A few tips for Newcomers

[Moxon]

I wonder if this is due to the way people drive here? Or due to the fact that people here will cross the street in what I consider very risky ways?

I think the fact that a significant proportion of one of the most populous cities in the world relocates south every year at the same time (often the same day) and returns in a similar fashion could account for a lot of it.

Road behaviour is notoriously difficult to measure in some globally comparable way due to many countries not even having sufficient data available, differences in definitions and factors such as degree of motorisation, number and quality of roads, patterns of pedestrian usage and peaks of population density but in my opinion Argentina does not have anything near the worst driving habits in the world.

 

[HDM]

Okay, you got me. I have not yet been everywhere in the world, so I will revise my statement this way: Buenos Aires has the worst, most discourteous, dangerous drivers of any place in the world I have been ... this includes every country in Europe, including the new EU countries, six countries in southern Africa, the United States, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and yes, even Italy, which is a close second. Hope that clears up the matter.

 

[perry]

Okay, you got me. I have not yet been everywhere in the world, so I will revise my statement this way: Buenos Aires has the worst, most discourteous, dangerous drivers of any place in the world I have been ... this includes every country in Europe, including the new EU countries, six countries in southern Africa, the United States, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and yes, even Italy, which is a close second. Hope that clears up the matter.

I fully agree with this statement above and find the local drivers childish and dangerous. I walk over 15 km a day and encounter agressive drivers who look at me crossing the road as a form of target practice. I believe that a blitz on dangerous driving must be enforced for 12 months to change the inherent selfishness of the local drivers. A car is a lethal weapon and all that use it carelessly should have their cars impounded and their licences revoked..........

 

[syngirl]

Okay, you got me. I have not yet been everywhere in the world, so I will revise my statement this way: Buenos Aires has the worst, most discourteous, dangerous drivers of any place in the world I have been ... this includes every country in Europe, including the new EU countries, six countries in southern Africa, the United States, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and yes, even Italy, which is a close second. Hope that clears up the matter.

Lol -- go to Cairo, Lima, and Mumbai (or Delhi) and then maybe you'll revise that statement. There may be the occasional horses on the road here, but nothing compared to the camels, donkeys, and horses that you get in Cairo. There they also use the microbuses -- I have seen 25 people pile into a bus made to seat 8. I remember distinctly seeing a child getting crammed in the back window head first while the microbus took off with his feet still flailing out the window. Oh, and like here, a lot of people don't like to use their headlights at night (logic being that it wears them out). That made for great fun when our taxi hit a camel near the Israeli border at around midnight.

They may drive badly in BA, but I've definitely seen worse.

 

[Moxon]

I have been a road user, let's limit it to more then 24 hours actually spent on the road, in probably 40 - 50 countries. This is not including Europe where one is unlikely to find the worst drivers in the world and in my opinion, Argentina does not have anything near the worst driving habits in the world. Of course its a problem, as is their drink driving culture recently revealed by increased random breath testing but as I said its very hard to find a fair statistical comparison (as the large divergence between WHO and Argentine road safety campaign stats alone testifies) This is just from my experiences as a road user, admittedly there are 150+ nations where I have had no or insufficient experience on the roads but that can not change the fact that I would already put over a dozen nations below Argentina in terms of road behaviour.

 

[Moxon]

Lol -- go to Cairo, Lima, and Mumbai (or Delhi)

or Lagos, Sana'a, Benin City, Tehran, Kinshasa, Patna, Conakry, Kolkata, Abidjan, Bhagalpur, Ibadan...

 

[Moxon]

...Lahore, Cotonou, Bandar Abbas, Djibouti, Fortaleza, Oshogbo, Palembang, Ilorin, Addis Ababa, Niamey, Bobo Dioulasso, Vitória, Dakar, Multan, Serekunda, Varanasi, Lomé...

and I haven't even been to China.

 

[RWS]

... Addis Ababa ... and I haven't even been to China.

I, too, deplore the poor quality of automotive conduction in Buenos Aires (and, to a lesser degree, in Argentina, and Latin America in general). Based on frequent and extended visits to Argentina over the course of decades, and extended residence in Addis Ababa, I'd say that the quality of driving in Bs.As. is worse. (Of course, I haven't been back to Ethiopia in this century, so my opinion is impaired.)

None of this comparing really matters, though, if a car hits you anywhere.

 

[HDM]

Sure seems to be a lot of cities out there with bad drivers. But notice with whom Buenos Aires is being compared ... not European cities, the kind of comparison Portenos like to make, but with some of the worst cesspool holes on the planet. Wow. Not as bad as Lagos? Addis Ababa? Is this the company Buenos Aires keeps? What happened to "the Paris of South America?"

Cars drive around here with their lights off at night, so do motorcycles. Cars cut diagonally across corners. Cars actually push their bumpers against pedestrians trying to cross intersections WITH the walk light if they aren't fast enough getting out of the way. Cars bump onto sidewalks if the line at the light in front of them is too long. And everybody must have gotten a new car horn for Xmas, because they can't stop playing with it all the time. Running red lights is common if there is no opposing traffic within 10 meters. Few intersections are marked with lights for pedestrians to cross, so it becomes a suicidal dash for pedestrians trying to guess which pile of cars is on the verge of racing forward as they "anticipate" the light will change pretty soon. On and on and on and on ... until it just gets boring.

 

[reiver]

I fully agree with this statement above and find the local drivers childish and dangerous. I walk over 15 km a day and encounter agressive drivers who look at me crossing the road as a form of target practice. I believe that a blitz on dangerous driving must be enforced for 12 months to change the inherent selfishness of the local drivers. A car is a lethal weapon and all that use it carelessly should have their cars impounded and their licences revoked..........

Just out of curiosity, are you crossing the street when the cars have a green light?