One thing that always amazes me after all the aggression on the roads here, I have never seen or heard of an accident.  Back home, it’s impossible to pass through the morning rush hour without at least a dozen fender benders across the GTA.  Here in Istanbul, you don’t really here of any.  It’s incredible when you think of it!  Cars go wherever their drivers feel like going.  The lines…..the intermittent lines in the middle of the road that are supposed to depict where the lanes are and guide your path……are non-existent here for the sake of it’s purpose.  When going around a curve, most cars take it like cars at a race track do.  You start off in the outside lane and gradually drift to the inside at curve and then drift back out as it straightens out.  Most people need to get ahead of the next person so they straddle the line to see if they can pass the person ahead.  All while this is happening, motorcycles are driving in between all the cars passing everyone.  Some of these riders wear helmets and most don’t.  As soon as the light turns green, the person in front better put the pedal to the metal as everyone behind starts honking as if to say “what are you waiting for?  Let’s get movin’!!!”.  It’s nuts!!  Oh….and before I forget….pedestrians.  People cross where they want….WHEN they want.  We saw a lady run across a busy street today….in front of a truck….while talking on her cell phone!!  It was one of the most stupidest things I’ve ever seen.  She made it though.  And the truck….well….he was trying to cross the street as well….and ended up blocked by the far lane.  But now he was blocking ALL lanes and a whole ton of drivers were laying on their horns.

Taxi (er…taksi) rides are terrifying.  Like anywhere else, they are the most aggressive drivers out there.  Since there’s not seatbelt law here most people don’t use them.  In taxi’s …..you can’t even find them.  They shove the clip portion between the seats so i guess they don’t dig into peoples asses. But one thing done here that I wish they would do back home is make all the taxi’s yellow.  It’s very easy finding one.
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But…in the end after all my ranting here is that while the general driving habits are a bit on the crazy side, that ‘generally’ speaking, the drivers are more on the ball here.  Ok…i know they also talk while driving….they do have a cell phone law here just like back home but it’s not enforced by any means.  But the vast majority of vehicles here are manual transmissions.  It’s my thinking that when you drive a manual, you are more in tune with what you are doing.  When you drive more aggressively, you can also tend to be a little more on edge and responsive (not that it makes it any safer…it doesn’t).  I guess what I’m trying to say here is that while people drive a little nutty, I think they’re more on the ball than drivers back home in Canada.  Back in Canada, most of the cars are automatics…..so you don’t have to pay too much attention to the driving bit…..and that frees up your mind to think about many other things going on.  What you get are people not paying attention.  Like our taxi driver yesterday who was flying through a narrow street with a slight bend to it.  All of the sudden a guy appeared on the right side trying to cross.  He slammed on the brakes locking up the wheels….and my face almost ended up in the back of the drivers head.  But we all made it and the guy did not get hit.