There is often speculation amongst expats as to why Libyans drive so fast and so dangerously. Why are they in such a hurry to go somewhere and do nothing ? All they seem to be doing is standing around, smoking, chatting to their buddies and drinking awful coffee out of small paper cups on street corners. Today, I may have found the answer.
I was just beginning my drive home tonight when I got a sense of an impending eruption from within. Although my office was closer, it would have required a lot of faffing with U-turns and traffic jams. I decided to make a run for it - in the mornings my commute is about 20-25 mins, in the evenings it can be 25-30 mins.This evening I think I recorded a sub 15 minute trip. I am ashamed to say I used every trick I've learned in my 2.5yrs of driving here. Undertaking, overtaking, driving in the middle to block others, tail gating, cutting people up, being (seemingly) oblivious to all other road users. The only difference between me and the other nutters on the road was at least I was using my mirrors before swerving erratically to gain a 1m advantage on the other road abusers. With much relief, I made it back home and won't have to have the car fumigated.
Tomorrow I promise to balance the road karma and let people pull out in front of me, not beep the horn at traffic lights 2 secs before red turns to green, not exchange cultural hand signals with the taxi tail gating me at 120kph and I will let pedestrians across the road. As long as they don't dawdle.
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