Getting Around Cairo - Part II - The Process of the Cab

If the ingenuity of the automobile that ferries you around from place is amazing, the process of the cab ride is mind-boggling.

When hailing a cab, there are many factors you need to take into account. "Where am I going and where am I now? Is it rush hour? How much am I willing to pay based on those factors? Do I care if there's someone already in the cab?" As many travel books warn, meters in cabs are more decorative than anything else. Sometimes a cabbie will reset the meter for show when you step inside the cab, and if the meter is really fancy, it might actually count off some numbers until it gets stuck again. But no one actually uses them to negotiate your fee. So in order to roughly calculate how much to pay, you need to think about the distance you're travelling and how long it might take to get there based on traffic patterns. As for the other person in the cab, never let another face in the window deter you from trying to flag down a cab. Remember that the roof only has a short rack on it for luggage. Sometimes there's a little sign that says "taxi" but it won't light up and drivers are usually willing to take two or three fares at a time to maximize profits.

Once inside the cab, the fun begins. Traffic in Cairo does not resemble anything you might be used to. The closest analogy that I can come up with is the running of the bulls in Spain going in slow motion. Most streets are one way and have faded lines denoting lanes but it's my suspicion is that they were drawn by a child with white chalk long ago. As though being herded by some giant shepherd, cars will fit any little space they can find and some roads that should only be two or three lanes wide wind up being six or seven cars wide. It's like trying to watch people all merge at the same time all the time when they're stopped at various intersections.

When the cars are actually in motion, it gets even better. The same herding process is in effect, only at a faster pace. Driving along on the left side of the street (remember they're one way, mostly) doesn't necessarily mean you're going left, or even going straight. It's within everyone's right to want to make a sharp right turn at any given moment from 3 lanes over. Not everyone is happy about it, though.

While in a cab one day with a friend of mine, I experienced this first-hand. Our driver had us on the left side of the road, despite the fact that we needed to go right. A cab directly to our right, however, thought that going left was the smart thing to do, so we gradually converged as we moved down the road. Now we were both in the wrong, but I guess there's a pecking order to who goes first and our cabbie was not pleased about not being at the top of that order. The other cab cut us off and kept going.

Well. Our driver wasn't about to stand for that. He stopped the car, got out, and by golly went over to give that driver a piece of his mind.

In fact, he was so annoyed that he forgot to put the parking break on before getting out of the car. After a few seconds, the car began to roll. There were no other cars on the road, so this wasn't too big of a problem, but considering that we were slowly orienting ourselves perpendicular to the direction of traffic, it would soon become an issue, so I decided to pull up the parking brake. Leaning forward, I couldn't find it and I remembered that very often these cars were built from kits meaning that having knowledge of one cab, you knew where most things were in another. Sometimes the emergency brake was down by the pedals, so I just assumed I had no shot at reaching it and that it would probably be easier to get out of the car. However, I was on the infamous left side of the car with a locked door and no lock and my friend didn't look like she was interested in going anywhere. As we started to slowly pick up a little speed, I thought I could just steer the car nicely into the curb where we could wait out the fight. So I began steering the car from the back seat. But we weren't really travelling that fast and no matter what direction we went in, we were bound to hit a curb eventually so at my friend's suggestion, I sat back down to enjoy the ride.

We were soon rescued by a passerby that ran over, ripped open the front passenger side door and yanked up on the emergency brake which had been hiding under the armrest. After saving us, he ran over to our driver, still locked in a heated debate, and slowly but firmly steered him back to our car. He got in somewhat ruffled, made no apologies, took the parking brake off and sat in the middle of the intersection (still perpendicular to anyone wanting to pass us) watching the other car. He waited until the other car was pulling away then shouted a phrase I hadn't yet learned in a determined effort to get in the last word. In the end, I guess, he'd won.

This type of behavior is not a-typical but it's not necessarily the norm either. Drivers zip in and out from in between cars and pedestrians alike and sometimes near-accidents happen. But there are rules - albeit a different set that you might be used to - and a sort of unspoken code that everyone adheres to. Once you learn the code, you suffer much less stress, and you tend to shield your eyes less often from the sight of your life flashing before your eyes, or in this case, flashing by the window of your cab.