driving in rome

part three
the biggest problems...

when being overtaken -

Be a hero - or more precisely, stick to truth, justice, and The American Way. In other words, don't budge from the middle of your lane. Remember, we're not talking about motorway driving here - The road safety tip we're about to advise does not apply to six-lane carriageways - Obviously we don't mean you're to stay at 40mph in the outside lane of a motorway. No, we're talking about normal two-lane highways here. Let us explain: After nearly three years of observation Romebuddy has concluded that most road accidents in Italy are encouraged by a major design fault in highway construction - THE ROADS ARE TOO WIDE!
Each single carriageway is wide enough so that there is in fact just enough room to overtake the car in front without needing to cross the central white lines into the opposing-direction carriageway. This sounds good in principle, but in practise is of course highly risky when another car coming from the opposite direction is also using this extra space in his lane to overtake.

Although both overtaking cars are still technically on their own sides of the road, they in fact pass each other with only inches to spare, and, given the general sloppiness and recklessness of Italian drivers, they often collide during this manoeuvre, usually at high speed. Deaths are involved. This overtaking technique is also dependent on the car that is being overtaken moving over tight into the kerb to give the overtaker room to get past. Romebuddy has two objections to this - First, highway maintenance is abysmal in and around Rome (and most of Italy in fact). This means the highway edges are usually full of debris (fallen tree-branches, road rubbish, old tyres, rubber pipes, oilcans, cigarette packs, and, because of poor drainage, often large deep puddles as well). Being forced into the edge, obviously you'll hit this stuff or aquaplane on a deep puddle and probably crash that way. Secondly, if the car overtaking you panics about whether he really does have enough room to get by or not, he will cut in in front of you, (they cut in on you anyway, whatever the circumstances, it's normal Italian overtaking etiquette to overtake even if there's hardly room for another car in front of you) forcing you to brake, or move even further to the side. As you're already as far over as you can, you've no place left to go - Another wipeout in the making…
The worst thing of all about this method is that cars will often overtake two-abreast - One is overtaking using the spare outside space in his own lane, the other will be 'conventionally' overtaking on the outside of him, using the opposite (oncoming traffic) lane on the other side of the white line. Obviously this is a major recipe for disaster. If an oncoming car just around the next curve is also overtaking using the single-lane method… Well, it doesn't bear thinking about does it. But it happens here - All the time. Given the width of the roads, the 'triple-overtake' is also sometimes seen; Four cars side by side, a moving wall of high speed steel stretching from one side of the road to the other. Romebuddy suggests prayer.
We also wonder why new roads in Italy continue to be built this way, when designers must surely know that this is how the extra road width will be used; suicidally. Italy is actually quite densely populated, so is this a government conspiracy to keep the population down?
What's the remedy for it? It's as we said - be a hero and don't move over for anyone who wants to pass you in the same lane. You'll know when someone wants to pass you, because they'll flash their lights and honk their horn behind you and generally try to climb into your trunk. But don't give in. Hold your position in the middle of the road and don't move over for them. They won't like it, but tough! If they wanna overtake you they're gonna have to learn to do it properly, which means waiting for a safe space in the oncoming traffic and taking the responsibility of using their own skill and judgement to use the opposite lane to pass in. Overtaking should only ever be at the risk of the overtaker. The Italian method however transposes half the risk onto the one being overtaken. And I for one am not gonna take that rubbish. By refusing to move over you will be helping to save everyone's life, not just your own. But by moving over you become party to the concoction of a dangerous scenario.

traffic-lights at night

The coup de grâce of Roman civic road management is that the city actually TURNS OFF THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS in central Rome after midnight. This is allegedly to save money. (but not lives, we note) so instead of red and green, the traffic lights simply display a flashing amber. To negotiate such a junction, you have to slow down, watch carefully for a gap, and just hope for the best. Some of these junctions are pretty fast and hairy. And if there's an accident, who's to blame? What precisely would the legal position be? Does anybody in Rome care? Astonished? We are.

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