| 12 February 2012 | 10 Comments
 
 

By Adam Le Nevez

GP9 Highway

Being on the road in Tunis can be frightening and bewildering for someone who has just arrived. Running red lights, driving on the wrong side of the street, undertaking and drifting from one lane to another (and back again) are all common events. To this add pedestrians running across multi-lane traffic, an assortment of stray cats and dogs, slippery roads, potholes, donkey carts, tractors, bicycles and road works and you have something that appears very close to complete chaos.

For the first few months I lived in Tunis, I didn’t have a car. I got around on public transport and, when I had to, I took taxis. As a newcomer, I didn’t feel at all comfortable with the way people drove here – Tunisian drivers seemed inconsiderate, inattentive and dangerous (I won’t even mention drivers from further East). There appeared to be no system, no rules and nothing was predictable. It was, as the French say un gros bordel or as we say in Australia, a complete dog’s breakfast.

But here’s the strange thing – somehow the traffic in Tunis works. Somehow people manage to negotiate this madness on a daily basis. Somehow the giant heaving leviathan called the GP9 swallows you up and spits you out at your destination more or less on time, more or less in one piece, more or less psychologically unscathed. Of course terrible accidents do occur, but not as regularly as one might expect given the way people abuse the road rules. Accidents are, thankfully, the exception and not the norm.

One day I started asking myself why Tunisian traffic works when it seemed to me that it shouldn’t. And I came to the conclusion that it’s because we have a different expectation about what is going to happen on the road.

In Europe and many other countries we might cross the street or ignore a red light as a pedestrian or perhaps on a bike, but as soon as we are in a car we wouldn’t dream of doing it. We are told, and we firmly believe, that these laws bring order and safety. And of course they mostly do because everybody plays the same game by following those rules. The trouble comes when someone does something unpredictable – when they don’t stop at a red light for example. Then an accident will almost certainly happen. That’s why so many of us freak out when someone breaks a road rule – we believe they are breaking the social contract that keeps us safe.

In Tunisia something different is happening: people are not expecting their fellow road users to follow the rules – they are expecting them to break the rules. Because of this people drive much more pragmatically – they go with the flow. You come to a green light here and you check to see whether the other traffic has stopped. Before you turn right you check to see if someone is trying to undertake you in the emergency lane. If your neighbor is going, you go too. That bus probably is going to lurch out into the traffic without checking or putting its indicator on. The bus knows it and you know it too.

Once I learned to go with the flow, I stopped being so worried about driving in Tunis and began to relax. I even began to enjoy the wild ride down the GP9. The taxi drivers are still crazy, the Libyans still drive too fast and people still run red lights, but now this seems normal to me and I’m ready for it.


Comments (10)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Thamar Alsheikh says:
    28 March 2012 at 21:28

    Wow!, I finally found people who think similar to me! Where do I begin? Well, I drove to Tunisia from the UK for the

    first time back in the summer of 2010. Everyone warned me against it but I persisted anyway and did the journey

    across europe and it was amazing. When I finallt arrived in tunisia I was really scared and apprehensive, I had only

    just passed my driving test 2 years earlier. To say I am disgusted with the way people drive in Tunisia is an

    understatement. They realy have a don’t give s**t attitude. I somehow managed to deal with the madness on the road

    (to this day I don’t know how I did it). Afif is right with saying that 1. Traffic laws strictly enforced by traffic

    officers. 2. Issue a bench warrants for those who don’t pay or fail to show up for court and have the police pick

    the suckers up and throw them in jail. 4. Make it a felony to interfere with the duties of a traffic officer.
    We also need the driving schools to be run properly and for people to be taught to wear seatbelts for God’s sake!

    The main thing though, is to change peoples mentality. This has to start with the current youth who are on the verge

    on getting a licence and/or car. We need proper MOT’s like over here in the UK. Any car not passing will be taken

    away from the owner. We need penalty points to be introduced that once accumulated would ban people from driving. I

    know this sounds harsh, but some people only deserve a horse and cart. All this anger stems from my many years of

    holidaying in tunisia to visit my relatives and seeing more and more road accidents. Last year really brought things

    to a head, when my brother in law was in accident (thank Allah he was not hurt) and I was witness to a live, in your

    face road trtaffic accident. I have from Tunisians that Tunisia is one of the countries in the world with the

    highrest amount of road traffic accidents and car crash fatalaties.

