Most of the rules are taken with no more value than a good advice. Only the presence of the road police make people slow down or comply a bit more with the rules. One weekend we went to some relatives’ dacha, somewhere along the Moscow main road. It was Sunday, a cold rainy summer day, so in the evening the road was full of people coming back home after a weekend in their country houses.

In a four lanes road, with two carriage way in each direction, both were completely full, plus the side of the road also full and not moving any faster that the other two lanes, and still some cars were overtaking a bit further out, with a wheel almost touching the trench between the road side and the fields. I just wonder what would happen how an ambulance would get there in case of an accident. We could see a truck lying on one side, with its sand load all spilled and a woman trying to load it back with a spade.

Overtaking is also done in the local way: Anytime, any visibility conditions, hardly regarding if there are any cars coming from the opposite direction. Lorries and other slower vehicles let the others overtake by driving half way along the side the road, leaving the roadside line between the wheels. That makes in general traffic more fluid but it is a dangerous risk at night when cars parked on the roadside are not too visible. I could see this type of behaviour on the “Vyborgsky sosshe” between St. Petersburg and the Finnish border, which is very often packed with trucks. Drivers often courteously thank each other for letting them overtake switching on both indicators after passing the slower vehicle. While driving on motorways like the ones in the west, the rule of driving always on the right side of the road is in general not observed, overtaking either along the left or the right side. Inside the city, the way people drive is more behaved, respecting speed limits a bit more though it is true that there are more frequent controls.

In any case you can’t cross a road in such a confident way like in the west as cars don’t respect pedestrians as much as there. As a general rule, the bigger and more luxurious cars with darkened windows are the most disrespectful ones. If you are so unlucky to be in an ambulance don’t expect other drivers to give way. Even if they want to do it they won’t be able to let you pass, as all possible ways will be full with cars, except may be for the pavement.