The movement on the roads of Sri Lanka is like a game for survival or a lottery: if you are lucky - you will remain safe and unharmed, and if not, you will find yourself in the hospital (at best). In general, briefly about the nightmares of the Lanka movement.
Being a former English colony, Sri Lanka adopted left-sided movement. Naturally, it does not affect driving manners. Just for tourists are not accustomed to it seems strange. However, it is rapidly getting used to it after the first few excursions.
But the most terrible on the roads of Sri Lanka is the widespread ignoring of the rules of the road and safety requirements. Why this happens - it is not clear. With all the horror of the Lankan movement, drivers are trying to be polite towards each other, and if needed to give way.
So. Motion speed. "Fly" on the streets of Sri Lanka All: starting from scooters and ending with huge wagons. And it does not matter that there is a limitation of 60 km / h and pedestrians are running along the road (well, there are no sidewalks on Sri Lanka as a rule, what to do).
But, as it turned out, the speed exceeding is not the worst thing that may be. Much more terrible - counter movement. Sometimes it seems that it is normal for them to go on the oncoming lane. Triple overtaking is the usual thing. This is considering that the roads are rather narrow there. It seems that drivers are generally forgotten from which side of the road they need to go. It may be that a huge truck will begin to overtake the passenger bus, and this is despite the fact that the counter-car or Tuk-Tuk goes. Along roads you can see a lot of billboards with the image of terrible accidents, which happened due to overtaking. But this does not stop anyone. Correctly say that the chance to crash while flying on the plane is less than along the way to the airport. Sri Lanka is exactly true.
The average speed of the Tuk-Tuka on Sri Lanka is 50 km / h - even in the car it is deadly speed. And imagine that the person in it is not fastened, and is not protected by neither windows or doors, and even more so there are no airbags. Your life in the hands of the driver of the Tuk Tuka. And it seems that Tuk-Tuki is not perceived as a type of transport - they are cut, they overtake, do not miss.
No one pays attention to signs and marking, although the markup is good there, renew it often. For example, to move the road, even going to the pedestrian crossing, you need to be very attentive: it is unlikely that someone will stop to skip you. Here you already need to show arrogance and smelting.
Movement along the ring and at the intersections - who the first left, who is impudent - that and right.
Instead of brakes, local drivers use sound signals. To miss, you need to snag. If you drove to the oncoming record - you need to snag, so that the transportation traveling along its lane came to the roadside and missed. Sign up and just so to say hello, "Get off" to someone.
In the evening, even when the working transportation begins, there are many people on the roads and besides dark, the driving manner does not change, the far light of the headlights is simply added to all of the above. Before overtaking, the driver necessarily includes distant light. As it turned out, this makes those who ride in their lane naught. By the way, the distant is practically not turned off, so do not be surprised and in no case swear if you are blinded - for local drivers it all within the normal range.
For two weeks of traveling in Sri Lanka, I did not see a single working traffic light. Or they are turned off specifically, or they simply are faulty - it is unknown. Sometimes you can see the adjustor, in vain trying to control the movement in difficult areas.
The only thing that calms is the presence of paid autobahn. There is a restriction of 100 km / h, and drivers try not to violate. Although the road is excellent, empty and sometimes I want to go faster.
There are barriers on railway movies, and the movement of cars is watching. True, almost everywhere, the barriers are shown manually, and I still advise you to carefully look at the crossing of the railway.
Some tips for pedestrians. As already mentioned above, there are practically no sidewalks, so everyone goes along the roads. For a tourist, this is a deadly dangerous attraction. If in the afternoon, it is still possible to maneuver on the road, then at night everything becomes very bad. Roads are not covered, and people are not visible. Therefore, when it is dark better not to go on the road. Or if necessary, then walk or lantern, or with something reflective. And for confidence it is better and so.
Before renting a car or scooter, think about whether you need it. If they still decide, then do it not immediately - at least a couple of days you need to get used to the local tempo and to ride without rules.
When you are going to go somewhere on a Tuk-Tuka, look carefully on the driver. Very often there are misfortunes, forgetting where they need to go.
Be careful, carefully, trust the mind, and then nothing will happen to you.