We had brunch with a couple of new Aussies on Sunday. Marilyn is only here for a short time, working on Psytology (can’t find the real spelling) and Christine is the new director of SNV. Michelle, who’s been here for most of this year, also joined. An early hot topic was the driving skills of Bhutanese, who don’t know how to use roundabouts or follow arrows.
Much of the problem comes from the department of roads who choose to paint signs and implement changes in a way that the new flows are in place weeks before they ask the police to enforce the rules. I was chatting to a policeman last year when he cut me off and ran to stop a car that came out of a nearby street. After a few minutes of educating the driver (police choose to educate rather than book drivers), he returned to chat. I asked why he’d stopped the driver who was following the arrows on the road, and that exit was the only one available if you followed directions. His frustrated response was immediate. ‘Those arrows only start on Monday.’
At roundabouts, it seems that even the police don’t have much idea. We agreed that the best way to teach people which way to drive around them was to put a chorten (religious monument) in the centre of each so they’d always keep it to their right. But even that doesn’t work 100% of the time as we see on our way into town from our last house when someone’s stuck behind a truck. The roundabout offers a great place to overtake by driving on the other side of the chorten.
But what to do about the way people often give way to the right instead of the left? I said that I just push in with my horn blaring. It got a laugh, but I immediately regretted it. It’s not true and it’s not the attitude I want to encourage. And who’s to say that I’m not the one that’s wrong? I’ve never read any official road rules for Bhutan. I just assume that if they’re implementing international standard style intersections, they’ll use international standard rules.
But that’s not necessarily the case. An Australian friend last year noted that the Bhutanese drive like they’re walking around a village. Cars are a relatively recent commodity here and the culture hasn’t set in. Instead of following traffic rules, they follow the law of the jungle. They give way to the trucks and 4WDs or the people of higher rank. I’ve noticed that at roundabouts, especially the recent additions, they usually use the same guidelines they used before the roundabout appeared. If they’re following the main street, they’ll take right of way over anyone already on the roundabout.
This theory is backed up by a story another expat friend told us last year. He was working at the department of roads and had to test taxi drivers before giving them licenses. One question he often asked was whether you give way to the left or right on a roundabout. Their answer was invariably ‘which roundabout and which way am I going?’
The fact that he asked the question says that he thought they used international rules, so I’d probably be justified by driving in with horn blaring, but it’s not my country. If the local police don’t even stop drivers who take the right of way at the wrong time, why should I? Here, I should be letting them act naturally and enjoying the show. It gives me something to write about, after all. And it can only get better as the traffic increases.