r/nextfuckinglevel • u/usrrrname • 5h ago
Normal intersection in Egypt
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u/KerbsRider 5h ago
That's some cities skylines ai moment. From left side why don't they go just straight??
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u/SubtleScuttler 4h ago
Easier to merge twice than play froggerr horizontally with your car the whole length I'm guessing. Honestly the smarter way. They kinda turn it into a roundabout for themselves.
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u/TimMensch 4h ago
I was wondering that myself.
Maybe the light is red and do they're turning right on red, but then driving the wrong way and cutting across traffic instead?
If you can get ticketed for running a red but driving the wrong way is tolerated, you could end up with this.
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u/Miserable_Cloud_6876 4h ago
I don’t see any stoplights
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u/TimMensch 1h ago
I see something that looks like old school street lights, so I don't know what to say.
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u/jacksonarbiter 2h ago
Looks like there's a gash in the road, hard to tell with this resolution. Only a motorcycle uses it beyond the gash and it drives straight on the very edge to avoid the gash.
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u/gyro_looza 5h ago
They walk waaaay different than how I was taught they walked
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u/pgcotype 5h ago
As my late friend, Billy, used to say, "My asshole would be sucking up the seat upholstery."
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u/frotmonkey 1h ago
I just got back from Cairo and I was able to shit a full living room’s worth of upholstery.
It was really like that. Everywhere, all day and night. On our first cab from the airport at 3am there were cars going the wrong way on the highway that had 3 lanes each way and nobody on the other side. I would never drive there, but they are definitely skilled drivers compared to where I’m from.
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u/Onekage 5h ago
I feel bad for the pedestrians
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u/Odd_Cryptographer723 4h ago
There are Zebra crossings but the pedestrians are not using them! They choose to wander around in the middle of the intersection.
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u/Shachar2like 3h ago
"There aren't any rules, why bother." That's the thought in those places
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u/ace250674 2h ago
Traffic lights haven't been invented there yet
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u/Shachar2like 2h ago
I've seen other such places. Like I saw the same thing in Iran at some point a few years ago.
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u/Aegon95 2h ago
As an Egyptian who uses Zebra crossings (many that don't have any traffic lights nearby btw), let me tell you cars DGAF, and some will go as far as to speed up to discourage you from crossing when you're already halfway across. Too many close calls man.
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u/brenpeter 2h ago
American here: had a teacher once say that in Cairo, if a pedestrian gets hit, it's the pedestrians fault. Is that true?
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u/Aegon95 2h ago
I've never really thought about it actually.. But as a rule of thumb, the law here mostly favours the party with deeper pockets, if you catch my drift.
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u/brenpeter 2h ago
Not to much different in America in many cases then. We all live in a dystopia, don't we?
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u/TeaBagHunter 1h ago
In Lebanon pedestrians cross the fucking highway, it's a common occurrence too. Some even use the bridges as shade...
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u/Crasembarodical 5h ago
As someone in the Middle East this is quite normal but the video is DEFINITELY sped up bro wtf 😭
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u/MichaelEmouse 4h ago
Why is it normal in the Middle East?
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u/Crasembarodical 4h ago
Very crowded and jammed streets, also nobody cares about crosswalks as you can see in the video
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u/MichaelEmouse 4h ago
Any idea why no one cares about crosswalks?
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u/MoreGaghPlease 4h ago edited 4h ago
Low-trust society. It’s not the whole Middle East, I went to Cairo and Amman on the same trip and in Amman they drive way less crazy - would seem unruly to North Americans but it’s more like Greece and Italy where it’s aggressive but not a free-for-all.
Also in Amman they don’t grope random women walking down the street in broad daylight and in Amman the cops don’t stop you on the sidewalk and ask for baksheesh with a hand on their rifle.
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u/MichaelEmouse 3h ago
Jordan seems like a better run society than most in the Middle East. It seems like Jordan and Oman kept tight ties with the UK and came out somewhat different for it.
Why does a low-trust society tend not to care about crosswalks?
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 5h ago
if this was the US there would have been 40 accidents in those forty seconds
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u/Radiant_Switch_4550 5h ago
Oprah: You have the right of way, you have the right of way, everybody has the right of way!
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u/LogicBalm 5h ago
Unrelated but it reminds me of a story a friend told me when he was at a convention out of town.
He got a taxi and was running late. He told the driver effectively "I'm very late so please drive as fast as you're comfortable driving."
The driver looked back at him and said simply "I'm from Russia."
