We've been in Buenos Aires now for two and a half weeks. We packed a lot of tourist sight-seeing into the first 10 days, and have significantly slowed our pace, which means I have fewer destination focused things to write about. I've decided to shift into summary mode: snapshots, impressions, and oddments.
Traffic
Traffic in Buenos Aires is not terrible in the sense of gridlock like you might find in other major urban areas. However, the streets are definitely full of a lot of cars and busses. The horn is used liberally here, and traffic doesn't play by the same rules we use in the states. While not as insane as Sao Paulo, Brazil, this is not a place I would ever consider renting a car and trying to drive.
- Lane Lines are painted on the streets just like in the US, but these seem to be only suggestions of where traffic might go. In practice, cars just go where they want to go. In the US, we see motorcycles "lanesplitting" all the time, but here in Bs As everyone is lanesplitting. In addition to ostensibly showing how many cars across can be in the road at a given time, lane lines also show the contour of the road. They bend and curve with the overall street, so if you were following your lane lines on a windy road, you would travel in the same S shape as the road itself. If you did that, you would be an American. And you would probably get honked at because you'd be driving slowly and not paying attention to the way the other drivers are not following the lane lines. For instance, last night we were in a cab that was in the far left lane when we hit a bend in the road. The cab wanted to turn right after the bend, so our driver just went straight, crossing at least three painted lanes (and probably 5 lanes of cars) without using a signal other than the horn, which was used to warn another car that was crossing the same lanes in the other direction. The overall effect of this behavior is that cars tend to move more organically. I'm reminded of the way sperm travel en masse toward an egg - they all want to get to roughly the same place, and they all just jostle around each other trying to get there first. The lanesplitting may actually reduce gridlock in a way, because more cars can cram together into a stretch of road, and are less likely to stick out into the intersections, preventing traffic from flowing.
- Traffic Signals come in the same colors, but don't really mean what you think they mean. Red means stop and green means go, right? But if you're a pedestrian you do not have the right of way. That means the little green walking man may appear, but you need to watch for cars that might be turning into your lane. They will not stop or slow down, and will probably honk at you if you try to cross. The yellow light is the most interesting one to me - it seems like both sides of traffic get a yellow at the same time. If you've got a red light, it'll stay red, but the yellow light starts blinking. This essentialy means "you can go now, unless there's still traffic trying to get through the light in the other direction."
- Uncontrolled Intersections are standard. There are no stop signs, so if you're on a street that is not a major artery with traffic signals, every intersection is an uncontrolled intersection. The way these are handled is similar to what we saw in Mexico. People just slow down and nudge into the street. Whoever is most of the way into the intersection gets to pass through.
- One Way Streets help traffic flow. It seems like all streets that are not major thoroughfares are one way streets. The direction is indicated on the street sign by an arrow. The unidirectional streets end up being helpful in the uncontrolled intersections because you're only negotiating with one other direction of traffic. It's also kinda nice as a pedestrian because you're having the same negotiation with the vehicles on the road. The expectation is that all drivers and pedestrians will work together to make the most efficient flow. As a pedestrian, you wait until there are no cars coming before you cross. Or, you wait until a car is going in the same direction as you, which will cause the traffic going against you to stop. I once read a blog rant about how the one-way streets in Oakland's Chinatown area make it more hazardous for pedestrians because it enables traffic to flow more quickly. Having now walked the steets of Buenos Aires for a couple weeks, I think this is nonsense. The problem with those one-way streets is that they're too wide. If they only accomodated two lanes of traffic, and if each cross street was also unidirectional, I think they'd provide for good traffic flow and be pretty safe for pedestrians. Add in some street trees, and you might just have a great, walkable neighborhood, like Palermo.
- Exhaust Fumes here are intense. I haven't seen many people wearing the masks like in parts of Asia, but I've seen lots of people holding scarves or other fabric over their faces when walking on the streets that busses and trucks frequent. These two types of vehicles in particular seem to emit big, black, noxious clouds. In fact, after the first few days of walking around here, every time I blew my nose the contents were disturbingly dark. I took that as a sign, and adopted the same strategy of covering my nose with my t-shirt or scarf. I guess California's Clean Air regulations have been somewhat effective, because the contrast between air quality between the two BAs is stark. It's a shame, because there are so many beautiful buildings here in Bs As that are covered in layers of soot and grime. And the city is nice and flat, with lots of unique retail strips, which makes it pretty walkable. If they could get their act together to really attack the emmissions from vehicles, I think this city would be one of the most beautiful, impressive and livable cities in the world.
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