Driving Through Distraction

[Theme song (to the tune of "Buddy Can You Spare A Dime?"): "Once I joined a movement to protest war, Now there's war all the time./Once I joined a movement to protest war, Buddy, what's your paradigm?" (fade out)]

It's hard to say which is more dangerous in Cochabamba, the intersections with signs or signals, or those without them. Traffic lights here give a false sense of order and rationality to the unwary. Seasoned drivers know to slow down on green, in case someone is running the red, sometimes at screaming speed. Miscreants often beep frantically to warn others off. But not always. Driving here is a crapshoot. Or a video game. Cabs and busses stop abruptly with no signal, sometimes in the middle of an intersection. Pedestrians, bicyclists, peddlers and animals may choose to wander - or dash - directly out in front of you at the last minute. Road work may only be marked by a few rocks or branches in front of a deep trench. Or may simply be a hole in the road. Speed bumps (called "Rompe Muelles") are frequent and frequently unmarked. The effect of these many highway imponderables is to reduce the general speed of driving, which considerably reduces the level of death and damage from the many traffic accidents here. So really, in a way, it's a rational system.