    All this has to be dealt with by the new Minister of Transportation, Abdelkarim Harouni. If he has spent any amount

    of time living/driving in europe, then I hope he will see the giant gulf between the way Tunisians drive and

    European’s drive.

    I pray when I drive to Tunisia again this year, some things would have changed, but i’m sorry to say, I don’t expect

    much.

    This issue might not be a priority for the new goverment, but when each year, more and more innocent lives are lost

    on the road of Tunisia I think they should hurry up and do something about it.

    I love my country Tunisia, but sadly I also hate it.

    Proud to be Tunisian and ashamed to be a Tunisian.

    Reply
  2. Thamar Alsheikh says:
    28 March 2012 at 20:46

    Wow!, I finally found people who think similar to me! Where do I begin? Well, I drove to Tunisia from the UK for the first time back in the summer of 2010. Everyone warned me against it but I persisted anyway and did the journey across europe and it was amazing. When I finallt arrived in tunisia I was really scared and apprehensive, I had only just passed my driving test 2 years earlier. To say I am disgusted with the way people drive in Tunisia is an understatement. They realy have a don’t give s**t attitude. I somehow managed to deal with the madness on the road (to this day I don’t know how I did it). Afif is right with saying that 1. Traffic laws strictly enforced by traffic officers. 2. Issue a bench warrants for those who don’t pay or fail to show up for court and have the police pick the suckers up and throw them in jail. 4. Make it a felony to interfere with the duties of a traffic officer.
    We also need the driving schools to be run properly and for people to be taught to wear seatbelts for God’s sake! The main thing though, is to change peoples mentality. This has to start with the current youth who are on the verge on getting a licence and/or car. We need proper MOT’s like over here in the UK. Any car not passing will be taken away from the owner. We need penalty points to be introduced that once accumulated would ban people from driving. I know this sounds harsh, but some people only deserve a horse and cart. All this anger stems from my many years of holidaying in tunisia to visit my relatives and seeing more and more road accidents. Last year really brought things to a head, when my brother in law was in accident (thank Allah he was not hurt) and I was witness to a live, in your face road trtaffic accident. I have from Tunisians that Tunisia is one of the countries in the world with the highrest amount of road traffic accidents and car crash fatalaties.

    All this has to be dealt with by the new Minister of Transportation, Abdelkarim Harouni. If he has spent any amount of time living/driving in europe, then I hope he will see the giant gulf between the way Tunisians drive and European’s drive.

    I pray when I drive to Tunisia again this year, some things would have changed, but i’m sorry to say, I don’t expect much.

    This issue might not be a priority for the new goverment, but when each year, more and more innocent lives are lost on the road of Tunisia I think they should hurry up and do something about it.

    I love my country Tunisia, but sadly I also hate it.

    Proud to be Tunisian and ashamed to be a Tunisian.

    Reply
  3. Bee says:
    11 March 2012 at 14:52

    I swear driving in Sousse will end with me having a heart attack! Even worse in small cities. People stand in the middle of the road to talk, refuse to move when walking in front of the car, and kids chase and hit my car. Other drivers cut you off, stop for no reason, drive into ungoing traffic, Than they have the nerve to give me dirty looks.

    Reply
  4. Afif says:
    25 February 2012 at 11:21

    The English drive on the right side of the road, the Americans on the left side, and we Tunisians drive all over the road, including on railroad tracks. Pedestrians walk across the street right in front of your car, and prefer a diagonal path. Oh yes…scooters drive in, out, around, behind, and all over. Driving over the speed limit and failure to obey traffic signs is normal. Yielding the right of way to a fellow driver coming out of a side street in a bad traffic jam does not exist. Animals, like mules and their accessories, in some small or major streets just add to our Tunisian Night flavor. Since this is the way we live, we do not need traffic courts.
    Being a Tunisian gives me the right to say all this, but not you if you are from another country.
    In any case, if you think our way of driving and respecting the rules of the road is chaotic, then the only way to fix it is this: 1. Traffic laws strictly enforced by traffic officers. 2. Issue a bench warrants for those who don’t pay or fail to show up for court and have the police pick the suckers up and throw them in jail. 4. Make it a felony to interfere with the duties of a traffic officer. There is absolutely no other way. Oh…unless I run to be a traffic dictator. We surely need a traffic Czar in Tunisia, just like the Drug Czar in other countries.

    Reply
    • Al Beni says:
      29 February 2012 at 12:42

      “Being a Tunisian gives me the right to say all this, but not you if you are from another country.”
      ->Why not? Still not implemented free speech in TN? I thought dictatorship is over….

