Tuesday 11 March 2014

To Stop or Not.



When I moved back to Bodrum after a 12 year break, I vowed to rise above petty annoyances and niggles and enjoy the Turkish weather, food and folk without getting upset about  behaviour I perceived to be illogical or antisocial.  Twenty-six months later, I think I can say that I've kept my promise to myself by turning my back on anything that would have wound me up in the past.  With one exception - the Bitez roundabout. It's been open for less than a year and I managed to avoid it for months but my daughter has just started a new job very close by and despite trying to ignore this confusing obstacle, I now have to negotiate it quite regularly.  It's been several decades since I took my driving test, but I'm sure that the sign above still means "give way", so I am confused and unnerved when, as I slow down to join the roundabout, every other car whizzes on by, pipping their horns at me as I prepare to stop to let the cars on the roundabout pursue their right of way.  I aways expect a mighty crash.  So is the law different here?  I went along to the Bodrum police station with the above photograph to find out.  The officer on the door was a bit confused why I wanted to know if I hadn't had an accident but had a look at my photo and said that he thought the sign meant slow down  and wait if another car is coming.   I agreed and asked why I was the only driver doing so.  He looked hard at me, raised his eyebrows slowly and slightly tipped his head to the right.  I understood that anymore questions would be futile and anyhow I had just realised that I was at the wrong police station and I really needed to ask the traffic police.  A weekend went by, during which time I found myself back on this roundabout just as the car, three in front of mine, smashed into another which should have stopped.  From the way the "guilty" driver rushed ranting to the "innocent" driver, it's obvious that the word "give way" is ambiguous here.  Yesterday I dropped in on the traffic police who were really friendly and helpful and confirmed that the law gives cars already circling roundabout the right of way.  They also voiced frustration that there is nothing they can do, except pick up the pieces when someone is injured (they do not come out to an accident  if there are no injuries) but suggested I write to the governor to ask for extra signs and a campaign to educate drivers.  One of the civilians in the police station said that roundabouts hadn't been covered when he took driving lessons and as he was extremely young, I  have to assume that goes for most of the driving population.
So if you've hired a car and are driving in Turkey for the first time, be aware that roundabouts need 100% concentration; be prepared for every eventuality and try and avoid everyone else.  It's a bit like the inverse of the dodgems at the fair.

27 comments:

  1. Hello,

    Gosh, this roundabout sounds like the place to be for all the action in Bodrum. All the fun of the fair if one can only avoid crashing into someone else. As you say, a new form of dodgems.......and free if one can avoid a repair bill or a stay in hospital. Well, this is certainly a project for you....should you now as a upright citizen be camping out on the roundabout directing driving operations? Is there anything stranger than real life, we ask?

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    1. I'm quite bossy by nature so don't tempt me.

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  2. B to B, You are one gutsy gal to even try to drive around that thing. Turkish driving habits have left me a quivering mass of jelly, and I don't even drive. On the educational thing, I think you might be tilting at roundabouts.

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    1. I've been driving here for 32 years and came to Turkish driving after a few months driving a minibus around Rome so I'm used to challenges. It was windmills last week so you may be right.

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  3. I'm glad you mentioned this. Roundabouts here absolutely terrify me. I don't drive here anymore but it feels worse being a passenger. It certainly seems like it's an issue that really needs to be covered in driving lessons.

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  4. Mehmet Tosun, the mayor of Konacik promised to do something 6 months ago but nothing happened. It's a big accident waiting to happen.

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  5. I've always thought how roundabouts would 'work" at home; not much of a giving way unfortunately and I gave up driving at home 10 years ago - do take care.

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    1. I did a defensive driving course in the UK. It's quite useful now I've returned to Bodrum.

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  6. We went round the roundabout in Bornova (the big one near the University Hospital) three or four times yesterday. Twice following a friend.... Being in the wrong lane meant we took a wrong turning once. I can't see much from the pillion but it still felt quite scary.

    I think the one in Bornova is pretty like Shepherd's Bush Green in London. That said, it is not, strictly speaking, a roundabout. I used to drive in London and believe that anything can happen at a roundabout.

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    1. I worry more about bikes than cars on roundabouts.

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  7. I am glad you picked up on this. I encounter this situation weekly. The problem is obvious to anyone who has lived elsewhere. After 54 years of driving here, I am afraid that the only thing you can do, for the next 20 years or more, is be a pro-active driver and drive VERY SLOW

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    1. Thanks for commenting Frank, I have heard a lot about you from friends but we've never met. I'll try and stick to your advice.

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  8. Thanks for the insights about the ambiguity of this roundabout signage. I love these little sneak peeks into you daily life... you're like a super-sleuth trying to get to source of the truth ... Miss Marples of the Aegean.

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    1. Miss Marples is only really apt now I have taken up knitting

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  9. Power the pedal, close your eyes and hope for the best?

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  10. Oh my....It reminds me - many, many years ago, in France, those on the roundabout had to give way to those joining it. It was chaotic for quite some time once it was changed. When I first started travelling in France, if there was an old 'grenouille' ahead of us on the road and we came to a roundabout - we waited for the crash! I think it may have once been the case here in Spain. The elders of the town definitely don't 'get' how the roundabouts work and are generally given a wide berth.

    Education, education, education is the only way. Well done you for following it up.
    Give it another 12 and a half years....:-)
    Axxx

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    1. I'm sure in the past Turkey followed the French system too - hence the confusion.

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  11. I too remember the right of way change on French roundabouts....and the old boys in their 2CVs who would bomb onto them regardless of the change...and the succeeding crunching noises.
    I also remember a roundabout trap at Angers which was supposedly light controlled. You would get the green light from our entry to town and be half way round when a stream of traffic would come onto it from another road access.
    It was like that for over twenty years to my knowledge.
    Or the local roundabout with a bakery on it and people parked two deep while buying their bread...

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  12. Sounds scary! I wouldn't advise driving in the Netherlands then, as they have roundabouts with 2 lanes, some have right of way for whoever is on the roundabout, but some are the other way round. Some have cycle lanes around it and the cyclists have right of way, but sometimes it's the other way round... Well you get the idea... Thankfully, they are well signposted, generally...

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    1. I bet everyone takes the roundabout slowly in the Netherlands though.

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  13. I, too, regularly have to negotiate the Bitez roundabout and have had several near misses, myself. It is rather frightening and you have to run the gamut of Turkish drivers who consider anything other than breakneck speed unpatriotic! I use my female identity to counter this, but may be a little long in the tooth to do it for much longer!

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  14. Yeah, I would agree: give way doesn't exist in the vernacular here!

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    1. I can't even begin to imagine roundabouts in Istanbul.

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  15. Aaargh! It's bad enough negotiating complex UK roundabouts where most people stick to the rules. I just couldn't do this.

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