Bucharest, the capital of Romania. 2 million people live here according to official numbers. Probably the real number is much higher. It’s about 10% of Romania’s population.
If you would ask someone to describe the city in as few words as possible it would say: crowded, unbreatheable air and terrible traffic conditions.
I think about how traffic was in Bucharest. Sometimes you would get farther by simply getting out of the car and walking. The streets simply seemed not to be sized for the traffic flow and jams would make the already bad situation worse.
What always fascinated me was how people made this situation worse by selfishly and stupidly performing some kind of maneouvers with their car. Let me give you an example: you have a green light at a traffic stop, but there is no way you are going to make it out of the intersection before it changes. Traffic in front doesn’t move for a while. Instead of not entering the intersection, most drivers would enter it. Now think that drivers from other roads do the same. Blindly and stupidly. Intersection is jammed and nobody can get futher.
Over here in the US, the situation seems to be the exact oposite of that in Bucharest. Everybody seems calm and respects and protects the others while in traffic. It’s kind of utopic, the first time you see it, and laugh loudly on the inside when you remember what you’ve dealt with in the past. Did you ever think that you can drive without stress? Yes, it’s possible. And if you also add to that the fact that every car has an automatic gearbox, driving is simply just any other activity that you do.
I like to dream of the day when such traffic conditions will exist in Romania. But before changing the traffic, I think we must change people’s way of thinking.