For Pete's sake
"Roads
were not invented for cars." I've
often pondered those words, but never so intently as when waiting by the side
of the road in St Petersburg, during a 60th birthday visit to that spectacular
city.
St
Petersburg might be famed for many things :
golden-domed churches, priceless art collections, the Hermitage. But it is not famed for courteous
motorists.
I'm
guessing, but it must surely be the case
that there are more pedestrians in the city than cars. But there is no comfort in
numbers when another battalion (perhaps that should be panzergruppe) of Bavarian driving machines come barrelling along,
reckless as to the plight of poor
pedestrians trying to scramble across the road.
Forget
the old Soviet images of smoky, dented Trabants backfiring in grey
streets. St Petersburg is now vibrating
to a decidedly Western ethos of bulky 4x4s, driven by confident young men and
women in suits and sunglasses.
We
learned quickly of the unwritten rule : cars (in this case, it seemed to be
mainly black BMWs) can do what they like, oblivious to the presence of anyone
too stupid or poor not to be in a vehicle of their own.
I lost
count of the times that we waited obediently for the pedestrian green light,
only to be nearly run over by a driver jumping red, and usually talking into a
mobile at the same time. They seemed
more callous than indifferent to the plight of the car-less, and gave not a glance as they squealed past.
The
wonder is why pedestrians meekly put up with all if this. Have no lessons been
learned since the down-trodden overthrew the aristos nearly 100 years ago?
Labels: 4x4s, roads, St Petersburg
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