Differences France/Russia (Part 2)

Roads, drivers, driver license, accidents, and the police

Roads

In France, a part of the high taxes we pay to the government is used to keep roads and highways in a good shape: in order to use them, we still have to pay for them at their entrance.

In Russia, roads are just terrible; corruption is the biggest reason: budgets are huge, but just a part is used for the reconstruction - the rest disappears. Therefore, technology is old-fashioned and not adapted for the climate, the material is cheap, and only parts of the asphalt are redone every year, while all of it is needed because of the temperature range in winter.

Drivers and their driver license

I don’t want to give you the wrong statistics, but looking at Russian drivers, I guess that most of them got it as a B-Day present. They don’t respect nor care about the Highway Code and pedestrians and drive very fast in the city. Comparing to Europe, there are much less signs on the streets and rarely lines are drawn on the road. On the other hand, drivers in Russia have to put their lights on the whole day long.

When driving in France, Russians laugh about us: “so many road signs by you that it is impossible to drive normally – you keep reading and don’t look at the road anymore!”

Another typical “joke”: once, I asked why 2 parallel continuous lines are often drawn on the ground; the answer is unique: “1 continuous line – you shouldn’t pass a car, but you can, whereas 2 continuous lines together: you definitely shouldn’t and you don’t!”

Most Russians bought their driver license - it’s a fact, and they aren’t even hiding it; they talk about it openly, as if they bought a piece of bread the day before, comparing the price they paid and their experiences. Nowadays, the government tries to decrease this process, but still mostly closes its eyes on it; however, it’s very strict for foreigners: controls, higher fines, and need to pass your license again in Russia if you’ve already got an immigration card.

In other countries (Asia, South America, Africa), they also usually didn’t get officially a license before driving. In India, for example, foreigners often don’t understand how people drive, as they honk all the time; but they anticipate what will do another driver that way and signalize therefore their presence – it is not because they are angry. I heard once on the radio that when comparing the traffic in Delhi and in St Petersburg, a traffic jam could be closed in 15-30 minutes by Indian drivers, while the same could lead to a couple days stuck in Russia.

Russians have more luxury cars than I have ever seen in my entire life, but they can only drive a maximum of 90 kms per hour, even in the countryside – a contradiction or a strategy? You need a good car to drive outside of town – a weak car would hardly handle the state of the streets. You want to go faster with it, but can’t because of the national speed limit. On the other hand, politics know you will (with such cars, drivers usually can afford to pay fines and still have fun driving fast); policemen then give more fines and make more money for themselves and the government.

Why such a speed limit? The justification is that roads are so bad that it would be dangerous to go quicker. But roads happen to be good sometimes, and looking at the distances between cities and how much people drive – it’s not logical to go so slow.

Accidents

I rarely saw Russian people going crazy after getting in an accident. I was once with friends stuck in the traffic jam. And coming from nowhere, a car slowly bumped into us. Nothing terrible, but I was shocked - my first accident, and yelled: “Ah! What are we going to do?! Call the police! No, ask for help!”

Our driver, talking on the phone, said: “oh! If it doesn’t bother you, I’ll call you a bit later, bye.” She left the car serenely, went to talk to the person who made the accident and after 15 min, I got crazier: “Jeez! Are they going to get a cup of tea, or what?”

Well, that shows you a bit more of the mentality, the temperament and even the philosophy of life of Europeans towards Russians. I don’t think I’d have been the only European reacting that way. Hope so! Russians are just somehow fatalist and take more life as it comes. They are more patient and in this case, the driver told me: “Nothing terrible – we’ll wait for the cops. It can take a couple hours, maybe a ½ day. Nobody is hurt, just a problem with the car – it’s material, what can we do about this situation right now ? Nothing, so - relax.”

You can guess my feeling after I heard about the “couple hours or ½ day waiting for the police.” They luckily came quickly (thank God! It was summer and very hot that day!), but we waited a lot until the policeman drew (!) the accident. It also got on my nerves: “God! Can’t he just take pictures? Is he an artist or a painter to draw for so long?! Maybe I should go there and draw it for him – it would take less time!”

And it’s true that in all small and big accidents happening in front of my eyes, I rarely saw a Russian yelling at the other one. In these cases, I keep thinking of my grandfather who would have constantly gone out of the car, ready to kick the butt of the supposed culprit.

Now, let’s talk deeper about Russian corruption and policemen.

Policemen dealing with the traffic

Like in many other countries, the police and corruption are very connected. Everybody knows about it, but can’t do anything against it: hard to prove something.

We drove a lot with my ex. When you have a nice car, you surely have more chances to be arrested and pay fines, than when you drive a Lada. Not because you drive faster or don’t respect the code, but because it’s a sign of having money; and as policemen dealing with the traffic have a small salary, they make a little extra on the side that way.

One day, we left for Yekaterinburg (about 400 kms from Perm); I was always very careful that my boyfriend would not go too fast, despite less traffic at night. As a norm, we got a couple of fines (a lot less expensive in the provinces) even if we didn’t do anything wrong. On the way back, we got a couple of more fines. Once, my boyfriend got into the same policeman than the day before. The policeman looked at him and at his passport: “oh! I can remember you! Such an uncommon name! How are you doing?” They talked like old friends for a couple minutes and we got another fine anyway.
Why are the Russians paying all the time?

At first, they don’t want to have any more problems in life; secondly, they don’t want to worry for what they judge “little things.” Thirdly, if they don’t pay the fine right away, the fine will get bigger or go to court. Finally, if you are protesting, the policeman can make up anything and take your license plate off (for you not to drive until you pay) or worse, take your license away.

Some regions are well-known for policemen working with fake camera-rolls, making fake pictures, taking licenses away, and getting money from you. We also had this kind of experience, but the police lost: end of our long trip, no money left and still far away from our home in Perm; but it was a couple of hours of patience, stress and tears.

Russians are used to these procedures and have a famous joke about it: “While driving home, a man is stopped by the police, accusing him to go too fast. The man disagrees: “I swear I drove 90kms/h.!” and the policeman answered: “I have a wife and 3 kids – do you think I will wait for you to do something wrong to give you a fine?”

That is only a joke, but very close to reality.

Nevertheless, new technologies are emerging and help to fight against this fraud: radar detectors, cameras on the windscreen. If you add a GPS, a couple administrative stickers and some things hanging on the rear-view mirror – people won’t be able to drive properly (or worse)!