DRIVING IN AMMAN

Accepting a cultures idiosyncrasies is an important part of maintaining sanity as an expat living abroad. I have done this in many regards concerning Jordan, but can't seem to when it comes to the driving. There is an overwhelming selfishness and stupidity in several aspects of the operation of motor vehicles here. A good example is pictured above. Julie and I sat in traffic for over twenty minutes to get around this accident. As you can see, there is no real damage to either the cement truck or the car, but instead of pulling over to the shoulder, people will wait indefinitely for the police to arrive. I've been told by police that there is no need for this, but people do it anyways, traffic be damned. There are two other techniques that also drive me insane. People flash their lights at you when they want to pass here, which makes perfect sense on the highway. But they also do it in the city, on one-way streets. They expect you to pull over to the shoulder so they can pass. This technique is also used in traffic, similar to the way an ambulance might command cars to pull aside for the good of the patient. But here it's not an ambulance, it's usually a Mercedes, and they become enraged when you don't move. I never move. And lastly, there is the formation of new lanes technique. If a street is full of traffic, people will go down the opposing side into oncoming traffic and start new lanes. The only problem is they typically block the opposing lane completely, making traffic ten times worse! I've tried saying the serenity prayer; it doesn't work.