Obliviousness

Driving here is always an adventure. I'm going to call it adventure, because "taking your life and others' lives into your hands" sounds less fun.

But the truth is, it's like a game of Frogger out there and I am constantly baffled as to how this city maintains a population of 20 million people. You'd think at least a million a day should be eliminated by what's happening on the streets.

It's not so much the crazy driving, which is rampant. No, it's the obliviousness. There really is a principle of "If I don't look at you, you have to make way for me." The problem is, what happens when two people with that same philosophy meet?

I'm particularly disturbed by the pedestrians who embrace this mode of operation. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here, but they move around the road like they do. Just this afternoon I was pondering this while coming up on the left side of a biker. I thought, "Take this guy here. I bet he's going to turn left right in front of me without looking" and sure enough, he did! I had to slam on my brakes not to hit him, and his reaction was to look at me like, "I'm turning this way now." I would have expected more of a, "Gee, thanks for not killing me" look or at least a "maybe I should have looked" look.

This happens all the time, so my question is - how do people not get in more accidents? It is one of the great mysteries of life here.