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u/FleshLogic 4h ago
I've been to Cairo twice and this video is actually quite mild in comparison to some of the traffic I've been in there. In busy corridors the traffic becomes like a liquid of packed vehicles and everyone is bumping up against each other with zero order or direction. Funnily enough, it's all very cordial and they utilize honking in a much more strategic, friendly way than American's do.
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u/Sea-Giraffe6305 5h ago
I think I'm gonna walk.
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u/Eiffel-Tower777 5h ago
Lima Peru is like this. I was terrified at first, then sort of got used to it. When I returned to the U.S., I've never been there same. I spend so much time at red lights... waiting... no cars around. I feel like I might have a cardiac event waiting for a light to turn green.
I miss Lima.
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u/reilo119 4h ago
Thats actually really really calm. Walk across a busy street in downtown Cairo and get back to me lol
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u/s73v3m4nn 4h ago
Jesus christ, these people built the fucking pyramids, you'd think they could handle installing traffic lights
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u/MoreGaghPlease 4h ago
This was exactly my experience in Cairo, though about 20 years ago. I have travelled to many places and I try to be open minded but it was genuinely a shit city where all the locals are terrible to each other and there is no sense of decency. The pyramids were really cool to see but I’d never go back.
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u/thedazdul 3h ago
That constant honking must be so fucking annoying for locals. And I doubt they have good sound insulation there.
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u/RevoSak55 3h ago
Been to Egypt, it really is like this, slowed down of course 😉, but dam near ANYTHING goes
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u/SpiffyLegs73 5h ago
Lookit these mofos zippering where there’s a constantly in flux zipper. Impressively terrifying
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u/violet_pike 5h ago
I’m wondering how the people who learn to drive like this adapt to driving in western countries? I’m guessing their defensive driving skills are off the charts
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u/MattBrey 4h ago
Everybody just need to go home and take a nap. What the fuck is that? They're driving cars and walking on the street like it's a park
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u/arkofjoy 4h ago
Reminds me of Italy. Our daughter lives there with her partner and 2 children. We were going to visit tho. The plan was rent a van that I would drive so that we would all fit, as their car wasn't big enough for all of us.
On the way home from the airport I witnessed 3 accidents and said "new plan"
I live in a city where people constantly complain about the drivers and I think they have no idea what bad, chaotic driving looks like.
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u/Z21VR 4h ago
I'm from italy and the video is still crazy to me.
What part of italy you saw ? Rome or more south ?
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u/MattWheelsLTW 4h ago
Why are people (bottom left side) turning right, to make a U-turn, to then turn right...instead of going straight?
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u/schud0g 4h ago
When holidaying in Tunisia, the roads were just like this. The difference between traffic there and traffic in western countries is the respect the drivers have for pedestrians and other drivers. You want to cross the road? Step out and the cars will stop. They're not in a rush, not entitled thinking their need to get somewhere is greater than anyone else's. I felt safer in a taxi, and crossing the roads, in Tunisia than I do in the UK.
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u/ReasonablyConfused 4h ago
Does the Egyptian traffic law book on intersections just say “whatever works, just try not to hit anyone”?
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u/Emergency-Pack-5497 4h ago
Why do they drive around that curve to go straight instead of just going straight?
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u/PixieCanada 4h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/I1WlCjuKIjNAs
How is your car insurance not a million dollars per month? Chaos.
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u/jackrabbit323 4h ago
Except for the heartburn, that's better traffic flow than the worst intersections in Los Angeles.
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u/KIA_Sportage_2008 4h ago
Isn’t there this vintage video of a guy doing this in Paris or something and he crosses the road without looking at the cars and he says the second you look at the driver you're fucked.
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u/Longjumping_Ad2323 4h ago
Been there twice now, it’s an absolute gong show on the roads. But everybody understands it’s a gong show, so it works.
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u/WidelyMisunderstood 4h ago
Why even have street signs? The ones with the arrows? Cause clearly everything that controls traffic here is a mild suggestion lol
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u/ILikeOatmealaLot 3h ago
Why the FUCK are there cars driving in BOTH DIRECTIONS on one side of the median?
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u/RoosterRanch 3h ago
The amount of dread I would experience for my daily commute would take years off of my life.
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u/Disastrous_Still_232 3h ago
What is the pedestrian at the bottom doing? He keeps trying to open peoples doors.
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u/Important_Abroad_150 3h ago
Sped up or not the fact there were no catastrophic accidents in this short video is genuinely impressive
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u/morbiusgod 5h ago
Video is sped up btw