Traffic

In Londrina, people drive fast but not because they’re in a hurry. Cars don’t follow the traffic laws, yet they all still seem to be on the same page with one another. Public transportation makes it easy and affordable to get wherever you need to be, but sometimes it takes more than an hour to travel about five miles. Motorcyclists are crazy, but nearly all of them wear helmets. Stop signs are treated as suggestions -- sometimes interpreted by drivers as “do not change speed,” other times interpreted as “speed up” -- while speed bumps offer convincing reasons to decrease velocity. Taxis are expensive, but it’s better to pay someone than to be robbed. Drivers consciously avoid potholes and other cars, but pedestrians have to be careful. I can’t think of a great word to describe this traffic, so I’ll just mention ‘hectic” and let the reader decide for him or herself.

I don’t know if there are more or less serious traffic accidents in Brazil than in the States, but in my first weeks I would enter cars with the feeling that crashing was a serious possibility. Since then, I’ve become more comfortable with the fact that the lane lines on the road seem to be ignored, and that some drivers change lanes without looking or signaling. I think that they think that any potential collision mate is and ought to be on the lookout for such occasions. A few days ago a technologically distracted driver in front and to the right of us made a blind lane change, almost crashing into us. My host father hit the breaks and sighed, nonchalantly saying, “Falando por celular.” I would bed his heart rate went up at least a little (mine did), but on the outside he remained completely relaxed, almost uninterested. Close calls happen all the time, although it seems people never honk their horns.

“Driving” is included in the four big no-nos of Rotary Youth Exchange. I don’t intend to break that rule, but if I did I would first have to learn how to operate a stick shift because that’s what most people in Londrina own. In the beginning of my exchange I felt like a nuisance asking for rides, and at times I had to summon up courage in order to do so. It wasn’t because my host parents gave discouraging looks when I asked for rides, but rather, because they never said no. I never knew if it bothered them or not. I’d had a car to drive since I was sixteen, so the feeling of needing to be chauffeured around all the time was uncomfortable. That was part of the reason I didn’t join the weight room at the sports club; getting to and from AREL every day seemed like an onerous task. I don’t remember exactly when -- I think after being in Londrina for over a month -- I asked my host dad if there was a bus schedule that I could look at or if he could just show me how to use the bus. He said yes, but he never said when this was to happen.

After more than a month of not-happening, my desire to leave the house overcame my desire to not be a nuisance, so I joined the gym and started asking for rides to the sports club almost every day of the week. I don’t think going to the club was ever a problem, because my parents leave the house in the afternoon anyway. It was coming back that required a special trip. A few days of playing the taxi who works for free caused my host dad to tell me it was time to learn how to use the bus. (I like to think of it as my personal transformation from a stop sign to a speed bump.) My host parents were nice enough to buy me a bus card, but now I have to take the much slower bus home from the sports club. By car, the trip is about 15 minutes. By bus, it’s more than an hour. And I was just getting used to my new lack of independence.

One time I saw a lady fall off her motorcycle. My favorite primary source told me that there is about one motorcycle accident each day in Londrina. When I asked why, he said because the cyclists don’t know how to ride. Well then how did they get their motorcycles in the first place? The response: there is a deal where a person can buy, not lease, a motorcycle for about 100 reais per month for 20 months, the equivalent of about 1,200 dollars, and the sellers will sell to anybody. The deal is appealing because most people with a job can afford it, and it’s faster and more convenient than taking the bus. It’s unappealing because it’s dangerous. The motorcyclists that I’ve seen really are reckless, and lots of them are ill-trained and unlicensed. The driving age is eighteen for motorcycles and cars, but there is a sixteen year-old boy in my class who told me that he drives a motorcycle. My host dad told me that because of there are not enough police in Londrina, it’s difficult to catch people riding illegally -- in two senses of the word: weaving through traffic at high speeds and operating without documentation.

It's easy to argue that one shouldn't drive recklessly, but here's some evidence. On the 22nd of October, I spoke with a distressed Brazilian woman who experienced some culture shock after returning to Brazil from America and seeing a bloody, dead man on the streets of Londrina. He had been struck by a car.

I have a love-hate relationship with taxis. Here are the positives about calling a taxi: I get a discount because I’m an exchange student, and I’m fairly certain that, to begin with, taxis here are less expensive than in America; I don’t have to bother my host parents up at 4:00 am; and its safer than walking alone in the dark. I have an Australian friend who has been mugged three times here. Here is the negative: even though I get a discount, it’s still counterintuitive for me to dish out that kind of cash. After all, I am currently unemployed. Normally, I’ve had to pay between 10 and 20 reais, 7 to 14 dollars, per trip. I don’t recall ever having my teeth pulled as a child, but I would imagine that it’s like paying for a taxi.

Big city Brazilian transportation is indeed different from what I’m used to. I have my likes and dislikes. I’m still adjusting to some things, but overall the process has not been stressful.

I still intend to finish what I started with this “Differences Series,” but of course I won’t be able to do it in a trilogy like I said earlier. Right now I'm just gonna see where the flow takes me. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.