Driving in Ukraine- rules of the road

You never know what you will see driving in Ukraine, yesterday after church Garry got a ride back to the village with some people who wanted to see the farm; I left him at the airport, so I could drive back into Dnepro to help Marina with Summer English Institute testing (there is a pre-test for students to check their level, since the Canadian teachers don't speak Russian, all classes are in English). On the way into the airport a Maserati zigzagged through travel, on the way back out I saw a Mini with a British flag painted on the roof. I wish our Lada had two things fixed- second gear (it pops out of gear) and the gas gauge; which constantly beeps to announce it is empty, when it's not, but you are never sure how much is in there! I had no problems driving although I did have to stop in an intersection at a green light, when an ambulance put on its siren and drove through the other way. On the highway home I passed an old Lada with furniture tied on all over the roof, and sticking out the open trunk, and saw another Lada coming the other way pulling and old trailer with a cow in the back, head down to avoid the wind whizzing past.




The thing about driving in Ukraine is at first glance,  it looks the same as driving in North America, but you quickly learn that some of the rules of the road are not the same. You can only make a right on a red light if it is posted that you can, instead of assuming you can unless there is a sign saying you cannot! There are signs that tell you only marschutkas (vans for passengers) or buses can turn or go straight at some intersections, and cars better go the other way, because you can get a ticket, or at least and interesting conversation with a police officer, who does not understand you any more than you do him. When driving in the city, I am always worried about accidently getting on a one-way street in the wrong direction. Many of the streets are narrow, and sometimes signs are lacking. Check if there are cars parked in both directions.

When approaching an intersection in the city, look for several things. Is there a STOP sign- may be in English- or CTO(think upside down U) in Russian ;  then stop! or yield sign? Or a sign with a yellow diamond shape? The diamond means you are on the main route so have the right of way, the yield means you don't have the right of way. If there is a working stop light, it superceeds this signage, of course, but if the light is flashing yellow, beware! Go back to the previous signage rules, because there is no flashing red light like in the US or Canada to tell you the other side has the right of way, but if you look carefully there will be a yield sign somewhere. We had a couple near misses before figuring this out, while crossing Heroes of Stalingrad,  a main road in Dneproetroesk.

The stop light changes from red to both red and yellow and then to green, so you can get a jump on the light, just remember that it has changed from green in the other direction to yellow at the same time as you got that yellow/red light, so look before hitting the gas. If you are walking across the road at a light, I think that when the green walking man starts to flash, the yellow/red light is up for the cars, so look out too! If there is a light for turning left don't think you can go if there is a regular green for going straight, you can have a nice chat with the police. Don't be surprized if some lights facing you are green, but the one directly in front of you is red, just wait unil that one is green, or you could be in trouble. When making a turn, you may have to wait for the light to cross the rest of the road, because oncoming traffic may be coming across, as their light directs.

Remember it is not really a joke that the most expensive car has the right of way in all traffic situations, look out for black SUV's swerving through traffic to the front of the the line at stop lights, flashing their lights to tell you to get out of the their way because their car is faster and they want/need to pass you. Try to ignore how you'd feel if someone did this at home, and keep alert for the really slow large trucks and old Ladas and Moskevitch's you'll want/need to pass and the speeding black car coming up in the rearview mirror, that you need to stay out of the passing lane for on the four-lane highway (always check the rear-view before changing lanes because some of the fast cars are going 140 km/hour or more, suddenly there is a car whizzing by, that wasn't in the distance when you last checked.) Many of these car will travel with their headlights on during the day, just to let you know they are coming, at night they resort to flashing their highs behind you instead. If a car coming toward you flashes their lights at you, then it is a friendly- the cops are ahead -notification. On the two-lane highway to Crimea in summer, you soon realize there are really three lanes, because both sides will move over the sides for the crazy driver passing in the center of the road where they shouldn't. Defensive driving is the rule of the day, anticipate what could happen next, and make a plan to avoid it!

A sign with  letters that look like this-  YBArA (oovargah) (the bottom of the Y -ike ooo or ew is more curved and lower case R looking guah will be taller) means caution, so keep your eyes peeled for whatever is coming.Road construction may have one, or any number of things, so you may have to slow down. Road repair crews rarely have one, they tend to have  temporary signage and/or some traffic cones,  that are really too close to where they are working for safety.

The police post between our house and Dnepro

Remember the story from last June when he got pulled over when we took the boys to the airport? The police waited in the tiny village which had a village sign that was hidden in the bushes to pull over "speeding" drivers that didn't see the sign. If the village or town has a white name sign you slow down to 50 km/hour, when you see the name of the village with a line through it, you can return to highway speed. Unless you see another village sign, which happens sometimes! If the name of the village is blue you don't have to slow down for it. Watch out for traffic lights and signs hiding behind trees in the summer, most lights are on the side of the road, and the trees are not trimmed much, if at all.

The police have some new rules since last year, they are only allowed to pull people over if they are at a police post, or have signage up- look for a small blue sign with a cyrillic D- it looks a lot like a giant fancy A, HA in white letters, or they have flashing lights turned on a police car. They will wave their baton at the driver they want to pull over, sometimes it is hard to tell if it is you when there is a lot of traffic on the road. Most of the time it is not because you did something wrong, but for a document check. Garry got pulled over on a curve in the highway (next to two cows staked out in the grass) where they liked to set up shop in the old hide and get them near a no passing zone, or speed zone days. This policeman remembered Garry from when he pulled him over last year, so we were on our way quickly. He was the one who got Garry to get out of the car, when he saw how tall he was on his Canadian licence to see if he was really taller than him.