Tehran Traffic

I visited my folks in Tehran, Iran 30 years ago. When I told friends about the traffic there I know they thought I was making up stories about how crazy it was. Now YouTube comes to the rescue. I ran across this video today and all I can say is wow! The only real rules they follow are the traffic lights which are not visible on the video.



I also found this description of the Tehran traffic:

As I have previously commented Tehran traffic works - but I’m unsure how. …

One of the problems is that there seems to be no concept of “lane keeping”. People turn right from the inner lane, swinging across moving traffic by dint of simply turning across someones bow and hoping they will stop and give way. The same applies to turning left - simply cut across from whatever lane you are in. Three lanes? Forget it, theres room for five abreast. Traffic circles are a case of Formula One - whoever gets into the intersection first just keeps going, accelerating if necessary to cut across any traffic approaching from the left. The other problem is the concept of giving way to anyone or anything. Intersections are nightmare country as you simply aim for any gap in the cross traffic and force your way across. Pedestrians have a strong Kamikaze streak and simply wade out into the traffic stream weaving and dodging their way between cars, buses, trucks and juggernauts.