Blog 4: PEDESTRIAN PERILS IN ADANA

Blog 4: PEDESTRIAN PERILS IN ADANA

A few things you need to know about the perils of a pedestrian here in Adana.

1: Cars are King

Pedestrians have no rights. Or if they do, nobody takes any notice of them. You cross a road at your peril because very few cars will ever stop for you. In fact, if you invade their road space they may even aim at you and force you off the road beeping all the way.

When I arrived at Istanbul airport this time I walked out of the terminal to witness a taxi try to nudge a man with obvious disability off a crossing, right in front of airport police. 3 times the taxi aimed at him, stop, starting to intimidate the poor fellow.  I was shocked and even tried to take a picture of the taxi. But it’s normal here. They certainly won’t slow down.

Occasionally they will offer you passage, but I suspect it’s because they want to have a closer look at my wife! Can’t blame them for that and she is wearing her evil eye to protect her anyway! J Even when they have proper pedestrian crossing nobody really stops, so be very careful!!! Don’t trust what is common manners or rules at home because the rules are different here.

2: Adana pathways are minefields.

Pathways are OH&S Hazard. I am sure every Council in Australia would be sued if they had pathways like those in Adana. But nobody sues anyone here, they just use common sense (something often lacking in Australia as everyone wants to blame someone else for their own silly mistakes). If there is a hole, you avoid it or step over it! These pathways are not disability friendly and even the baby pram you’ll need to lift constantly every few metres. Best to wheel the pram on the road but then you are taking your life in you hands so… just take a taxi! Lol

3: Seat belts are not fashionable.

People do not wear seat belts here. Well maybe 1 in 20 do. And you won’t see many baby’s seats in cars.  So make your plans on how you will protect your children in a car. I’m glad Aylin’s family have been “converted” and all wear seat belts and have even purchased a car seat for our little Michael. It makes me feel much safer and happy.
 I remember before my wife and I were married I insisted she wear seat belts when her co-workers drove her to work. They were so insulted they simply drove faster and more erratic to compensate for the perceived “lack of faith in their driving skills”. Omg!

4: Adana Bus drivers are stunt drivers!

Buses around the city are mini buses. What they lack in size they make up for by being very regular.  Normally only 1 lira will get you around town on these buses and if you miss one bus, another will be long before 5 minutes. A great system! Better than our big buses back home that you wait hours for and get charged 10 times the price for the privilege of waiting! What at joke that is! I wish we could take some lessons from the Turks!
These buses come with usually with two, sometimes 3 staff. One to drive, one to take money and  make “friendly” gestures at other drivers, (lol) and one to jump out at every stop and call out the many destinations of the bus. How they paid for 3 staff with a 1 lira ride is beyond me! Lol And fuel prices around 3.40 – 3.60 lira a litre!

You pay your 1 lira by handing your lira to the person in front of you on the bus and they hand it to the person in front of them until it makes it to the drivers cashier. Then the change if any, comes back the same way. Very unusual to watch!

There is a down side to this great service though. Bus drivers are stunt drivers in Adana!!! I tried to hold a camera once and film the trip. I couldn’t! It a rollercoaster ride so hang on for your life!!

5: Only an Adanali (person from Adana) can navigate the roads of Adana.

There are no line markings on city roads in Adana, many being made from cobble stones. It’s an old city remember and those cobble stones are no doubt heritage listed! lol Only main highways and major roads have line markings and that doesn’t mean you have to obey them. Why would you do that? lol
Basically everyone drives where they want on the road and a bit like my 2 year old draws a straight line! lol They indicate mostly with a beep or not at all! (So you hear a barrage of horns all day!)  You just know you can’t trust anyone to keep to any system of rules.

But ironically it all works and everyone knows how to drive this way in Adana. In 5 trips to Adana I have only witnessed one bus scrape another and that was sorted out by a system of obscene hand gestures and colourful Turkish sayings like “may all of Turkey sit in your mouth” or something that sounds like “sit” anyway! Lol

At intersections cars just push their way across until the flow of traffic goes their way. Scary but it works!!
(Tip: if you are a major highway doing 120km, you are in the slow lane!)

 6: Car and bikes have no carrying capacity limits enforced.

There seems to be no maxim load in a car or bike. I remember one of my previous trips to the city of Mesin (not far from Adana) witnessing a man with his wife and 2 small kids riding on a small motor bike with not 1 or 2, but 5 gas bottles attached to the bike!!!  And none of them wearing any type of helmet or protective clothing. The father in sandals! They rode straight past police and the police did nothing! I was amazed and then later realised it was no isolated example. Lol

Bottom line, keep your eyes open and always be alert on the streets of Adana!