Streets of Doom

Traffic in Cairo can be summed up in one word: out-of-control-madness-insanity-fun (hyphenated words count as one word!). I think the only place I've ever seen anything close to comparable is in Delhi, but as I have only traveled there and never lived there, I didn't really experience the craziness from the pedestrian vantagepoint. Essentially, there are no such things as lanes, traffic lights, street signs, right of way or even headlights in Cairo. Of course, all these things do "exist". Yet they mean nothing. On a three lane road, you will have 6 amorphous lanes of tiny fiat taxis (at night these taxis are lit up with neon glowsticks, but for some reason don't turn on their headlights!), old soviet era cars, out of control microbuses, and mercedes benzes all trying to get in between the gap up ahead of them. At many intersections, I see the traffic light is red, but cars continue to turn right, left, go straight through and even reverse (on a one way road) without regard to the red light. The only time these traffic lights are "on" is when the municipal police (who number approximately 1 bazillion) are on the street directing traffic.



Aside from driving, perhaps the scariest (and coolest) thing about the traffic here is life as a pedestrian---its a thrilling, life-or-death adventure every time you cross the street. Pedestrian crosswalks, though they exist, have no function. As noted above, cars don't follow traffic signals, so in downtown Cairo, a road can be full of cars for three hours straight. So you have to just walk through the insane traffic to get to where you need to go. You wait for the tiniest gap, then make your move and then just cross slowly, staring down drivers who're coming at you. These drivers never stop, they just masterfully change their speed and alter their angle a bit so they drive right past you.

After a month here, I've learned that there are actually rules to this madness. Drivers honk at you from far away to let you know they're coming (difficult to catch sometimes since everyone is just jamming out on their horns, creating some phat beats sometimes), and at night they flash their headlights if someone is coming around a turn. The most fundamental (and life-preserving) rule of pedestrian crossing is always cross the street slowly, without stopping or running, as you throw off the people in cars who are trying to avoid you. When you stop in the middle of the street, don't expect cars are going to stop for you. In the first week I was here, I definitely stopped in the middle of the street and stood there for like 45 seconds as cars on both sides from me (I could probably touch them if I moved my arms out just a bit) drove past me at 30 mph, it was scary as hell ! The cardinal rule: NEVER start going, then turn back---basically assures sudden death and mutilation by another car who assumed you'd be out of there like any good Egyptian pedestrian.

My flatmate Colin posted a video of crossing a street in Cairo on YouTube, check it out for real-life footage woohoo!