When I wrote the post about public transport here, I mentioned that Addis had a problem with traffic. This is scarcely unusual, of course; I don’t suppose there is a city in the world that is not similarly afflicted. What varies to some extent is how drivers and other road users respond. As in many countries, there is an every man (and woman) for him/herself approach in operation here. Lane discipline is non-existent; if there is a space ahead between two vehicles, that will be squeezed into. And if you happen to find the inside lane empty, so can undertake a few less aggressive souls, but then find your way blocked by a minivan disgorging passengers, then you pull out, never mind cutting someone up as a result.
The same approach applies to junctions. Drivers on side roads do not wait for a gap in the traffic before inserting themselves into the flow, even when turning left, so blocking the whole carriageway. And this seems to be accepted; one blessed relief is that there is not the almost constant blaring of horns you find in other places. And I simply can’t imagine the shouting and screaming that such antics would provoke in, say, Britain.
Does this mean lots of accidents? Inevitably, as demonstrated by the fact that most cars are scraped and battered. I only witnessed one such incident, or rather its immediate aftermath, with the two drivers inspecting the damage, while cars and buses had to somehow pull around them.
There are some mitigation. Traffic lights are at some major junctions (though when driving back from Yod Abyssinia, a power cut blacked them all out, leading to a “sort it out yourself” approach.) And once, at the 4 Kilo roundabout pictured above, I saw traffic police directing things. It was vital, for the volume then was far greater and even more chaotic than in the scene pictured. When people don’t observe the rules on roundabouts, then there’s a real potential for total gridlock.
But of course, the perspective from which I see roads most often is as a pedestrian. And they – we – tend to adopt much the same approach when crossing the road, which is to step out into any gap, judging the speed of the vehicles heading towards you. There are zebra crossings, but most of them have almost faded away, and in any case they mean very little, except that there might be a gap in any central reservation. And in fact the drivers display a good deal of tolerance to such behaviour. And so long as you don’t actually ignore thye cars around you, it really does not cause a problem. I’ve become quite used to it, and to my mind it beats standing on the side of an empty road, waiting for the green man.
