A note on Cairo traffic

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There's a lot of hype about the big attractions in Egypt. The Great Pyramids of Giza, the Red Sea resorts, the Temple of Karnak. I've seen the former two already, and don't get me wrong, they're great. But I'm convinced the traffic here should be a tourist attraction in itself. I wish I could draw comparisons to the often-nightmarish Beltway traffic, or the Lincoln Tunnel in New York, but compared to here, they're simply mundane. No matter how bad the traffic is in the U.S., at least drivers (usually) stay in their respective lanes, give pedestrians the right of way, and obey traffic signals and stop signs. In Cairo, drivers do none of these.

It's not that Cairo drivers are crazy or reckless, or that traffic regulations are poorly enforced. It's really much more straightforward than that. When you have 20 million people packed into an area of 260 square miles (less than half the size of New York City), and many of those people own cars, you don't have the luxury of traffic regulations. Crosswalks? They don't exist. Jaywalking is the only form of street-crossing here, and you have to do it lane-by-lane, even when crossing highways. The traffic here is heavy and constant, 24 hours a day, so if you wait for a full break in traffic to cross the street you'll still be standing on the street corner until the end of Ramadan. While crossing Tahrir square (a particularly busy traffic circle) a few days ago, I struck up a conversation with a local who informed me that I needed to learn how to cross the street like an Egyptian. "Oh yeah, how do I do that?" I asked him. "Close your eyes and pray to God," he responded wryly. I think his remark might have been slightly tongue-in-cheek, but I can't be sure.

Today on the bus ride to the new campus (which I'll discuss shortly) I saw a man pull a U-turn in a truck and hit a woman crossing the street. He didn't hit her TOO hard, but it was hard enough to knock her off her feet onto the pavement. We were driving by as this happened so I only caught a glimpse, but the expression on her face was one more of irritation, as if this had clearly happened to her before. The last thing I saw as we passed was the man climbing out of his truck to yell at the woman for stepping into his path.

These are definitely not things you'd see very often in the U.S., but let me explain my perception of the motorist/pedestrian relationship. There's an unspoken trust between motorists and pedestrians, but this trust seems to be reversed. Cars and motorcycles fly by pedestrians 6 inches away without easing off the gas, but the responsibility lies with the pedestrian, who never, I repeat, NEVER, has the right of way. The driver trusts the pedestrian not to get in his way, and in return he drives in a straight line when passing through crowds. But in a sense, it needs to be this way. If drivers stopped for every pedestrian, it would be perpetual gridlock, so things really wouldn't work any other way. (Here's a clip of Cairo traffic taken from a taxi, you might find that it describes the environment a little better than my aimless ramblings:

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One other notable issue: the use of horns. In the U.S., you honk at someone when they drive erratically or nearly cause an accident. In Cairo, honking is more of a courtesy, and it's used in a variety of situations. The primary function of honking is essentially to tell other vehicles, "hey, I'm here, watch out." This comes in particularly handy when lane lines are ignored (which is all the time). Another purpose of the horn is to tell other vehicles to get out of the way, whether they're driving slowly or not. An extremely common usage is by taxis, to basically let people know, well... that they're taxis. If you're trying to catch a taxi, just listen for someone driving down the street honking continuously and you can pretty much rest assured you've found yourself a ride. And finally, horns are used to inform pedestrians that they are in the way and at immediate risk of being run over. This is quite helpful since most cars don't use headlights. I'll repeat that for emphasis... most. cars. don't. use. headlights. Some drivers are worse than others with the horn, but everyone uses it to at least a moderate extent. I took a taxi downtown from Zamalek shortly after arriving in Cairo, and the driver had cut a hole in the steering wheel to expose the horn button. That way he could cruise down the street, using only his thumb to honk nonchalantly at everyone and everything. I of course thought that was hysterically funny, but I soon found out that it's pretty commonplace. Oh and by the way, it's not at all like in the U.S. where you can seriously piss someone off by honking at them. Here that would be tantamount to getting angry with another driver for using his turn signal.

In a way the traffic here is impressive. I say that because under similar circumstances anywhere else the streets would be constant gridlock. Somehow, someway, it works. There are millions of people trying to get to different places at once, and yet the traffic almost always just flows. It definitely has its dangers and its pitfalls, but the bottom line is that everyone here is stacked up on top of each other, and they're working with what they've got. So when you cross the street in Cairo, just remember to close your eyes and pray to God.

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Comments

[G.P.]

Very interesting
I find your description of Egyptian traffic spot-on accurate - a tourist attraction within itself. I also enjoyed your pictures and commentary about Old Cairo. I wonder if your interpretation of Mosques surrounding the Coptic area was self intuited or if you heard this observation from a local. Enjoy Egypt.