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July 24, 2005
Traffic
It wouldn't matter how long I spent here, I don't think I'd ever get used to the traffic.
Two lane roads jammed with three or four lanes of cars, beeping furiously at the poor fool who won't break the red light. Decrepit minibuses, cabins lit with green and blue flourecent striplights rushing along streets packed with people. Thirty thousand yellow cars, brands and models long forgotten in Europe, serving as the taxi service. Lada's barreling along the dusty lanes of the old city with inches of clearance on either side. The frightening way that cars turning onto a road seems to have precendence to anyone already on it, even if they're doing 50.
I don't think I'll be hiring a car.
Not that I'd need to, the project has a team of drivers to pick us up and drop us off as needed, and taxi's are pretty cheap. A typical cross town trip will cost about 50 or 60 Syrian pounds, less than a Euro.
It seems that all you need to set up in business as a taxi driver is a battered Fiat Mirafiori, a roof sign and a bucket of yellow paint. The better class of car might have a BMW M5 plaque stuck in place of the Lada Riva badge that has fell off 10 or 15 years ago.
The work is progressing well, it's quite challenging, with each day throwing up new obstacles and problems. But in general things are more advanced here than I thought they would be.
Posted by Richard at July 24, 2005 07:48 PM
Comments
OOOhhhhh the Fiat Mirafiori, I had forgotten about those. Isn't there a car company in Iran that manufactures 30 year old British Leyland designs on license?
Posted by: Paul Clerkin at July 25, 2005 05:00 PM
It's the Paykan -otherwise known as the Hillman Hunter.Stopping production I think.
http://www.ikco.com/products/paykan.asp
Posted by: Lemon at July 26, 2005 12:03 PM