Unlike people in most Canadian cities, Montrealers don’t take being able to cross the street for granted. For our own sake, we always assume that an oncoming car will not stop, so we calculate our trajectory accordingly when we attempt the seemingly simple task of getting from one side of the road to the other. This applies to jaywalking, of course, but also to crosswalks: the only cars that ever stop at zebra crossings have Ontario licence plates.
That gives us something in common with Bangkok, where pedestrians hold no illusions about being very high in the transportation pecking order. With roads clogged by a mind-boggling number of cars, trucks, buses, taxis, tuk-tuks and motorcycles (there are 50,000 death-defying motorcycle taxis alone), all of them moving very fast, pedestrians have a lot of adversaries to deal with when crossing the street.
Since there are so few breaks in traffic, the procedure is usually to step off the sidewalk as soon as the nearest lane is clear, then wait on the lane divider for the next lane to clear, and so on. Meanwhile, as you wait in the middle of the road, traffic will engulf you, so you’d better watch your step if you enjoy having intact bones in your feet. The scooters and motorcycles are what make this endeavour so complicated: they seem to come out of nowhere and always at top speed.
As long as you’re alert and you have good nerves, it’s easy to get used to it, and whenever you leave Bangkok you’ll be amazed at how calm the traffic is in other cities. But, as the opening scene in the great Thai thriller 13 Beloved so effectively indicates, when you cross the street in Bangkok, there’s very little standing between you and certain death…
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4 comments
At 22 when I arrived here, I considered Montreal’s street mayhem a sign of urban sophistication, and I still get a great deal of joy when crossing the street anywhere, even in front of a cop car, with nothing bad happening — no accident, no ticket, just a walk across the street.
Apparently, we’re getting tickets now, which I find a shame… I prefer societies with official rules that are happily ignored by everyone since they’re more of a nuisance than anything else (as compared to places where social responsibility — everyone doing good — is what keeps things so nice, where it’s much easier to condemn others for not being quite as “good” as you). That said, when I’m in Vancouver, I happily wait on the corner with everyone else watching the little hand flash.
being just out of phnom penh in cambodia, i can say that jaywalking in montreal can definitely be done blindfolded ;)
I guess I won’t be going to bangkok anytime soon… wow… but then again… I’m sure it would be no different than trying to cross the street in Los Angeles…
I can’t deny that you have very good idea. By the way, from my experience of Bangkok trip. I think that looking for accommodation around Sukhumvit are is the good idea because Sukhunvit is in the heart of the shopping district, both in terms of large department stores and the various stalls lining both sides of the road. The various side-streets provide a proliferation of nightlife venues. For the renowned and well-known spots, you will need to walk onwards past the Asok crossroads to Sukhumvit Soi 21 or Soi Cowboy. This area also offers a wide selection of cuisine to choose from, both in terms of air-conditioned high-end restaurants and open air restaurants offering quite reasonable prices.