Sochi Traffic - Oh Russia! TGIF!

Everyone hates traffic. And it seems that any where you go, there is traffic. We have driven in quite a few different countries and every single one has their traffic issues. Sochi is, by far, the worst traffic we have ever had to deal with. Mark works less than 10 kilometers from our flat. Within the last month, traffic has increased so much that it sometimes takes him 3 hours to get home. 3 hours! Yikes! Last weekend Mark tried to 'run' to the store really quick. 4 hours later he returned home having never even made it to the store.

I think what sets this traffic apart from the rest is the utter lack of respect and courtesy on the road. If you knowingly cut someone off, and look at them, it is considered rude and disrespectful. If you cut them off, making sure to not look in their direction, it's acceptable. In a way, acknowledging that someone is there is more ill-mannered than ignoring their existence all together.

The crazy traffic nonsense we have seen just this week:

People will drive on the wrong side of the road. Not just 'I'm being rude and impatient, I am going to pass everyone'. They will make sure their car is facing the correct direction of the flow of traffic, put their flashers on, and drive backwards down the other side of the road. Yes, backwards. But they have their flashers on and the car is facing the right direction, so that's ok, right?

People get out of their cars to have a smoke or a chat with the guy behind them. They can't just sit in their cars and wait, they have to be out and about.

Driving on the right shoulder, a shoulder that barely exists, ridden with enormous potholes and covered in trash, they pass everyone. And they don't just mosey on by, they fly!

Passengers of taxis, busses and cars will actually get out and walk to their destination because it is a faster mode of transportation. They will just get out of the vehicle on the -freeway-, or wherever the traffic backs up, and start walking. Some will even do a super fast walk if the traffic starts to move in hopes the vehicle they abandoned does not pass them and cause them to look stupid. Yet, this silly walk they do makes them look stupid anyway. On Thursday, Mark took the shuttle home from work. Actually, he took the shuttle half way home from work. The traffic was stopped, with no movement at all, for about 10 minutes. The shuttle was less than 1 kilometer from the bus stop where Mark and our friends would have been dropped off and walked home from anyway. They decided to exit the shuttle and walk the rest of the way home. Below is a photo of our friends Harb and Daniele as they walked across the bridge as traffic stood still. When in Rome....I mean Russia...

Yandex is the Russian equivalent to Google. The Yandex Maps app is our savior. We can check traffic and 95% of the time, what Yandex shows is accurate. Below is a screenshot of the traffic we sat in on Wednesday night. Green means "go", yellow means it's slow, red means it's pretty packed, dark red with the smaller arrows super close together means it's a parking lot.

  

Note: The blue mark is where our flat is.

After living here, I long to sit in traffic in the States. At least there it is somewhat civilized and orderly. Often times, depending on the State you are driving in, people will even let you over if you have your blinker on. Here, they move over into the other lane or on to the shoulder, just to prevent you from merging. We have seen numerous fender benders caused by egos and stubbornness. The small crashes occur when the two vehicles are vying for the same lane and neither of them want to budge. They inch forward, each trying to out-maneuver the other, eventually running out of space as they crash. Russian law requires vehicles to remain in the roadway, where the crash occurred, until the police arrive. It often takes hours for the police to show up. Of course, this clogs the lane even more, traffic gets worse and the scenario gets played out behind them again and again as people try and merge around the crash.

The next time you are sitting in traffic, on a lovely paved road with lanes and laws that people abide by, take a moment to be grateful. It could be a whole heck of a lot worse!