What, I can't park here?

Streets here are kind of created as a second thought for much of the developing sections of the city. Poor people don't own cars, so why make streets a usable width? I have gone down streets here that were only a few inches wider than our car and that turned at odd angles that a typical American would never think of driving up. There are streets that I fear trying to drive a car up, their angles are so steep (wouldn't want to walk up them either) and you have to use 1st gear to get up for the whole length. There is also one somewhere that I swear I will take a picture of someday that continues at a steeper and steeper angle down a hill and abruptly turns into stairs and goes down to a sidewalk below. It's not really a street per-say, but it gets used that way eventually as the area develops and the city sees it fit to pave it with asphalt to try to avoid the typical mudslide situations we get with our rainfall.

I spent 30 minutes in a car trying to move about 40 meters. I was lucky to not have waited more time than that as this was NOT during rush hour. Traffic would sit unmoving, then move up one car's worth, then sit again. The reason for the slow down was soon revealed -

That's a large truck loaded with cinder blocks. This is one of the typical streets that should run one lane in each direction - really only wide enough for one lane in one direction (but Brasilians are amazing at their ability to fit many cars in many directions in places most Americans wouldn't dare to try), not to mention that people park on both sides of the street, halfway onto side walks... or not - it typically slows and speeds up according to how people are driving, parking, and how many bars have put tables into the street for patrons. It is somewhere in Boca do Rio, much of which is a developed/ing lower middle class section of the city. Seems someone was going to build... something... with a lot of cinder blocks. So they hired a truck and the truck brought them and here they sit, parked, on the street, taking up more than half of it. No driver in sight. And it wasn't just one truck, there was another one behind it, also parked in the same fashion. And another. And finally, the real reason for the hold up.

The fourth truck, going the other direction, was trying to park. You can see just beyond, that bus, probably sitting there with no way to get out, just like we were. At least our lane wasn't blocked by 4 trucks loaded with cinder blocks. Our lane of traffic slowly moved on. Their lane, going the opposite direction, just sat and sat. Bumper to bumper. I wonder how long.

Rain showers don't bring mayflowers, they bring floods

The rainy season has arrived fast and furious. Despite the fact that heavy rains plague us at least 3 months out of the year here, engineers cannot be troubled to deal with adequate drainage when designing roads and city spaces. Sometimes it seems they cannot even be troubled by trying to address traffic flow. Today it began raining heavily around 10 AM. A normal 5 minute drive took more than 2 hours. Some parts of the city were completely under water. Where I work people were out digging canals around the building to try to get the water directed somewhere other than inside the building.



Streets like this one, which are so numerous around the city, become waterfalls of rushing water carrying with it all manner of crap from the surrounding areas above. It all pools at the bottom, some low laying area, sometimes inside a parking area, or worse someone or several people's homes, and more often than not, also a busy street. People try to escape the rising waters, driving the wrong way down one way streets, coming head to head with motorists trying to go the opposite direction trying to do the same thing and bringing everyone to a complete stand still.

---------->@#$Q^@^#%&<-----------

Our mayor, or someone, declared a state of emergency (again) and advised everyone to stay home so as to not float away in their cars. Here I am at home, despite not having a car.

Carnaval traffic

The rush to pick up Abadás began earlier this week. Traffic had picked up and made passing through certain parts of the city near impossible in a timely manner because there are so many people trying to park anywhere and everywhere in order to pick up their cheap-really-hot-fabric brightly colored shirts that allow them access to the "safe side" of the ropes and walls that make up Carnaval blocos and camarotes.


One of these pick up points is Aero Club on the Orla, one of the main veins to get from anywhere to anywhere in the city. At all hours of the day, traffic is built up to a standstill while people park on the grass, sidewalks, and even on the street. Vendors with coolers line the edges of the road, waiting to sell beer and anything else you might want as early as 7 a.m.


There are way too many cars in this city.

