Russian Driving Woes

Dear Blog

Imagine you're watching one of those Google or YouTube videos from China, where drivers maniacally careen into each other one after another in the same intersection. Now, take larger more modern cars, swap the Asian attitude for the Russian one, increase the speed by five hundred percent, the traffic density by fifty percent, and double the width of the roads.

I mean, we SAW three major accidents in fifteen minutes on Friday. Oh, and I don't mean, US 35 mile per hour crashes where there is minor body damage. I don't mean Hong Kong crashes where some byciclist gets hit at fifteen miles per hour, or some quarter ton car collision in a Korean intersection that results in shouts and broken glass. I mean, where the cars were rolled over by the impact, people possibly die, the car is totalled, or nearly halved and at least one of the vehicles moves over the curb and onto a lawn.

You ever watch teenage boys weave through a crowd? Highschool boys trying to walk or run faster and evade the traffic of the more sedentary? Watch some highschool hall if you get a chance. It 's what you do before you mature and find out that it's rude and dangerous once you weigh more than ninety pounds.

They are ignorant of the adage that "It's not the car you see that's the problem it's the one you don't see. You do not drive with the cars you see in mind. You drive with the cars that you DON'T see." It's kind of Zen. It's kind of computationally difficult as well. But in Moscow it's like the entire world is populated by teenage boys who are as yet unskilled in driving, and as yet inconsiderate of their fellow man, unaware of the mass of their bodies, and they drive as if they are immortal, and omnicient, when they are in fact, simply naieve and foolish. We see this as immaturity in boys. But doesn't it mean the same thing if we see it in an entire country? It means that they are all two ton boys running at sixty miles per hour. I would rather be in the repair than the insurance business here.

Basically, it looks like there are evolutionary processes involved in driving, creating a cultural common sense to the art of it. RIght now everyone is a recalcitrant and egoistic teenager, possessed of too many hormones, not enough wisdom, and the ability to do real damage to himself and others. I only hope that this maturity progresses at the same rate as the rest of the economy. Otherwise, the innate russian population problem is going to be challenged.

Curt