Traffic in Cairo is insane! I use to pride myself with the fact that I could easily cut taxi cab drivers off in Chicago traffic and I didn't slow down on side streets when you and an oncomming car were trying to share the space designed for only one car.
That is nothing compaired to Cairo. People walk in the street (usualy because the sidewalks are constantly changing height because each shop is trying to mark their spot), there are no right angle interesections, everything is a u turn or circle,
there are lane markings and stop lights. They are decrotive only! They are placed there to lure the tourist into a false sense of familiariy.
I always like driving in cities (in the US) because I always feel that there is a flow to the traffic. The differnce here is you never know what is coming. There could be a donkey cart stopped in the middle of the street. A street sweeper could be scrubbing the concrete on his hands and knees while 40mph traffic swerves around to avoid him. There are to many variables.
Have you ever seen the scene where Luke Skywalker is riding the speeder bike through the Ewok forest while battling Storm Toopers in Return of the Jedi? Cairo traffic a much faster than that. Luke would be hosed in Cairo traffic. His Jedi danger sense
would fry. He'd run off to a quiet planet and live in a hut like Yoda, crying every time he heard a honk, never to drive again.
For the most part traffic doesn't move that fast (because it can't). The cool thing is that people accept the traffic and aren't going to fly off into road rage. They might yell at you... but that is about it. We've been in a car accident (and i'm sure we'll be in another before I leave).. we all get out of the car... look at the damage;
the person who hit the other offers to pay for the damage (which he never will pay because everyone is to poor)... the person being hit tells him that he wouldn't accept the money anyway because accidents happen... everyone gets in their cars and drives off.
My personal favorite is walking down a sidestreet having a car beep to let you know that it is passing close to you... so you turn sideways and your legs touch the parked car in front of you
and the moving car brushes your jacket or backside. Don't walk with your arms dangling out to the side, I've had my elbow and hands brushed up in front of me by passing cars. I think i've cleaned the doors of several cars in cairo with my pants and shirt brushing up against them as I try to avoid being run over.
The good thing is that most people / cars /creatures try to warn you that you are about to become a pancake.
Hissing like a snake is the perfered method of letting you know that they want to pass. Here is the list of sounds I've heard while in Egypt. See if you can figure out what wanted to pass. Write down your answers before you check the key.