Drive Carefully!

------Jeanne's perspective------

The transportation system in Turkey: There are hundreds of bus companies that service any city in Turkey. There are otogars (bus terminals) in every city & town & they are easy to find. The buses generally leave on time, though some stop by the side of the road frequently for drop off & pick up. They all have air conditioning & stop regularly for bathroom breaks. The roads are well paved & destination signs clearly marked. I've been thoroughly impressed by the transportation system.

The experience of driving on the Turkish road is a whole other story.

Sure, the roads are well paved, but many roads outside of city centers have neither lane dividers nor markers for lanes of opposing traffic. The highways are mostly two-laned roads with yellow lane dividers that indicate when cars can pass the car before them. This means driving towards oncoming traffic, which means that some of the more reckless drivers will pass & squeeze into their own lane when they shouldn't be.
In the city center, cars & scooters abound everywhere. Scooters sometimes ride in the wrong direction. They also weave through traffice, passing on the left & right. Some cars have no reverse or brake lights, so they may not appear to be backing out of a parking space.
There is a clear, general pattern to the driving culture here, and we haven't seen any accidents, but we, being obedient American drivers who are taught to always signal & check blind spots, are unaccustomed to these tacit rules. To us foreigners, it's all chaos & recklessness.

------Robby's perspective-------
I beg to differ.

Sure, there are buses everywhere, most of them have AC, they are usually punctual, and some of them even serve drinks and lemony fresh liquid for cleaning your hands. BUT, the big buses almost always take longer to get places than the bus company indicates. The dolmuşes (mini-buses) are very slow because they stop or slow down and honk for nearly every person walking down the street. And the dolmuşes often fill up beyond a comfortable capacity (forget safe). E.g., on the 40 minute trip from olympos to fethiye, I was perched on a seat handle with my bum in some dude's face and with the bum of an old dude practically in my lap everytime the driver accelerated (I tried to stay turned so he would only hit my hip). It was a windy coastal road - one false turn would have been certain death for us all, except Jeanne, who had a cozy seat next to the driver and a mother with 2 kids, one of whom puked from the curvy road (kudos to Jeanne for not joining him) ...or was it the B.O. from the overcrowded bus?. Anyway, I was certainly happy to get a break from the public transport system when we rented the car (and Jeanne was too). However, for the sake of full disclosure, on the road of life and otherwise, I prefer to be a driver. Hence, perhaps my discontent with the system here is rooted in that bias. Compared to most public transport in the world that I've experienced, I would say that Turkey's is pretty great in general (especially compared to LA - though I'm sure most cities beat LA).

But the main point is that I loved driving in Turkey. It was like New Jersey times 12. Unlike in California, where nearly every driver adheres to the law, takes their time, and is mostly incapable of adapting to dangerous conditions or maneuvering the car to it's potential, the drivers in Turkey are crazy! ...I mean, highly skilled, though slightly more aggressive than necessary. Jeanne was certainly more freaked out by the seemingly chaotic rules of the road, but I think she had a bit of fun too when she braved the seat behind the wheel. For me, I kept wishing I were driving Ad's car (a Honda S2000 that glides through turns like a fighter jet). Needless to say, the little Fiat we rented did not afford the type of handling and speed that would have let me really enjoy the liberation from passing laws and speed limits, but perhaps it's best that I did not let loose in this land where we occasionally come across mountain goats, cows and chicked crossing the road (but why?). Regardless, I am greatful to not have been caught in one of their seemingly arbitrary traffic stops - instead of clocking people and chasing them down, the cops stand on the side of the road, flag people down and ask if they've been driving safely. Situation of unavoidable deceit evaded, phew.