Not really all that shocking

Came across this online. Much more shocking things happen in traffic here everyday, but this at least is something that people outside the country can connect to and understand on some level. Makes a heck of a lot more sense than the whole "turning left from the right hand lane without signaling" thing...

Maintenance

Obviously, all lights need to be changed once in a while. You know, the ones in your house are so easy to do, but what about your friendly neighborhood traffic light? I know these things need to be fixed once in a while, yet I could not think of any time in my memory that I actually SAW one being worked on, or a light bulb being changed, or anything, in the States. It was just like some kind of magical state that they remained in perfect working order, always.

Not here. This scene is taking place during the end of rush hour here, on one of the only TWO major routs to get ANYWHERE>>> The Orla. And not only did they decide to do this one particular light (I cannot recall if it was burned out, but it might have been) at this time, but they proceeded to do the rest of them in this stretch over the next several days, always it seems, at the same time. Just to give any non-locals a perspective : This is a two lane in each direction road that runs along the ocean - no way to turn off or go around. One lane was completely blocked by this truck.

A valid, sad reason

Granted, this shot is over a month old. I delayed posting it out of respect for who ever was at the end of this long line of cars that we sat in for almost an hour. It is not uncommon to get stuck in long lines of traffic that seem to appear for no reason at all, or because of some political type reason, like a blitz. This was our encounter on Paralella late one night. Often this stretch is plagued with traffic like this because of either the FTC college site or the Wet and Wild concert venue. We figured that was probably the case when we got stuck in this line, but as we finally got to the end we started to smell a horrible stench, and came upon a body in the middle of the stretch of 4-6 lanes of traffic, covered with a sheet. It was rather shocking, even though this is not the first dead body in a road I have seen in my life. And considering it was stinking so badly, I imagine it had been there for some time. Apparently only the morgue can come to remove a body, and there is some paperwork involved, so the long line of cars probably continued to pass it for some time after we did, waiting for the red tape to be cut. For a few nights after we passed it, I couldn't sleep well, and kept seeing the strange position of the legs in my head. Rather awful, and yet so much a part of this reality.

Garrafamento chato

Is it the engineers' fault? Is it the fault of building a city without urban planners? Is it our healthy economy that allows so many people the luxery of having a car? Whatever the cause, there isn't really a time you don't find this kind of traffic during a normal day. Only in the middle of the night is the road clear. And it's not just the cars - the buses are also standing room only. For lack of sidewalk , cyclists and motorcycles fly between the semi-stopped lines of cars, weaving in and out of traffic, beating the wait by a long shot. If it weren't so dangerous (would you ride a bike on the road where people made left hand turns from the right hand lane and seemed to think the white dashed lines were for decoration?), I would consider taking it up. Almost everywhere in the city has a maximum of two routes to get there. Most of these routes are shared between objectives. The other option for this route (from Rio Vermelho to Pituba) is to take the Orla, which runs the length of the ocean and is the main route to almost everywhere in the city. Although a prettier option, it's not very practical for that reason.

The dreaded SETT

A vague memory of the little heart skip when you pass a cop parked on the side of the road in the States - was I speeding? did I use a blinker when I passed that car? Or when one comes up behind you and follows you for 5 miles, making no attempt to pass, just waiting for you to do something wrong. The dreaded BLACK AND WHITES. But in our lovely land here, no one worries if they are drinking and driving, speeding, or cutting someone off when a cop is around - cops have no authority to enforce traffic laws. They could of course stop you and hold you for a time, but they can't write you a ticket, make you pay a fine, or arrest you for breaking the laws of road. But look out if you see that ORANGE AND WHITE! Not only do they set up automatic radar that takes a picture of your license plate and issue you a speeding ticket, they hide at intersections where people make illegal lefts, U-turns, and issue tickets for using your cell phone while driving. They even occationally give tickets for illegal parking, although rarely during Carnaval I am told. Driver beware.