doprava a jeji "system" / traffic and its "system"

Dlouho jsem zvazoval o cem bude muj dalsi prispevek, protoze se toho tady v poslednich dnech az tak moc nedeje, a rozhodl se popsat jednu z mala velkych odlisnosti, ktere tady na me cihaji.

Uvozovky v nadpisu jsou zcela zamerne. Pokud jste nekdy slyseli o Italii a pravu rychlejsiho pri projizdeni krizovatek, pak tady je tento system doveden do jeste vetsi dokonalosti. Vzhledem k tomu, ze temer vsechna mesta maji pravouhly system ulic (aby mohli urcovat adresy podle svetovych stran), drtiva vetsina krizovatek je tvorena 4 ulicemi – jeden smer je urcen jako hlavni a ze zbylych stran jsou stopky. V pripade, ze krizovatka je na dulezitem miste (nebo mnozstvi projizdejicich aut prevysuje bezny provoz), pridaji se do toho vseho semafory. Nyni prichazi ono slavne “ale” – nikdo a nic vam nebrani projet krizovatkou, kdyz mate cervenou: pokutu za to nedostanete, ostatni ridici jsou na to vicemene pripraveni a i policejni auto me prekvapilo projetim cerveneho svetla. Problemem je temer neexistence prechodu pro chodce takze i bezna prochazka po meste se stava adrenalinovym sportem 🙂 Jako prevenci pred silenymi ridici a taxikari (kterych je tady mimochodem jak nasr.. tedy velmi mnoho) pousti jedna z mistnich televizi porad o nejhorsich bourackach, jejich podrobnou analyzu, priciny, rozhovory se zachranari a zabery na zbytky tel pod plachtami. Kazdy vecer, pul hodiny. Mam pocit, ze tohle by pres nasi RRTV neproslo..

Co se tyka vozoveho parku, kazdy den jsem ohromovan mnozstvim offroadu a obrovskych kamionu krizujicim silnice. Neni se co divit, cesty tady stoji za starou backoru a kazdy pruvodce na to upozornuje. V drtive vetsine jsou v prevaze vozy japonske (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) nebo korejske (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong) vyroby, z evropskych znacek semtam Fiat nebo Renault (ale ty jsou beztak taky nekde z Asie 🙂 Kamiony tady nemaji unifikovany evropsky vzhled, ale poradne robustni ‘chlapskou’ vizaz, MACK a Freightliner jsou nejcastejsi. Prumerne stari osobnich aut bych tipoval tak nekde kolem desiti let (coz je hodne dobre, v CZ je to kolem 17..), kamiony kolem patnacti. Zato autobusy, to je bida. Pocitam, ze tady se autobus stava vyrazenym az se na ceste rozpadne za jizdy, nektere z nich mozna zazily druhou svetovou..

MHD tady taky neznaji, v podstate tady fungujou pouze mezimestske linky, kde se plati predem stanovena suma pri kazdem nastupu, nezavisle na vzdalenosti, kterou pojedete. Cestovani je pomerne levne, za 30 minut cesty zaplatite priblizne 7 CZK. Jenze, neni pulhodina jako pulhodina. Linky funguji tak, ze vsechny zastavky jsou na znameni (provazek nad okny nebo tlacitko nahore) a to i tam, kde zadny oznacnik zastavky neni. Zvenku proste staci zamavat na autobus a on zastavi, vetsinou. To pak bohuzel vede k tomu, ze autobus stoji kazdych 30 metru, nastesti jenom v obydlenych castech linek.. V San Jose k tomu ‘pro zmateni nepritele’ pridali fakt, ze autobusy do ruznych mest vyjizdeji z ruznych mist, vzdalenych treba i nekolik bloku..

Na druhou stranu, cestovani tady je sranda – ridic stiha odbavovat cestujici, komunikovat vysilackou s dispecinkem, ladit radio a jeste si povidat s matkou a jejim ditetem, kteri sedi hned za nim. Uz jsem slysel vyrok, ze ma v podstate dvoji zamestnani – rizeni autobusu a DJ 🙂

A na zaver jeste neco k taxikarum. Zatim jsem nezazil neprijemnou zkusenost. Sice se snazi nalakat lidi na predem smluvenou castku bez taxametru, ale o te se da smlouvat, takze to v konecnem dusledku vyjde nekdy i levneji. Nejspise jsou radi za kazdeho zakaznika/cestujiciho, asi jako ti autobusaci, kteri zastavi uplne vsude..

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For a long time I was thinking about the next topic, because actually not a lot of things happened during the last days, and then I decided to describe one of not-so-many big differences that have been awaiting here for me.

The quotation marks in the headline are purely intentional. If you ever heard stories about Italy and the right of the faster when being at the road crossing, here this system has been advanced to a new level. All cities have rectangular blocks of houses (so that they can give directions) and so that a vast majority of road crossing is composed of 4 roads – one route is set as the major and from the other roads there are stop signs. In case that the crossing is in an important place (or the traffic density is higher than usual) traffic lights are added. And now the famous “but” – nobody and nothing restrains you from driving through red lights: you will not be fined, other drivers are more or less prepared and I was even surprised by a police car by passing on red. The problem is almost inexistence of pedestrian crossing which turns an usual walk in the city into an adrenaline sport 🙂 As a prevention for people behind the wheel, especially crazy taxi drivers (by the way – there are sooo many of them) one of local TV channels is broadcasting shots about the worst accidents, their analysis, causes, interviews with rescuers and also shots on the bodies lying on the road and being covered. Every day, half an hour. I don’t think this would be possible in our TV channels..

Concerning the cars itself, every day I’m amazed by the amount of offroad cars and giant trucks cruising the streets. No wonder, you just need them on these roads, every guide warns about this fact. A majority of cars have its roots in Japan (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) or Korea (Hyundai, Daewoo/Chevrolet, SsangYong), from european marks only some Fiat or Renault (but they are most probably from Asia as well 🙂 The trucks don’t have this unified european look, but a robust ‘manly’ visage, MACK and Freightliner being most usual. Average age of passenger cars could be around 10 years (which is quite good, in CZ it’s around 17..), trucks around 15. But the buses, that’s a different world. I think the bus gets displaced only after it falls to pieces on the road, maybe some of them even could tell us something about WWII..

Local transportation is different as well, in fact there almost only lines between cities (not inside them) where you pay a set price every time you enter the bus, independently on the length of journey that you go. The travelling here is quite cheap, for half-an-hour ride you pay around 0.2 USD. But 30 minut is not the same everywhere. The lines here have only bus stop on signal (a string above the windows or a button in the roof, both producing a sound), even at the places without specified ‘bus stop’ sign. When waiting for the bus you just have to wave and the bus stops, usually. But this leads to the fact that a bus stops every 30 metres, luckily only in places with settlement.. In San Jose another ‘tourist trap’ is added – bus to different places depart from different places, sometimes several blocks away..

On the other hand, travelling here is sometimes fun – the driver is able to dela with passengers, communicate with dispatching center over the transmitter, tune the radio and talk to the mother with a child behind him, everything together. I even heard a saying that a driver should get double salary – for driving a bus and being a DJ 🙂

And at the end a small word about taxi service. I don’t have any negative experience yet and I have already been driven more times than during those years in CZ. They are sometimes trying to attract people to a ride without a taxametre, but you can bargain about the price and sometimes it gets even cheaper. They are probably glad for every customer/passenger, as the bus drivers that are willing to stop anywhere..