Traffic: Do as the Locals Do (Within Reason)
One of the most jarring aspects of overland motorcycle travel is the experience of riding in urban traffic. You may be comfortable in the melee of London or Atlanta, but Kigali and Bangkok are a different story. Worse yet, your adjustment period may be the few minutes after reassembling your motorcycle from its shipping crate at the airport’s cargo terminal.
After countless hours navigating the urban centers of the world, including a few close calls, here are my survival tips:
Size Matters
Very likely, you live in a part of the world where every road-going motorized vehicle has more or less the same “rights”, and where there is a conflict, laws dictate who has the right-of-way. In much of the rest of the world, vehicle size will dictate who yields. Larger vehicles dominate the hierarchy, with heavy trucks at the top of the food chain, and pedestrians and stray dogs at the bottom. Motorcycles and scooters are above bicycles, and below sedans. It’s not that the Dacia Duster merging into your lane doesn’t see you; they just assume you’ll move.
Special note: Buses – whether smaller, inner-city ones, or the rear-engined lumbering hulks – have a special reputation for homicidal behavior. Always expect the worst from them.
About That Safety Cushion
Most riders in affluent regions will, when possible, ride with a healthy gap between themselves and other vehicles on the road, allowing time to respond to changing conditions. Out in the rest of the world, your usual traffic safety cushion may go from meters and feet to centimeters and inches. Before getting accustomed to this new dynamic, many riders can get quite irate when their “personal space is invaded.” Don’t let your ire interfere with your clear-minded control of your motorcycle.
Laws and Expectations
Urban traffic laws “out in the world” are probably not very different from the ones at home: there are speed limits, stop signs, traffic lights, lane markings and crosswalks. While these trappings may look familiar, compliance with them by local drivers will vary widely. For example, as a traffic signal at an urban intersection changes from green to red, the number of cars that pass through “at the last second” may stretch the definition of “second” beyond recognition. Likewise, the change from red to green may be preempted by several seconds with vehicles roaring off in a cloud of smoke amidst a cacophony of straining tachometers. Similarly, stop signs, lane markings and speed limits may be paid little (if any) heed by locals. And motorcycles and scooters seem to have nearly free rein to do as they please.
So how do you adapt? My counsel is: “Do as the locals do – within reason.” That last part is only two words, but it does a lot of work. There are two concepts to consider:
- The driving norms are second nature to the locals; for you, it’s “on the job training.” They are relying on cues you may not yet be aware of.
- They have a different attitude toward traffic safety, particularly toward its consequences.
It’s all quite normal, and they have the accident statistics to go along with it. To be clear, this is not an indictment of the individuals; I don’t think they want to be harmed or cause harm in traffic. Consider the way North Americans viewed traffic safety in the 1970s: seatbelts wouldn’t be mandatory until the next decade, the “child safety seat” was mom’s lap, drunk driving laws were lax, and only a few states had mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. Since then, the US per capita vehicle fatality rate has dropped by 41%. Much of the world is simply at an earlier point on that same curve.
The New Normal
Vehicle lighting may be inoperative. Road surface conditions can go from perfect to “Under Construction” without warning. Manhole covers go missing. Livestock wander freely, alone or in herds. “Wrong way” driving is not uncommon. Disabled vehicles can block your lane…or the other lane, causing oncoming traffic to divert into your path. (And those vehicles will expect you to yield!) Trucks and buses are often overloaded and functioning well beyond their design limits. In some countries, the main flow of traffic is expected to yield to cars entering from side streets.
Riding in large metro areas is unavoidable – onward visas have to be obtained, motorcycle parts have to be purchased, and sometimes it’s simply the only way to your destination. Ride like a local. Assume nothing. Avoid riding at night if possible. Stay positive and don’t take anything too personally.
Adaptation is not optional.