Driving in Iran – there are no road rules and no road etiquette. Any of those ‘oh I’ll let you pass’ offerings of the west don’t apply here. It’s each to their own here.
The driving in Iran is worse than other western countries which you might associate with bad driving, such as France or Italy. In Italy, they will drive through a red light, in France they might drive fast – in Iran they will do this and also reverse in the middle of the road.
The amount of times I’ve seen bad road code is unlimited. The other thing is that people are crammed and shoved into one car which makes the whole situation even worse.
I’ve been in cars in Iran that are designed for five people with seven or eight people crammed into them. Before you get in the car, it is somehow ‘tactically’ decided who is sitting next to who, or on who, to be more accurate. You can have a window opener in your side or your head may be touching the top of the car. Who knows. The vans with an open back are worse with heaps of people all sat holding onto any piece of the vehicle that they can get their hands on. Plus there are hardly ever any seat belts in the back of a car in Iran. Nothing more to be said really.
This post isn’t designed to scare you at all from the driving in Iran, although it most probably has done unintentionally. It is to make you aware as a passenger in Iran. I feel that every tourist should be told about the driving situation if they are travelling in this country, as a safety and awareness procedure.
Thankfully reports state that UNICEF, Iran’s Ministry of Health, State Welfare Organisation, police forces and the Municipality of Tehran have caught onto the idea that Iranian road habits need to change. They have begun an awareness-raising campaign to give people an eye-opener to the devastating facts of road accidents in Iran. This will help in reducing the mortality and rates of injury on the road in Iran. Finally. Something is being done about this.
Another Iran 