Driving: Paranoid Assertiveness

 

Bangkok Traffic-One set of lanes, traffic
going both ways

Driving in Thailand in general and in Bangkok in particular required some adjustments. I grew up in suburbia in the US and if we traveled, we went to rural areas. So, my exposure to real city driving was limited and Bangkok was something new.

First off, Thailand drives on the left side of the road, not the right. In the US, if we’re walking or driving and come to a street we want to cross, we instinctively look first to the left. Seeing nothing coming, we’re likely to take a step or maybe keep rolling before looking to the right. That’s fine for the US, but wrong for Thailand. Many an American tourist in Thailand has become a traffic statistic looking left first, taking a step, then getting hit from the right. So generally, look to the right first. However, the curb lane might be a bus lane that is running against the flow of the rest of the traffic in which case, look left first, then quickly right. Motorcycles and cars might also be going against the flow of traffic trying to take a shortcut. If so, again, look left first, then right, then maybe back left. Or was it the other way around? Confused? Don’t know which way to look? Welcome to Bangkok! In the US, we might talk about “defensive driving.” In Thailand, we felt the need to be defensive to the point of being paranoid!

All the years we were in Thailand automatic transmissions were fairly rare. It is changing in more recent years especially for sedans and family cars but we only had stick shift vehicles to drive. Both Marcia and I started driving in the US with stick shifts so shifting wasn’t a problem. However, since we drove on the left instead of the right in Thailand, the steering wheels were on the opposite side of the car compared to the US. Therefore, we had to shift with the left hand instead of the right. Since we sat on the opposite side of the car compared to the US, the shifting patterns were also inverted. Whatever gears needed outward pressure to reach in the US required pulling inward to reach in Thailand and vice versa. It was mildly confusing for a while when first going to Thailand or when first returning to the US. In a hurry, we might occasionally shift into the wrong gear, but we never had a too big a problem with it.

I mentioned in the post about crossing the street that eye contact with drivers should be avoided. This is just as true or maybe more so when driving. We were first exposed to this riding as a passenger in the TBMF office van. TBMF had a couple drivers on staff and when we first arrived, these drivers would take us around to various places we needed to go to take care of things like visas and such. On one of these trips, we were inching along in traffic when our driver bumped into the car in front of him. Not a big bump, but noticeable. The driver of the car in front whirled around in his seat and started staring at our driver, glaring holes through our windshield. Our driver though, sat there expressionless and stared at the dashboard, the dials and knobs, the stitching on the steering wheel cover, his finger nails, etc. He looked at everything there was to look at but never even stole a glance at the driver he had just bumped. I’m convinced that had he made eye contact with the other driver there would have been a confrontation and a demand for money. As it was, the traffic eventually moved and we all went our own way with no harm done. We decided then that staring aimlessly and avoiding eye contact was an art form we needed to master and employ.

Learning Bangkok driving served as our assertiveness training. Like crossing the street, one of the big rules of driving is that if you intend to do something, do it. Be assertive! Do not hesitate! Whether driving, walking, getting on a bus or waiting at the Post Office, the space you were aiming to occupy will be filled by someone else at the first sign of hesitation. Related to this, there seems to be an unwritten rule that if the nose of your car is the slightest bit ahead of the car beside you, go for it. Keep inching forward and the car beside you will grudgingly give way. They might not like it, but they won’t hit you. Of course, don’t look at them while you do this! Likewise, if a car beside you is even 1 millimeter ahead of yours, grudgingly let them come over. Stay as close as you can without scratching them, but still, let them come. If you feel they are “cutting you off”, it's your own fault. You left them too much space.

Bangkok and Thai driving also require an enhanced awareness of the sides of your car. If it’s to their side, Americans in general, have little sense of how close they can get to a wall or another car. In Thailand though, in parking lots or even moving on the open road, Thai drivers will shoot through gaps where US drivers would dare not go and lane markings serve as mere guidelines. On the average two lane highway in Thailand for example, it is not unusual for say a truck, a pickup truck, a tuk tuk and a motorcycle or two to all simultaneously pass each other side by side, half going one direction and half going the other at 60 mph. No one even flinches. It works as long as no one panics and everyone knows just how much space they really need.  It was half-jokingly told to us that the measure of a good driver in Thailand was that they could judge the sides of their car so well that they could drive between two obstacles peeling the wax off the car, but not touching the paint. I never saw anyone that good but we’ve been with drivers going down alleys so narrow they had to pull their mirrors in to get through.

Need some guidance? Here's a helpful road sign

Another interesting rule of the road was that if there was an accident, however the police were or were
not involved, in Thailand, the party at fault was not necessarily the party that would pay for damages. The rationale, was that whoever had the more expensive car or vehicle obviously had more money. Therefore, since the wealthier person was more likely to have the ability to pay any repair and medical bills, they had the obligation to pay. So, the matter to resolve at any accident site was not who was at fault, but rather, who had more money and how much were they going to pay.

This thinking was a little problematic for us as missionaries. Just by being white, American and having had enough money to fly to Thailand, we were judged to be wealthy and therefore, the first choice to pay for any accidents even if we drove the smaller vehicle. Honestly, we were likely to be wealthier than most, but it was still a policy that made many of us uncomfortable. Fortunately, Marcia and I were never in an accident where a determination was needed about who would pay, though we were involved in some accident negotiations related to colleagues. In Thailand, car ownership and availability of insurance is more widespread now, so this policy may be changing but was prevalent during our Thailand days. I suspect though, the need to drive with paranoid assertiveness remains.