Driving Ramadan

Today I had both the worst and the best driving experience in Amman ever.

Compared to previous years I have the feeling that Amman's traffic has become really bad this year - there is hardly a time of day where you can get from one part of the city to another – even over short distances – without ending up in a traffic jam. And although I always urge myself to calm, nowadays it's becoming harder and harder to keep from getting really quite annoyed at coming to a halt at the end of a long queue, crawling up tightly packed streets and coughing from the exhaust fumes.

Today, this reached a climax. Throughout the day, as I ran from one meeting to another, I got increasingly late in my schedule because I still miscalculate how long it takes to get from A to B in Amman's crowded streets. After another meeting in which I again had to make another skeptical NGO bureaucrat understand that he'll have to pay for our recycling pick-up service because we have costs to cover and we're not a charity, I got into my car and headed home. Two thirds of the way there, I drove down into a tunnel under a major roundabout – usually the "fast way" to move – and there it was: both lanes packed, cars standing, honking impatiently at the bottom of the tunnel and of course... I was already driving down, so there was no way out. Aaaarrrrrggghhh!!!
"Relax!" I told myself, "turn on your mp3 thing, listen to a radio podcast... some education, NPR, it's allright."
Trying to calm down, I remembered how a year ago heading toward lines of standing cars was a cause of real joy for me - but my mode of transport was rather different back then: I was riding a bicycle. So the joy was to let go of the handle bar just before cycling swiftly and elegantly right through the middle of two rows of standing cars, preferably with hands behind the head, as if taking a sun bath on a lonely beach.

At that time I had only few meetings and plenty of time - I was working for an embassy. I used to take off my formal shirt before getting on the bike, cycle around in a wifebeater and, once I arrived at the destination soaked in sweat, sit for five minutes to dry off a bit, put my shirt back on and go into the meeting. Nowadays I often have five meetings a day in different parts of town, I usually leave myself no time to get from one to the other and I often run late. But the more important difference to last year: now I have a company car... So I've become lazy and dependent on my fast, little, Chinese "Great Wall", although its air-conditioning takes so much power off the engine that I have to use 1st gear even on the slightest of slopes. For that and the obvious environmental reasons, I don't use air-conditioning and despite natural window-ventilation I usually arrive to meetings sweaty.

So today, sitting half way down that tunnel under the roundabout in my silver rice bowl (that's what my brother always calls little Asian cars), which had heated up nicely after a 2-hour sunbath, staring at the line of cars ahead, hoping in vain for a fresh breeze and trying - also in vain - to contain the waves of #ZX*rrrrrrEfY£#* boiling up inside me, I pondered if I should start cycling again...
"Screw all this" I thought. "I'll probably be faster getting to most meetings on my bike... plus the exercise, the awareness factor (-YES, CYCLING IS AN OPTION!-) and the easy parking."

And just as I'm imagining coming home to clean and repair my bike, to get it ready for a radical "from today till tomorrow" change in mobility, I notice, myself standing in the left lane, cars moving on the far right and my driver's brain immediately commands: take the right lane! And then I see it: as the tunnel goes up again, there is an exit to the right, leading to a street below. I hastily squeeze myself through some cars in the right lane, waving with my hands and shouting at people and YES! - I made it and I'm moving... past angrily waiting drivers - HAHA! The exit is basically a sharp 90º curve downwards and while in my head I'm already planning the alternative route and congratulating myself on my clever navigation skills, I drive down around the bend and see... OH NO: two rows of standing cars, exhausts and pollution in another tunnel!
Suppressed anger, cursing and crunching teeth follows. I turn on the mp3 thing, start listening to Owen Bennet-Jones interviewing the boss of Renault Nissan about electric cars and try to get my mind off the traffic. While the guy talks about a global market share of 10% by 2020, I zone out and my mind wanders back to my two-wheeled friend...

Several hours later, at around 8pm, I had just finished my last meeting of the day with Omar Zumot, Jordan's heroic producer of great organic wine, who we're advising in his efforts to produce large quantities of compost, to be able to go beyond organic to bio-dynamic. I get into my Great Wall (what a name for a car brand, honestly! Nothing beats "Volkswagen"...) and head home. And woow... after I hit the main road it takes hardly a minute until I cry out loud: "I LOVE DRIVING IN AMMAN!!"
Well, there's a reason for that: today is the first day of Ramadan. At 8pm the roads are nearly completely empty, not a car in sight - everybody is at home, breaking their fast and filling their starved bellies that aren't yet accustomed to the annual fasting, with tons of food in the company of family and friends.

And as I cruise along in neutral, rolling down toward Rainbow Street, I think how much cooler it would be to shoot down these empty streets on my bicycle...