Driving Without Traffic Lights

Remember that red light you got stuck at in the busy intersection, and how upset you were about having to wait for the green light?  Well, come on over to Kampala where there are only around 8 traffic lights in the entire city and no one follows them anyways!  Driving here simply put is absolutely crazy.  No stop signs or traffic lights might seem pretty nice until you get to a busy intersection and realize that everyone is coming from different ways and wants to go in different directions.  To make it more fun, the roads are almost constantly busy and are filled with boda-bodas (motorcycle drivers) and matatus (minivan taxis).

Matatus will randomly pull over to the side to pick up passengers and then will inch their way back into traffic at the most inopportune times.  They, for the most part, are also very against giving way to allow other cars into their lane, even if they are trying to get over into your lane.  Bodas on the other hand just drive wherever they want.  They will zip by on either side of you as you drive down your lane (narrowly missing the cars in the other lanes), and will also sneak through cars sitting in traffic.  If they can fit (and even if they can’t) they will attempt to make their way through.  And would only normal size cars be driving on these roads?  Of course not!  Semi-trucks and huge buses will be driving down the narrowest roads to cause even more havoc.  To top this off, you must also constantly be on the lookout for the random person that decided to play Frogger with their life, by walking in front of moving traffic or behind cars that are trying to back up.

Boda-bodas driving down the "middle lane."

All of this leads to extremely crowded streets and traffic jams that come up unexpectedly and can make a 15-minute drive into an hour plus.  To help with making traffic worse are the occasional traffic constables, whose primary job is to wave their arms at cars.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the waving, just the ability to wave their arms seems like qualification enough for the job.

Roads are paved but there are a fair amount of potholes and a lot of unpaved ones depending on where you are trying to get too.  Not only are some unpaved, they are basically off-roading quality and for some reason will have speed bumps on them.  You can’t really go fast on these roads anyways, so the speed bumps are just overkill.  Of course, the roads that are like off-roading have to be ones we use often.

She was having fun making faces at us (we made faces back of course).

A road that looks like it should be two lanes will quickly become a three or four lane road depending on the mood of the day and how traffic is flowing.  Lines in the road, when there are some, seem to be more of a suggestion.  Cars always speed around you then quickly dart back into the lane or just stay in the middle lane that they just created.  Your lane really isn’t your lane if another driver wants it bad enough.

All that said, I’m actually getting used to driving here.  I thought having the steering wheel on the right side of the car and driving on the left would be the hardest part, but it’s actually been pretty easy.  Having an automatic car helps too.  You just follow the car in front of you and keep traffic to your side when making a turn.  Turning at intersections is always challenging, but everyone is usually going so slow that you just start inching your way in, cutting everyone else off until you are where you want to be.  The bits of off-roading can be fun, though it would be nice if I didn’t have to drive on them all of the time.  I am, of course, also guilty of creating a middle lane to drive around someone.  Though I am not crazy enough like other drivers to stay in the newly created middle lane and drive for a long time.

After driving in Kampala, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to drive just about anywhere in the world.

(On a side note, I’m watching the Flyers play the Capitals on TV right now!  It’s nice to have some American TV even if it is behind.)