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No advice about travel would be complete without mentioning the traffic in Addis. The vast majority of vehicles in Addis consist of 3 types: blue cabs, blue minibuses, and huge yellow and orange public buses. Very infrequently do any of these types of transportation have seatbelts.
Horn-honking is an integral part of driving in Addis. There are as many lanes in the road as will fit cars at any given moment. Minibuses stop anywhere, helter-skelter, causing drivers to detour around them. Then other drivers to detour around THEM, with horn-honking being the accepted way to say, ‘I’m coming through.’
Cars always seemed to be jockeying for positions on the road, and driving fender-to-fender is the norm. Merging and left turns into traffic are accomplished by slowly edging the nose of the vehicle further and further forward into the stream of traffic until someone, rather than swerving around you, takes pity and lets your vehicle in.
A left turn across 4 lanes of traffic means pausing at each lane until someone decides to let you across. Very few stoplights are in evidence, and the ones I did see had no noticeable effect on the surrounding traffic.
As if that isn’t enough confusion, pedestrians swarm everywhere. Always, day or night, on every major road, many people walk. Not only on the sidewalks but often right in the road. Some herd goats and donkeys.
Cows graze free on the sides of the road. And of course beggars, young and old, are everywhere, walking around the van at intersections, reaching hands up imploringly at windows, either empty, or holding out Kleenex or cheap sunglasses they hope to sell you.
Some roads have medians, enclosed by various types of fencing, wrought iron and barbed wire being favorites. People walk in the middle of the road right next to the medians. With the ever-shifting numbers of lanes in the road, they do so at their own risk.
In Addis the pedestrian definitely does NOT have the right-of-way. Several times I saw people actually have to twist sideways, sucking in their stomachs to not be hit by a rearview mirror as a car zoomed past inches from their bodies.
One person who drove for us said they had clipped people a time or two with a mirror. “They always look so surprised that I’ve hit them. But when I have a big bus swerving toward me on the other side, it’s not too hard a decision which way I need to swerve.”
Driving in Addis. Do ya like roller coasters? You’ll do fine there.
