefully my experiences won’t be dramatic enough to warrant making my own You Tube compilation!!

Yes, there truly are a number of drivers here who seem to have 0% respect for the law, and many of the others seem to have respect for it only about 50% of the time. Red lights seem to be for many something only to be obeyed when convenient to do so – on more than one occasion I’ve seen cars pass others sitting waiting at the lights on the wrong side of the road to then continue on through the red light**. The speed signs are clearly interpreted by most drivers as the minimum, not maximum allowable speed. Many, many, many times I have been in the single lane permitted to turn left (the equivalent of a right hand turn in Australia), only to be overtaken on the left or right, sometimes by someone deciding to do a U-turn right in my path. All this in only about 4 weeks of driving here!

People have asked me how I have found driving on the other side of the road (we drive on the left side in Australia). This has been the very least of my worries. Living here for months already, it feels quite natural. Many other things do not. The only thing to do is to drive defensively and carefully with the expectation for those around you to do the wrong thing.

It doesn’t really help that there is a paucity of painted lines on the road or that there is a preponderance of pot holes. (Don’t you just love alliteration?) I have travelled down roads with up to six carriageways, with no middle divider and no lines, and along a 2-3 carriage highway where the traffic is doing 90-100 kmph and there are no lines at all – not even to mark the edge of the road. Tricky at night. As for potholes, there are many, even on main roads. Some of them could possibly be categorised as small craters. I have learnt that I’d rather drive slower than the rest of the traffic, particularly while getting to know where the potholes are, and which lane to be in so I can get where I’m going. Dodging a pothole at the last second at higher speed is a sure way to get side-swiped. Scarier than potholes (or even poles that are occasionally sticking up in the middle of the road to warn of a hole), was the open manhole that I narrowly missed on the way home from church one day!

So, aside from watching out for nutty drivers and navigating less than perfect asphalt, there are also some new rules for this Aussie driver to keep in mind.

You know how we need to give way to the right? Well, apparently that’s pretty much a universal rule. You need to give way to the right in Europe too – even though you’re driving on the other side of the road. Finding that one a little hard to remember.

Signs. Given that there are very few line markings on the road in many places here, it becomes even more vital to look at the overhead signs while driving. Often these are the only clue as to how many lanes there are actually supposed to be (not that it means much – Russians tend to try and squeeze in at least one extra). There are a large number of pedestrian crossings, but you will only know where they are from the overhead signs, as there usually no marks on the road to help them stand out. And beware of pedestrians that just jump out and expect you to stop – even if it’s dark and they’re wearing dark clothes. Infamously, there have apparently been scams where there are people who even do this to try and sue money out of the driver. Once again, I figure driving slower (and that could still be above the speed limit) is often worth the beeps and flashing lights of the impatient drivers behind – plus having a dash cam for extra insurance!

They have these dinky little signs everywhere that indicate whether you are on the main road. The main road is not always immediately apparent however. At a cross roads, the main road could be the one that turns right/left. Of course, don’t expect the driver who is not on the main road to pay attention to this sign…

 

There are some other signs that I’m trying to get used to. In Oz, if a particular thing is forbidden, there is usually a big red diagonal line going through the sign. Not necessarily so with European sign. They could just be a big circle with a red line on the outside. If you see one of these with a car in it, it means you’re NOT allowed to go there.

Traffic lights are a little different here too. One thing I LOVE is how most intersections count down the time left on the red or green light. But don’t try running an intersection at the last second. You should stop on the flashing green light, because when your light turns orange, it’s turning orange for the other cars too, and you might just find yourself having a close encounter with a car anxious to take off from the starting post!

Another thing I’m trying hard to get used to (but I think is daft all the same) is how traffic lights are not necessarily timed well. At some intersections, the green stays longer in one direction than the other, but there are no red or green arrows to indicate whether it’s ok to enter the intersection or not. I have seen a car nearly get wiped out because they turned left on an orange light, thinking the traffic the other way would also have to stop. Conversely, there are times that you have the freedom to turn left in front of oncoming traffic, but the only way you know that you do is when they stop and you still have a green light.

Finally, there is another thing to be aware of. The traffic here is not so nightmarish just because of the roads. Every day I see at LEAST one car crash. Fortunately, not always bad, but these in themselves are road hazards. Even if it is a mere scratch on the bumper bar, the cars are not moved until the police have attended and/or the insurance inspectors have assessed the situation. Cars are often left in the middle of an intersection for a couple hours or more while police and inspectors make their way from one event to another (actually, just saw on TV, one lady complaining she had to wait TWELVE hours with her car, here in Krasnoyarsk. Good thing it wasn’t minus 30!). Perhaps this is one reason why people don’t seem to be stopped for speeding, running red lights or overtaking on double lines. I can imagine the police have enough paperwork to deal with already, without wanting to add to the load.

As much as I love Russia (and I do, don’t get me wrong), it doesn’t mean I love everything about it. Driving here is one of those things I don’t love, and I haven’t even tried driving here in winter yet. It frustrates me that the road toll here is so high when it seems that there are many simple things that could be done to reduce it.

For a start, stop people from holding a phone to their ear, while smoking and navigating a dangerous intersection at the same time! (Often these are bus drivers responsible for 50+ passengers). How about phasing out right hand drive vehicles that make up about 50% of the traffic? I know that many Russians don’t think it matters which side of the vehicle you drive on, but given their propensity for overtaking (even around bends), this is doubtless a contribution to crashes. I have been in cars where the driver has asked their passenger (sitting in the left seat) to say whether it was safe to overtake, because the driver could not see!

I fear that either almost no money is allocated to improving the roads, or that much of it is pilfered through corruption. Surely the cost of high quality road paint, traffic lights and red light cameras would be far less than the cost of human lives lost or maimed?

Now you know why I pray every time we go on the road and thank God when we make it back safely. I like to think I’m a good driver, but no one is THAT good.

And given that you can’t legislate for common sense, I understand the rule of driving that Russians say is the most important of them all. The three D rule: “Dai duraku dorogu.”

“Give way to the idiot”

Oh, and parking? Well, that’s an ENTIRE post for another day…

 

A couple of links about driving in Russia…

The Association For International Road Travel’s assessment of driving in Russia:
http://asirt.org/portals/0/reports/russia.pdf

Another blogger’s thoughts

Road rage: Reality in Russia; 10 facts about Russian roads that will make you weep

Some photos of Russian Roads that will make you wonder…
http://englishrussia.com/tag/russian-roads

 

* Some more thoughts on dash cams from another blog. Warning, some graphic footage (that I chose not to watch!) and some language.
http://www.animalnewyork.com/2012/russian-dashcam/

**Sadly, tonight as I was preparing to post this, they showed security camera footage of someone running a red light in the city here last night. Tragically, this resulted in the loss of two young lives. Your prayers for our safety on the roads in the car and as pedestrians are always appreciated.