Traffic

It’s simple. The only traffic rules apply to foreigners, and they are well advised to ignore them. On a long march down to the Russian Market (really, overrated now that you can no long buy AK-47s and marijuana by the kilo) we must cross Mao Tse Doang Boulevard. At a busy intersection, going forward is as risky as turning, so we opt to cross. But the traffic lights are out. What convinces us that this is the place to venture into traffic on wide Mao is a pair of cops directing traffic. They hold sawed-off light sabres, the wands used to direct jets on the tarmac outside airport terminals. Stranded in the middle of Mao’s great girth, we realize the cops have not ventured out into the street with us. They remain standing safely at the curb, leaning into the traffic, invisibly waving their magic-less wands (and blowing their whistles, silently below the din of Doang).

Ostensibly there are two lanes, just like at home. But motos (motorcycles) and tuk tuks very often drive upstream in a virtual curb lane. Remember that tuk tuks are over a metre wide. As elsewhere, when the family vehicle is a moto, you will see them with whole families on board, plus a few chickens or a pig. Things I have seen on motos

• a 12 foot ladder,
• a desk,
• a bundle of bamboo poles each about 16’ long,
• four generations of a family,
• a guy talking on his cell phone while his toddler steers,
• a toddler sleeping across the handle bars while driving in traffic,
• four on a moto all picking their noses (an acceptable social practice here—both the picking and doing it on a moto).

To make matters worse Phnom Penh has given up on sidewalks. They exist, and sometimes are quite wide (as much as four metres). But they are not for pedestrians. Each building is in charge of its own sidewalk, which means the owners or tenants often block off the sides of “their” sidewalk with temporary or quite permanent barriers. My favourite is a wall of tall cacti in huge clay pots, the whole trimmed like a hedge.

The streets then are home to motos, tuk tuks, pedestrians, cars and SUVs, all going every which way. Crossing the street mid-block is safest. At intersections you must look six ways, at all times. You cannot assume that traffic is not coming from anywhere. Even one way streets (I’ve encountered only a few of these) do not apply to motos and tuk tuks.

It is important to know that, unlike in Canada, when a vehicle flashes its brights at you, this means get out of the way!

What saves the whole from being a disaster is that everyone is actually driving very slowly. It is safe, and really the only way, to cross streets by just marching out, weaving in and out of the motos (by far the most numerous vehicles on the roads), calculating where they will be, and knowing they will swerve to avoid you. The only traffic I pause for are the SUVs. This can safely be done anytime during the crossing.