Many foreigners are too afraid to drive, or their companies won't allow it. This is for good reason: recently within a 14 week period there were 3,914 accidents, 629 deaths and 1,794 serious injuries in our city.
This is hardly surprising when you consider some of the rules of the road. My personal rule is this: expect everyone to do anything at any moment. This means anticipating that there will be a car either reversing back down or driving the wrong way up an on-ramp. It also means there will be cars, four wheelers and bicycles heading into the on-coming traffic on the highway. There will be pedestrians (including burca-ed women) who sprint across the highway trying to make it either to the shop or back home. The car in front will definitely change lanes without warning, and no one will check their rearview mirrors, if they in fact have them. It means that you must stop on the roundabout and yield to those entering it at 60mph. It also covers the fact that men will transport 20 foot pipes by holding them out the window and balancing them on the side mirrors. I know that in heavy traffic some hot-blooded driver will co-opt the opposing lane and claim his own direction.
Definitely we will make an extra lane or two beyond those designed for the road, and if we want to hold our place, we will straddle the lanes to maintain pole position for getting ahead. Of course we will use the right "shoulder" to pass other cars on the highway. We will use the opposite lane to circumvent speed bumps where they have been half-removed, and we will do u-turns indiscriminately since there is no other way to turn around.
I know how to avoid being double parked, and I join them in pulling up so far I can't see the traffic light, waiting instead for the horn honking to know when it's green (all the while assuming others will run the red). I have memorized the potholes on my routes that swallow whole tires, and I watch expertly for the pieces of tree branch or pipe sticking up that mark deep pits. I've got the hand gestures down, which include throwing up an open palm to express frustration at the ridiculousness of the other person's maneuver, or pinching the first two fingers with the thumb to say roughly: "slow down; think about it; get a grip."
Suffice it to say that my response has been aggression rather than fear - maybe it's that L.A. driving experience kicking in. Plus, behind the wheel of a car I have more equal footing with men, though I'm now trying not to use the road as my forum to declare myself! With Jared's encouragement, I'm attempting to become a calmer driver; and he's reforming my gesturing my newly acquired skills for using the shoulder as a fast lane. So, pray for our safety and my road rage!
*It's funny to look back at my May 2008 post about being a passenger - so many more antics to document now that we're driving ourselves.
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