Traffic jams are a new fact of life in Yerevan

by Maria Titizian

Published: Saturday April 07, 2007 in Living in Armenia

Yerevan. Armenian Reporter.

When we first moved to Armenia, driving was a daunting daily ritual. Not so much for the cars, but for the abundance of potholes one had to be careful to avoid or risk facing substantial car repairs. That of course was no consolation for the shocks on our car that had to be changed frequently because on most dark, rainy nights we invariably ended up in a pothole. Strangely enough I don't recall ever changing the shocks on my old Japanese car which I abused while I sped along the absurdly smooth streets and highways of Toronto. But of course, nothing is ever simple in this complicated corner of the world.

Thanks to the Lincy foundation, most streets in downtown Yerevan were repaved a few years back and for a short time our car seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. And then came the harsh winters and rainy springs and new, never before seen potholes emerged. One could pose the question of whether the repaving of the streets were done with any care or professionalism, a term which has yet to find its way into the Yerevantsi vernacular. But I digress and that is an article for another day.

While I was doing the research for this month's piece, which included reading reports on the transport sector in the South Caucasus, I decided to forgo statistics in exchange for some humorous stories that I swear are not fabrications of my imagination, but actual real life encounters with potholes, pedestrians and traffic police and the new phenomenon of traffic jams.

I have come to the conclusion that driving in Yerevan is not so different from the dizzyingly fast paced video games my son plays. By now it's abundantly clear that you must not only know where all the new and old potholes are, but you must also try and figure out where the traffic lights are situated - usually conveniently hidden behind overgrown trees or strategically placed billboards. I can't tell you how many times I have driven through an intersection when the light was red. So now, if I can't see the traffic light I look at the opposite side of the intersection to see what color the light for the oncoming traffic is and then map out my course of action.

Then there are the obnoxious drivers who insist on cutting you off and if that fails try to run you down to make it to the next set of lights before you. It's almost as if a competitive driving streak is wired into the brains of Yerevantsi drivers and regardless of whether they are trying to make it to an important meeting or not, the overriding impulse is that they must win. You must also be wary of pedestrians because they cross the street whenever and wherever they feel like without looking to see if there are cars coming, or whether it's their right of way. They don't run to avoid getting hit, they don't even break into a jog; they just casually stroll across 6 lanes of traffic.

Now let's add stray dogs to the mix. Sometimes these poor creatures have adapted and cross at a green light with other law abiding citizens, and other times they come at you out of nowhere and bark at you for disrupting their repose. Sometimes I think everyone and everything is out to get me.

So we have potholes, pedestrians, dogs and now no scholarly article on driving in Yerevan would be complete without the traffic police. Thankfully they no longer stand at every street corner, baton in hand with the signature cigarette dangling from the corner of their mouths. No, they have been taken off the beat and now are replaced by cameras that will capture any traffic infraction and fine the owner accordingly. I don't know if this new measure is working; I have yet to receive a ticket. The likelihood that I will is strangely greater now because previously whenever I was stopped by the traffic police, I was always let off because I am a woman, and subsequently don't know how to drive therefore should be let go. I once argued with a police officer, demanding to be fined. Of course, I had violated some traffic law, which one in particular eludes me at the moment, but he refused to fine me because I was a woman. At the end of a 15-minute argument I told him that it was their fault I was violating the law because I knew I would get away with it. Had I been a man they would have automatically demanded the standard 1000 AMD bribe, but even that ‘privilege' was denied me.

Another time I was stopped once again but this time I was on my best behavior. The officer couldn't have been more than 20 years of age and kept lamenting how he didn't want to fine me (even though I had done nothing wrong) because I was a woman and a guest in his country - I speak western Armenian. I told him to either fine me or let me go. At which point he said, "You must be a new driver". Incensed by his comment I calmly told him that when I started driving he was probably still in diapers, grabbed my driver's license from his hand and drove off without a second glance.

Sadly traffic police stories will now be few and far between.

Thankfully when I moved to Yerevan six years ago there weren't so many cars on the streets. It was hard enough after a lifetime of driving in a country whose drivers are sickeningly law abiding to adapt myself to the culture of aggressive driving. Trust me; the meek will not inherit the streets in Yerevan. In order to survive, you have to recondition yourself and yes, perhaps become a little more aggressive. But now, there is so much traffic in Yerevan that if the aggression factor is not removed, there will be serious consequences. This past year over 29,000 cars were either imported or purchased in Armenia as opposed to 13,000 the previous year. As the economic situation of the country improves, more people will be buying cars. Add the shortage of parking space, driving has become a test of one's patience. One time my husband and I got caught up in a crazy situation at an intersection because some drivers had not heeded the lights and cars from all four directions were facing each other down, not able to move forward or reverse. As much as we tried to see the humor of the situation, it took us over 20 minutes to crawl out of that gridlock. Urban planning, studying traffic flows, the development of innovative solutions must become a priority for city officials, otherwise pretty soon we'll all be working out of our cars.