Georgian Drivers

Georgian drivers are the scariest thing ever. When TLG first told us that we weren’t allowed to drive while we were here, I was a little bummed, but now I realize that I wouldn’t even want to try it. The worst one I’ve seen so far was actually employed by TLG, oddly enough, and picked me up from the airport. Maybe they do that purposefully so as to scare potential drivers off right from the start. 

The roads are marked just like ours, there are solid or dotted white lines separating the lanes, but they mean absolutely nothing. People here regularly drive with two tires in each lane. They’re not just slowly changing lanes, they just don’t care that the markings are there. It also isn’t rare for three cars to pass side by side in a two lane space. 

My host father is all about this one. We went to a market in Samtredia today and he would move to go around a car right in front of oncoming traffic. He was spanning the lanes just inches from the other two vehicles as the car passed in the other direction. 

As you can probably guess, being a pedestrian around Georgian drivers is about the most frightening experience in the entire world. It isn’t like Virginia Beach where, if you’ve been waiting to cross the road for a while, you can just walk into the crosswalk when the closest lane is clean and the rest of traffic will eventually stop for you. There is no stopping in Georgia. The pedestrian does not have the right of way and if you get caught in the middle of the road and people find themselves having to stop for you, they honk and curse like you just ruined their entire day.