Driving -- Again

[william webster]

I disagree.....

and if you read the posts --- it happens frequently
the illegal passing as you make a turn

I'll wager on right turns - it happens too.

 

[the gorgon]

i have long since decided i will no longer drive in this country. many things have contributed to that decision.

yesterday i saw one of those minibuses that ply between Puerto Plata and Rio San Juan pull over to allow passengers to get off. i saw a motoconcho blow pass the bus on the door side...had someone stepped off, the bike would surely have killed that person. i mean, it should be basic common sense that you cannot pass a stopped bus on the door side, but this is the DR, where scratching one's head can be a full time exertion..

 

[GringoRubio]

i have long since decided i will no longer drive in this country. many things have contributed to that decision.

yesterday i saw one of those minibuses that ply between Puerto Plata and Rio San Juan pull over to allow passengers to get off. i saw a motoconcho blow pass the bus on the door side...had someone stepped off, the bike would surely have killed that person. i mean, it should be basic common sense that you cannot pass a stopped bus on the door side, but this is the DR, where scratching one's head can be a full time exertion..

pedestrians don't have the right of way.

It's not about safety or rules of the road, but about everybody's selfish motivation to travel as efficiently as possible with respect to time. A car slowing down will get passed on whatever side has the most room. Buses trump SUV's which trump trucks which trump cars which trumps motos which trump pedestrians. He who hesitates is lost.

It's a rational system, but backwards from what most 1st worlders are use to.

 

[william webster]

Pretty good explanation.....

 

[Russell]

They dont know the reasons for the lines here. Just decorative...

Sent from my BLN-L24 using Tapatalk

Oh! They know all right, they just do not give a damm.

 

[william webster]

I'm not so sure Russell

There are spots where I have seen lines be wrong....
solid in clear zones and dotted on a curve.

The toll road (Duarte ?) has one -- wrong for sure
in addition to canting the wrong way at times

 

[Russell]

Rubio
I can push with the best of them ... to the chagrin of my pasajeros !!

It's just that two close calls so close together reminded me of the recklessness here.

Stupid is as stupid does.... Tom Hanks movie I think

I haven't lost my nerve... yet.

and yes, thank you... I have a very good driver...

AH Yes! WW, at 75 I have no nerve left!
Especially after being in Kolkata,India.
My Espossa does the driving here...the only way to beat the ''Crash up Derby'' is to have a good ''Derby''(Dominican) Driver.
Every six months I put the car in the body shop to reconstruct the original shape.
Most are from Drivers passing on left side or T-bone Moto Drivers.
Even thinking of wearing a helmet with full face protection.
My dash on Passenger side is almost in tatters from my fingernails...so I cut them!
The floor rug is worn and the overhead hand pull.. is no more.
Other than that everything is normal!
Russell

 

[Russell]

pull into the left lane and force them to pass on the right.

Buy a Motorcycle crash helmet!

 

[william webster]

I understand !!!

 

[bienamor]

I especially like the moto passing on the right side of a car making a right hand turn! or far right lane turning left. Or the other day when the black suv wanted to occupy the same space I was already in, coming out of the left lane on duarte highway, nice ding in my drivers door.

 

[Russell]

Interesting topic about the lines.
In luperon they installed road bumps.
These were measured so the Police trucks could pass over... but not Hyundai Sonata's ... we scrape every time. Then there are the new ''cross walks''. For what?
The pedestrian does not seem to have any right of way. Standing at the beginning of a crosswalk in Luperon requires a long wait ; usually until midnight when traffic slows down.
I asked my Taxi Driver (he has 31 years experience and never even one accident ) about the crosswalks... he told me the people walking do not have the right-of-way.

Yes! The wild wild West.
Russell

 

[william webster]

when they install the little dome type speed bumps...
the locals rip them off in no time flat....they at least make passage for motos

and oftentimes for cars

Why bother putting in at all ??

Eventually, they all gone

The locals must have a use for them... kidding... just kidding

 

[Joe Boots]

pull into the left lane and force them to pass on the right.

Yup I agree get far left. Why these guys cant pass or the right knowing that you intend to turn left is beyond me. Is it laziness? Or because your turning the guy behind you feels he has the right of way? To me it is normal to assume they will pass on the right. Perhaps its because there is a car behind them and they do not want to change lanes on the two way? Or is it they do not want to break because the car behind them will pass on their right? And God forgive they are forced to slow or stop for you? Interesting......

 

[chico bill]

If the authorities started handing out steep fines and locked down vehicles till paid, because we know they don't always track payment of multas, then things would change.
Of course some of the craziest drivers are those that make the rules

 

[william webster]

The new computer system tracks 'multa' payments very well... too well for my liking

Flagged me from 7-8 yrs ago
the old system had me as clean

pay the fine.... they're on their game now !!

Boots...
they are always in a hurry....no patience and less skills sometimes

 

[Joe Boots]

I was in San Pedro De Macoris and we pulled over to stop. Can only get a foot or so close to the curb because of the ditch for the rain water. I did not even think to expect a moto with a passenger riding in that ditch and I nearly took them out opening the door. If I was not so relieved they stopped in time I would have been angry. I did not open door fully or fast thank God. Who would do something like that? I guess my fault again for not checking the curbside exit. Geese

 

[william webster]

Door opening is a serious hazard.....

car or moto....
Car will kill your door

Moto, you might kill him

 

[drstock]

I've had that being passed on the left while trying to turn left thing a couple of times. Last time I was in the middle of the road, indicator going AND arm out of window. I even looked in my side mirror when the gap in oncoming traffic allowed me to go, but some moto appeared from nowhere at a hundred miles an hour and passed on my left just as I started to go. We just missed but he stopped and began yelling at ME!

 

[GringoRubio]

Buy a Motorcycle crash helmet!

I bought a motocycle here which I drove for 3 weeks. Being a novice rider, when PN with an M-16 stepped out from a curve and put his hand up for me to stop, I wiped out. A mitigating circumstance was my girlfriend on the back started climbing my back like a monkey, so I was struggling to operate the controls only by overpowering her grip.

I didn't want to go to the hospital, but my girlfriend insisted as her foot was crushed by the bike. I didn't want any attention, but they cleaned me up anyways. They cracked open ampule of a yellow liquid and soaked up a good amount into a syringe. I turned them down. My road rash stung a bit, but not worthy of morphine (if that is what it was). Next to migraines, this was like a mosquito bite.

When I got home, I dropped the keys into my gf's uncle's hand and said "it's yours now". I'll ride with a motoconcho, but that's it.

 

[Birdman]

I was on my Loncin waiting to turn onto the main road. I was a couple of yards off the right side of the road. A guy cut the corner and ran straight into the front of me. I think he broke my thumb - It is really painful and I have blood behind the fingernail. He got out and I called him an idiot. He screamed tranquillo, tranquillo in my face, I said he should pay for the damage but he just got back into the car and drove off.