World's Worst Drivers
There is absolutely no contest -- the worst drivers in the world are
Nigerians. They even joke about it:
"A Nigerian drives with one foot and one hand -- one foot on the
accelerator and one hand on the
horn!"
The roads in Nigeria are generally bad, built by corrupt contractors
who have cut corners on
materials and cheated on specs. Nigerian "highways" are generally
two-lane undivided roads where, at
any moment, you can encounter the mother of all potholes, a herd of
livestock, an intercity taxi coming
at you in your lane at top speed in order to overtake a truck, or a
swarm of people running all over the
road because there is 1) an accident, 2) a small hamlet, 3) a
roadside market and so forth. Goats,
dogs, chickens, and cows can dart into the road unexpectedly and if
you hit one, you buy it -- for much
more than it is worth. And the roads are used by pedestrians,
bicyclists and riders of small motorcycles
-- all of whom think they own the road. Nigerians have no driving
etiquette or training and anything
goes -- especially cars that have not been properly maintained and
are driven too fast with no
anticipation of possible consequences of this speed and lack of safety.
Driving in a Nigerian city is particularly challenging. Never mind
the crowds of people and the number of
cars -- if you have more than ten cars, there is probably a traffic
jam (in Nigerian it is called a "Go Slow"
and it is part of a driver's life). The problem is that a Nigerian
driver does not feel responsible for cars
to his side or behind him. With "blinders" on, the driver is only
responsible for the space directly in
front and if that space is not occupied one can go for it. This
leads to situations where cars get backed up in all directions
because two cars from different directions have moved forward into
the same space (like
an intersection) and cannot proceed. One of them has to back up for
the other to get by, and even if
willing, is now unable to do so because the driver behind -- seeing a
free space in front -- has moved
forward. Frustrated drivers don't like being blocked like this and
will drive up on the sidewalks to get
around; but in no time the sidewalks are also blocked. The Go Slow
can be a driving nightmare and it
once took me four hours to make a 7-mile round trip in the city of
Port Harcourt.
I have traveled to 36 countries in the world and driven in most of
them. Trust me, Nigeria has the
worst drivers, by far.
Washington, DC
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