Skye McParland is an Australian student doing an internship in Nepal. She arrived recently and, one of the most popular topics between Kathmandu’s residents has got her: the traffic in the city. She says: “Being in the centre of the commotion has been entertaining.” This is her story:
The roads in Kathmandu are in turmoil, I hold my breath with every close call of hitting another vehicle, as people frantically make their way to their destinations. Drivers comfortably speed past big trucks, narrowly making the pass, as they drive on the other side of the road without a flinch.
This is the norm for many drivers in Kathmandu and to their credit, the system actually works. Drivers keep a heavy hand on the horn to warn the other vehicles, stopping when needed and speeding up on the rare opportunity they can. They execute minimal, if any, road rage towards other drivers who are weaving in and out of traffic and aren’t phased by the ‘anything goes’ attitude towards road rules.
With the spontaneous nature of the drivers here, the need to adopt an element of caution becomes very relevant when behind the wheel. The drivers have excellent awareness and judgment of the narrowest gaps they are able to ‘take-on’. In almost every experience I’ve had as a passenger, I thought I was going to be involved in a collision, and I sigh with relief when the driver manages to tightly fit between a path and a truck.
When there is an accident, all direction of traffic is affected and that’s when the gentle patience of the drivers is tested. I was in an accident between my taxi driver and a bus on my second day of being here, and all vehicles were forced to a halt until the issue was resolved. Thankfully, it was only a few minutes, but those few minutes meant a large backlog of piled up cars and a choir of beeping vehicles.
As the roads on the streets in Kathmandu are being widened, traffic congestion is increasing and stopping a smooth flow of vehicles. And while the roads are already a place of havoc, the dust and pollution generated from these roadworks only adds to the mayhem.
The constant necessity to break quickly doesn’t seem to bother most drivers either, but this seems very foreign to me. At times it makes the trip very stressful as I constantly hold onto anything firm to make sure I don’t plunge forward. The countless amounts of pot holes in the roads don’t exactly help the situation, making me feel like I’m riding on a donkey’s back instead of being in a car.
The chaotic road travel in Kathmandu has toyed with many of my emotions, from being scared out of my wits, to laughing at the sheer craziness of it all. And while I come from a completely different world in relation to road rules, I have to admit being in the centre of the commotion here has been a very entertaining experience.
