Driving

If you can drive in Manila, you can drive pretty much anywhere. Nothing you see on the road will surprise you.

I drove through 3 countries last weekend (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg), and although I received a short "orientation" on the European rules of the road (c/o Mav - who has a Belgian driver's license), I was still pretty surprised at several things:

1. Priority to the right - this was probably my biggest (and weirdest) shock. Active only in Belgium and Luxembourg, it basically means that the car on the right has absolute priority. Sounds pretty simple, but when you're driving along on a main road at 70 km/h, and some guy comes out from a side street on your right - you have to give way. Actually, you have no choice - they won't even slow down - they just assume you'll stop. The same rule applies for intersections - the guy on the right will just speed through the crossing without even looking. This rule alone causes an additional 250 traffic accidents a year - it is a very, very abnormal rule.

2. Diesel cars are quick - Diesel powered cars are supposed to be slow, noisy, and slow. I was driving (for the most part, at least) a diesel powered, automatic Volkswagen Golf TDI. It had a 1.8 (or is it 1.9 - I forgot) turbo diesel engine - and it was surprisingly quick. My family owns 2 diesel powered vehicles in the Philippines, one has a 2.7 liter engine (no turbo), and the other vehicle has a 2.9 liter turbo diesel. This Golf is a LOT quicker than any of our diesel cars, heck it was even quicker than my 1.6 liter gasoline car. I felt like I was driving something with a 2 liter gasoline engine, but with lot more torque. Astonishing - I wouldn't mind having one of these in Manila.

3. Speed limits - these are strictly enforced, there are speed cameras everywhere - 50 km/h in the city, 70 km/h on "secondary main roads," and 120 km/h on the motorway. I understood this to mean that you can drive below this limit, but not exceed it. I was wrong. It actually means that you should maintain your speed at EXACTLY this limit. Aggressive Belgian drivers will get impatient and tailgate if you run at 48 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

4. Flashing headlights - back at home, if you flash your headlights at someone, it means "get the hell out of the way, I am coming through." Here, it is exactly the opposite - flashing your headlights at someone means "go ahead, and be quick about it!"

5. Parking and narrow streets - you cannot imagine how tight parking spaces are here. They are very, very tight - after parking, it is almost impossible to open any of the doors in any reasonable way. You have to be extremely thin to get out. Streets are also impossibly narrow - it is stupid to drive anything larger than a Honda Jazz in the city.

6. Bicycles are like cars - bicycles, especially in Holland, have the same rights as cars. This means that if they appear on your right, you have to give way. If you need to overtake, it is like overtaking a car - you have to patiently wait behind the rider and only go for it when the opposite lane is free. It doesn't matter if you have enough space - you give bicycles the same space as you would a car.

7. Giving way to pedestrians - this is obvious, you have to stop at all pedestrian crossings to give way to the people trying to cross the street. Sounds simple enough - but theory is very different from practice. Since we don't do this in Manila (we actually use pedestrians to "block" other cars, so that we can go and take their lane), I instinctively don't give way. Mav has to constantly remind me to stop. It is really more difficult than it sounds.

8. Traffic lights - the traffic light on your right is the one that applies to you. It is a very simple rule - however, there are some large intersections with 5 (or more) traffic lights. What do you do when there are 3 lights to your right, and one of them turns green? Do you go? To be safe, what I do is I just stop - if the car behind me gets irritated and honks his horn, that's my signal to go. Hehehe.

9. Signal lights - if you're changing lanes, you have to use your signal light. This is to inform the car on your left/right that you are changing, and that he should give way - and they do give way. In the Philippines, its the exact opposite. If you use your signal light, the car on your left/right will speed up to close the lane. I never use signal lights in the Philippines when changing lanes - this is because to be able to effectively change lanes, you have to "surprise" the guy next to you.

There are obviously more rules - like you should only overtake trams on the left (or is it on the right - I forget, sorry), you should always use your signal light when exiting roundabouts (some don't look like roundabouts at all), you should always keep right on motorways and only use the left lane for overtaking, etc. Also, Belgians are not exactly model motorists - on the motorway, I was probably the only one following the speed limit.

I always joke that in the Philippines, traffic rules (including stop lights) are just "suggestions" - you should follow them, but its more common for motorists to ignore them. In fact, some motorists will even get mad at you if you decide follow the rules - I frequently get honked from behind when I stop at a red light in Manila.

When you drive in the Philippines, you automatically assume that all the other motorists on the road are bumbling idiots, incapable of understanding or following road rules and having absolutely no common sense. This means that late at night, you still slow down on every intersection, even if stoplight says green - just in case some idiot tries to beat the red light. It also means that you honk at cars backing up from parking spaces, because you assume that they are not looking and might back into you.

Here, the basic driving premise is exactly the opposite - you assume that all motorists WILL FOLLOW the rules. This means that they will stop when they have to, they will give way when you have the right of way, they will look first before exiting a parking slot, and they will stay on the right and overtake only on the left.

Some people say if you grew up driving in Manila, nothing you see on the road will surprise you. This is wrong - I was actually surprised that people DO follow traffic rules (no matter how strange these rules are) in other countries.