Actually, what I wrote in the title is not correct. Motorbikes have been here for a while but there were very very few of them and you only saw them every once in a blue moon.
Lately there are more and more of them and I see them regularly in my quarter. They are not allowed on the main roads and Yangon is in that respect very unlike other Asian cities. I think it is a good thing they are not allowed since traffic is already bad enough without the motorbikes weaving through traffic. The majority of the drivers in Yangon (and Myanmar for that matter) are awful chauffeurs and barely know the difference between the accelerator and the brakes. You don't really want to encourage an environment where the death toll is set to rise.
The banishment of the motorbikes on the main road is a good thing, like I said, but I think it is difficult to stop the tide. We were on a main junction waiting for the traffic light and there she was; the first mum to drive her daughter to school on a motor bike. It was bound to happen of course and she will be the first of many. Give it a year or two and even Yangon's streets will be swamped with those horrible machines defying all traffic rules and regulations.
No comments:
Post a Comment