Transportation and Overcrowding

One nice thing about Egypt is that traffic laws aren’t really enforced. Since there is limited space, a lot of people, and a lot of cars, you do what you can in terms of parking, driving, and even crowding into taxis and other public transportation vehicles. Everywhere I went I saw people double, triple, and even quadruple parked. I heard a rumor, and I am sure it is true, that when people double park, they leave their cars in neutral, so if the person next to them needs to get out, they can just push their car back or forward and then leave. I actually saw this happening several times and wondered at the inconvenience resourcefulness can cause.

In terms of driving, I think I already posted about this in one of my flashbacks, but people don’t really stay in their lanes. Actually, lanes don’t really exist. There are as many lanes as you can fit cars across, and that often changes on the same road. Thankfully I was never in an accident while I was there, nor did I witness any, but I am not sure how they get around driving and parking so close to each other.

Another thing is that the roads are like a free-for-all. There are thousands of breaking-down taxis, fast moving cars, and large busses, like you might expect, but also horse-drawn carts and people everywhere. Everyone just shares the road. (Even though there were so many cars in Cairo, it was easier to cross the road there than here in Amman because people expected you to walk across the road dodging cars. It was normal to see people standing in the middle of the streets, walking between fast moving cars.)

My favorite part of the overcrowding, though, was the fact that we could fit so many people into small vehicles and thus pay much less. Although I was never in a taxi with more than six people, one day a large group of us (24 to be exact) were in Alexandria. To save a bunch of money, we flagged down a large van (called a micro) and stuffed all of us inside.

All 24 of us.

On the way down, we grabbed another micro, and all of us piled in again. The door didn’t close on this one, so one guy stood in the doorway, blocking me from falling out (thank you Jason) as I was sitting next to the door, and people were standing and sitting on top of each other.

This is us piling out of the van. Yes, all 24 of us fit in that.

Finally, when we flew into the airport in Amman, due to some bad planning on someone up high in the administration’s part, we only had one bus waiting for us instead of two. We stuffed all of our luggage under the bus, and what was left we piled into the aisle, sat three to a seat, and had people standing in the stairways and the aisle.

I guess I am getting over my claustrophobia!