Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Bucharest Day 2 - Crazy drivers
The traffic in Bucharest is impressive. I am in awe that the roads are not strewn with tangled wreckage and broken bodies.
In the short walk from the Novotel to Microsoft, Rez and I have to cross the busy Calea Victoriei and then the insane 8-lane E60. Even with the green man indicating we can cross these roads, caution is required.
Over the last few days, I have - despite the almost constantly blaring horns and weaving vehicles - only seen one car with any damage on it. Bird droppings and layers of dust, yes; dents, no.
Talking of cars, here's one of the worst condition Dacia we managed to find. I thought the car looked familiar and found out that the cars are basically Renault clones.
Another traffic problem is the chronic lack of parking. Every stretch of pavement has a car half-parked on it. I don't think I have seen a single push-chair in the city so far and that's not surprising - it is physically impossible to move around a lot of the main and side roads. Small areas of tarmac are full of cars with parking security staff trying to keep some control of the chaos. In this photo you can see some metal mini-tank-traps which people use to claim parking spaces, moving them on to the pavement when required.
The city could really do with a few multi-story car-parks. Maybe they could demolish some of the more decrepid concrete apartment blocks and replace them with something useful for the parking problem (at least they could be more aesthetically pleasing).
Public transport is good, though.
Haven't had a chance to try out the metro yet.
In the short walk from the Novotel to Microsoft, Rez and I have to cross the busy Calea Victoriei and then the insane 8-lane E60. Even with the green man indicating we can cross these roads, caution is required.
Over the last few days, I have - despite the almost constantly blaring horns and weaving vehicles - only seen one car with any damage on it. Bird droppings and layers of dust, yes; dents, no.
Talking of cars, here's one of the worst condition Dacia we managed to find. I thought the car looked familiar and found out that the cars are basically Renault clones.
Another traffic problem is the chronic lack of parking. Every stretch of pavement has a car half-parked on it. I don't think I have seen a single push-chair in the city so far and that's not surprising - it is physically impossible to move around a lot of the main and side roads. Small areas of tarmac are full of cars with parking security staff trying to keep some control of the chaos. In this photo you can see some metal mini-tank-traps which people use to claim parking spaces, moving them on to the pavement when required.
The city could really do with a few multi-story car-parks. Maybe they could demolish some of the more decrepid concrete apartment blocks and replace them with something useful for the parking problem (at least they could be more aesthetically pleasing).
Public transport is good, though.
Haven't had a chance to try out the metro yet.
Labels: Bucharest
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
