Fostering Chaos

Beirut has one of the craziest, nuttiest, looniest traffic laws in the history of....well, everything.

This law can be summarized in five words: motorbikes can do no wrong.


This statement is strictly, legally true here. One would imagine (mistakenly, it appears) that somewhere, somehow, sometime the driver of a motorcycle or scooter could possibly be guilty of an error of judgement. Or worse, be the direct cause of a serious accident.

This turns out not to be true. According to everyone I've talked to (and I really felt I had to double-check this), once perched upon a motorbike any fool becomes quite literally lord of the roads. And the byways. And the sidewalks.

He (I've yet to see a female driving a motorbike) can dodge between cars, ignore red lights, cross lanes of traffic at right angles to the direction of traffic. No matter.

He can drive the wrong way down one-way streets, cruise up or down sidewalks at any rate of speed, block intersections. All perfectly legal.

He can stack any amount of freight anywhere on his machine. He can carry anything in his hands and drive with one, or none, hands. He can (and this is terrifyingly common) put his wife behind him and his two tiny chidren on the handlebars and tear through traffic at any breakneck speed he likes.

He can cause any accident you can imagine, and, no, he is not the cause. He can sue for damages after having caused a fatal accident involving other persons who were obeying all the laws.

Everyone I talk to assures me this is in fact all true. And, judging by the conduct of the drivers of motorbikes, they clearly think so, too. Meanwhile, I've discovered - in time, thank God - to always check for motorbikes coming the wrong way down one-way streets before crossing. As if crossing Beirut's streets weren't already challenge enough.

______________________________________________

Are we crazy enough, yet?

Addendum: I've been trying, and failing, for days to get a shot like this one. Fortunately, my friend Albert managed to get one. For the record, I've seen larger families on smaller bikes, not once, but dozens of times.

(Thanks to Albert Casanovas for the pic!)