Road Rules

Hitting the streets of BA is certainly the best way to get up close and personal with this seemingly immense city.  It’s vitally important that one understands their place as a pedestrian in this vehicle mad city.  Stop lights –when there is one – are mere suggestions - while stop signs of which we’ve seen few are decorative street art rather than traffic controls.  Crosswalks are treated with similar contempt so we’ve made a concerted effort to triple check – in both direction despite all streets are one – way – before crossing the street.  Thankfully our years of defensive driving and riding practice in Bermuda is being put to the test.

Amazingly, despite the chaos drivers – and pedestrians seem to move about in surprising efficient fashion.  Other than “Manaja un Americano!” – You drive like an American – being hurled at one driver deserving of the insult after cutting off two lanes of traffic, everyone seems to accept the co-existence of other and the corresponding survival of the species rules:  Buses stop for no one, Cars stop for buses, taxis break all rules,  Motorbikes crawl through traffic by any means possible – including the sidewalk at rush hour if necessary -,  pedestrians fend for themselves.  Thankfully there is too much of interest to go postal on every driver that cuts you off.

Our apartment location in a revitalized Palermo Viejo barrio (neighborhood) is centrally located but just far enough from the Subway stations to prompt us to walk, everywhere.  The city’s quasi – grid pattern of major streets crossing  major avenues and the maps app on our ITouch has kept us on track.