      “1. Traffic laws strictly enforced by traffic officers. 2. Issue a bench warrants for those who don’t pay or fail to show up for court and have the police pick the suckers up and throw them in jail. 4. Make it a felony to interfere with the duties of a traffic officer. There is absolutely no other way”
      -> Exactly, that is the way it works in about every other democratic state around the world.

      “There is absolutely no other way. Oh…unless I run to be a traffic dictator.”
      -> Respecting and enforcing laws&regulations does not mean dictatorship.

      By the way
      “The English drive on the right side of the road, the Americans on the left side”
      -> Actually the other way around

      Reply
      • Afif says:
        01 March 2012 at 02:55

        @Al,
        the comment was intended as a sarcasm about the state of traffic lawlessness in Tunisia, with the conclusion of what it takes to enforce traffic laws.
        The comment concerning me being a Tunisian saying what I want to say, by contrast to a foreighner, is a note on something in the Tunisian culture that I have noticed, namely that generally speaking Tunisians refuse criticism when it is coming from the outside, no matter how well-intended or constructive the criticism may be. Since some of the eloquent commentators and author of the article are not Tunisians, and noticed this traffic problem, I thought I should make that point as well about Tunisians. The reference to a dictator was deliberately made to invoke the past, and yet to caution about the need for discpiline in the future. For that reason, I also used the Drug Czar phrase to remind people that sometimes,just like in the West, Czars may be needed to deal with what a country perceives a serious problem. In the U.S. they have more than one Czar that the President appointed in some area or another.
        You took my comment so seriously, and it is understandable. I sometimes tend to blend the serious with sarcasm.
        You are quite correct, they usually drive on the right side of the road in America…unless you are in the hoods like I was last night, then you stay in the middle of the road for a quick deal..name it a $20 or $40 …which explains my state of mind at the time I wrote the comment.
        As I am at the end of my trip now, I shall say “Thank you Al for being the Tunisian’s pal”

        Reply
  5. john doe says:
    13 February 2012 at 13:09

    i am driving a lot in tunisia – tunis and sfax. and sfax it is even worse. i already had 2 serious accident and thank good to my safe car nothing happend.
    i hate driving w/ all these morons and you know why?
    not because my “precious” gets damaged.

    i am scared like hell that one day i will kill somebody, even so it will be not my fault.

    you can not predict everything and it is only a question of time until you have accident.
    example you drive at night and suddenly you see a motorcycle w/o lights coming on the wrong side towards you. you move instinctively to the left but there is a pedrstrian, of course dressed in black, crossing the road w/o looking. if you are lucky you will miss. but what if not? if it is a mother w/ child?

    well, i prefer to live without that.

    traffic behaviour is also a mirror to society and clearly shows that tunisians give a s*#! about rules and general public/property. they only care about themselfs and maybe their family. that is also why they dump everything on the streets.

    Reply
  6. Ike says:
    13 February 2012 at 10:29

    This article makes light of a serious subject. Every morning, my taxi route takes me by the police station where cars that have been in serious accidents are kept until they are hauled away to be scrapped or repaired. Having also been in an accident in Tunis (in a “voiture populaire” taxi, sold with no airbags – the majority of taxis on the road) and having 15 stitches in my head to show for it, I can’t take the same tone on normalcy.

    I think it is entirely OK to be outraged by the disregard for pedestrian safety (if one gets hit crossing the GP9 and is not at a crossing, it is legally classified as a “suicide attempt”), as well as the lack of safety belts and the general disregard for the rules of the road. I don’t carry my outrage with me on a daily basis, but driving in Tunisia is dangerous, kills people, and is something that needs to be examined by Tunisian society in a broader sense.

    Reply
  7. v says:
    13 February 2012 at 10:07

    Nice article, however working in the local hospital has shown the dramatic increase in accidents, they have no concern especially for childrens safety, also far ruder to foreign drivers who drive a dammed sight better. I drove 100 miles a day in my rep job in uk and apart from the very rare scratch my cars were prestine, here my lovely new import 2 years ago is battered and bruised and not by me!!

    Reply
  8. Lesley says:
    12 February 2012 at 22:33

    Hey Adam – only the GP9?? I’m also an Aussie and living between the north and the south so driving for me is necessity. I challenge you to get onto the Bizerte-Zarzouna bridge during peak hour. It’s a two lane bridge but mostly it’s 4 each way and being aggressive is the name of the game.

    Reply

Leave a feed back