Glad They Don’t Sell RV’s in Cambodia
Becoming familiar with the customs and laws of a foreign country takes time. Driving here takes a change of attitude. One thing for which I am truly thankful, there are no RV’s in Cambodia. This will make sense as I explain the rules of the road here in Cambodia. I am the one person in our family who has dared face traffic in a motorized vehicle. I have driven a moto, or 100cc motorcycle, around the city of Phnom Penh. I have experienced the challenge of negotiating Cambodian traffic.
For those of you who drive “real motorcycles” this may sound lame, but you have to drive here to understand.When I first put on Facebook how interesting my thirty minute commute to MCC was, my sister commented “it will get old.” I seriously doubt that. Here is why.
The rules of traffic differ greatly here to what most people know in the US. I think there is a different understanding of the purpose of the road. In both cultures the road exists to get us safely to our destination. In the US rules govern the road and bestow equality to all users. In Cambodia rules and a mutual respect governs the use of the road and size of vehicle determines right of way. It is the unwritten custom of respect which complicates travel here. Everyone yields respect to the driver in front of them paying no mind to those behind them.
Everyone, no matter how they are traveling, uses the road and gets the “I’m in front of you” right of way respect. Thus pedestrians cross full speed traffic knowing that oncoming traffic will swerve to miss them. This is as hard to do as a pedestrian as it is for the motorist encountering them. I once was annoyed that the two SUV’s in front of me were slowing down so I saw enough space to pass in between them. No more do I move between them than I figure out what is slowing traffic. There are two pedestrians now standing between the two SUV’s. Everyone gets the I’m in front of you right of way.
Everyone shares the road: pedestrian, push cart vendor, bicyclist, moto, tuk-tuk, auto, truck and semi. This may seem a disproportionate system of usage, but the amount and volume of larger vehicles has only recently increased. The increase in autos have made the roads more difficult and unwieldy.
There are other rules of the road here that make driving interesting. One; there is an additional lane on the shoulder of each side of the road. If traffic is too busy to cross, one simply starts into oncoming traffic on the shoulder then crosses it as an opening presents itself. This lane applies mostly to motos. Cars just pull straight into oncoming traffic using the I’m in front of you right of way rule.
A second rule or lack thereof is with intersections. I have yet to see a stop sign or a yield sign. Where major streets meet each other there are traffic lights. All other streets use the size of vehicle right of way. It is not uncommon to be driving down a major road and have a car pull out right in front of you, not even looking to the left. They assume they have the bigger vehicle and are in front of you, others must let them in.
So when I leave the house in the morning I cannot just get on a major road like Mao Tse Toung Bvld. and ride with the flow of traffic into work. Heaven’s no. There is not one second I can relax because any vehicle, mostly cars, can pull out in front of me without a second thought. Every intersection sorts the haves from the have nots.
Of course that does not keep the disrespectful adolescent on a moto from cutting in front of an SUV, and thus gaining the right of way. It adds to the entertainment of the commute as the horns are sure to go off.
As prosperity or something more sinister has crept slowly into Cambodia, more and more people are driving autos. And of course in a country where size gives you right of way, the vehicle of choice is an SUV.
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