Driving in Chad is most definitely an experience and adds to
the fun of living here! In order to be
adept at driving in Chad you need the following aptitudes:
- 360-degree vision
- 100% alertness at all times so that you can
expect the unexpected
- High anticipation of the (sometimes strange)
manoeuvres that everyone else around you is about to do
- Quick hand reflex to sound the car’s horn
- Previous 4x4 off-roading experience desirable
(but not essential)
- A good sense of direction (alternatively, access
to GPS)
Chad, like many countries around the world (except my passport country and a fair few others) drives on the right. So the first thing I had to get used to was driving while sitting on the left and having the gear stick on the right. Well, that and also remembering to drive on the right!
Chad does have rules of the road. I’m not totally sure whether they’re written
down, I guess they must be, but there are also many ‘unwritten rules’ that you
just learn about as you go.
In N’Djamena, the capital, the few main tarred roads are
theoretically mostly dual carriageways.
However, the unwritten rule is that the lane on the right is for
motorbikes (motos), car/minivan taxis (the latter frequently stop to add or
drop off passengers) and the lane on the left is for regular cars and bigger
vehicles. Unless the bigger vehicles are s-l-o-w like fuel tankers or heavily-laden lorries. Then they are ‘urged’, by the sounding of horns
of vehicles following them, to move over.
I mainly stick to the left-side of the dual carriageway to avoid motos
and the start-stopping taxis. Unless
there’s a fast moving, often military, pickup tailgating me. Then I’ll politely move over to the
right. Well, I am British after all 😉
Plus I’d rather the guys with guns are ahead of me!
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| Perfect example of moto on the right, bigger vehicles, including the one I'm driving, on the left |
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| This road is actually only a single lane each side. But, you know, there's always room for a third lane down the middle |
N’Djamena boasts three flyovers (over-passes for my American
readers). All of them are over
roundabouts. The rule is that motos
aren’t allowed on the flyovers, only cars are.
The motos have to go down to the roundabout and up the other side. So that frees up some space! It’s timely that I add in here that there are
more motos than cars here in Chad. They
are far more affordable, and you can still fit a family of four on it. Or yourself and two adult friends. Who needs a car when a moto will do at a
fraction of the cost?
Next we need to talk about roundabouts. Ahhhh, roundabouts. Chad loves a good roundabout and they like
making features of them by building a small monument on them, or a piece of
abstract art. Many of them are used as
landmarks when giving directions. Most
of them have two names, the official one and the colloquial one. Chad has a strange, antiquated rule when it
comes to driving around roundabouts and it’s one that takes some getting used
to. When driving up to a roundabout in
Chad you have right of way and can drive straight onto the roundabout. If there’s already a vehicle going around the
roundabout, it must stop to let you enter.
That said, the rule never seems to apply to motos, and they rarely stop
on the roundabout to let a car enter! I
guess they’re small enough to sneak through on the inside.
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| Here we are, entering a roundabout. Note the ladies on the moto and the car patiently (ish) waiting. Also note the decorative roundabout, with not-anatomically-correct hands holding a globe. What you can't see is that the globe contains a map of the outline of Africa, with Chad painted, very large and not to scale, in the middle |
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| Entering another roundabout. This one is colloquially called the spitting cow roundabout, cos those are cows heads on the building on the roundabout. Sometimes they turn the water on and water comes out their mouths. Hence the name! Note the terrible car driver who is not giving way to me entering the roundabout. Tut tut. |
Next we need to cover junctions. They exist in theory, but in practice, people
rarely stop at them. I can be driving on
the main road and there can be a feeder road on my left, for example. In most countries, the vehicle entering the
main road from the side road gives way to me and enters the main road once I’ve
gone past. This rarely happens in Chad. They drive straight out of the junction and
instead of coming across in front of me, they slowly drive up the wrong side of
the road for a while, dodging any oncoming traffic, until they can safely
cruise over to the correct, right-hand side of the road. It’s motos that perform this manoeuvre most
often but sometimes cars do it too. If
you’re a wary foreigner like me, and you’re coming out of a side street,
wanting to turn left and you’re waiting until the traffic on the main road is
clear, this will cause fellow road users behind some angst. No need to wait! They’ll pull up beside me and then pull out
at the same time as me, creating a temporary two-lane system until we’re both
on the main road.
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| Here I am approaching a main road from a smaller road. I, and the car in front (using an indicator, rare occurrence) want to turn left. So does the silver Hilux approaching from the main road. A nice web of cars, but it all works out in the end |
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| Car in front cuts across to the left, I wait for the Hilux and the next car to turn in left from the main road, before I reach the main road and dart across to the left before more cars appear |
There are accidents in Chad.
But far fewer than I’d imagine given some of the unofficial rules. I guess most people are aware of them and so
it’s not an issue. That helps. As does the fact that people drive pretty
slowly.
So there we have it, a little overview of driving practices
in Chad. Anyone want to come over and
try it out?!
Disclaimer: I wasn’t taking these photos while driving, my
wonderful friend and colleague Debbie did, from the passenger’s seat. So all photo credits to Debbie 😊
Thanks Debbie for being my official photographer for this blog post!
