Road Navigation

OK, I think there is only one word to describe driving around in this part of the world – shear bloody madness. There are roundabouts everywhere. Everywhere. Even when they are not justified, like to take a left turn. Or to prevent one. What?
Now add to that signs are sometimes misleading – like when you have 3 exits indicated, yet you count 5 as you rotate around once, twice, or more (fortunately this is completely legal).

And of course lane markings are completely optional. Yes, on roundabouts that makes sense, sure. But elsewhere? Yup.
Same for parking: if you can make a space and not block people in, its legit (until the cops bother to ticket/clamp that one day in a year). And sometimes the common respect rule of not blocking your fellow parkers appears to be overlooked. Or was I in a used car yard. No, I don't think so.

More on signs, and/or lack of: sometimes they indicate a turn-off right at, or before the sign. Other times they indicate the turn after the next minor intersection. Or you will get a sign leading you in a direction and then have to guess that you keep going straight at the next intersection, until the following intersections confirm you are ontrack and need to keep going straight. Huh?
And on the rare, refreshing occasion, they are just flat wrong! Just for fun, I’m sure.

Or take the instance where you’ve gone off track about and detour into a locals-only district. Of course you live there, so when you finally pop out onto the main thoroughfare, you naturally known to turn left or right without the aide or something as trivial as a signpost. Right.

And just when you think you’ve got it all figured out – that’s it’s just a melee
free-for-all – you discover that traffic lights are sometimes treated with religious reverence. Even when it means a long line of cars on a major road waits for the longest time at the intersection of a minor intersection which sees no traffic at all in the intervening time. I mean, come on!?!

Now you may think to plan your route ahead of time by picking up a map or two. You accept that the larger the scale of map, the less accurate it will be. But I would like to make some sense out of what detail is include, and what conveniently left out. Friday afternoon cartography? Simple lack of space? I know, the “I did the best I could, but I’ve never actually been there ‘cause the boss doesn’t give me a travel budget, so I kinda guessed” excuse.

Or you get a smaller scale map – say just for the little town of Alvor. But half the roads and back alleys are unmarked. Actually, fair enough – it is really hard to find a font small enough to fit “Our lady the holy virgin Madonna of the blessed land” for a street 30 yards long. Or try “Doctor Julio Mendozza Pedro Marcus de Sao Fransico” as it weaves through and intersects with all the other similarly named streets in the cramped old town quarters. Really, yeah – go ahead and leave those blank I guess. However, there is a limit. Like 10% blanks, not 50%.

Figuring out where you are, even when on foot with all the time in the world to look around and compare with your trustworthy map, becomes just a little trickier when you can’t always find the street name placard.

But of course, the freeways are better. Smoother, wider, less interspersed with continual intersections, modern… or make that modernized. It does get a little tricky when an old track, the upgraded route, the bypass road, the supplanting highway, and the major freeway all share the same tract of asphalt. And they all have their indicative road numbers listed on the intersection signs. Now which one did I need to be on again? Let me scan ahead on my (t)rusty map to see where they split and confirm I’m still en route.

And while I’m checking my route, let’s see which direction I need to take at that intersection coming up…which may or may not give you a preview indication of your possible choices, and which choices you see first may or may not be repeated in the same format when you actually reach said intersection. OK, that aside, you are faced with two choices. But are they showing you the next town in either direction? Or the next major town in either direction? Or the final terminus destination at the end of the road (and which of the many roads do you judge that based on?)? Yes, any of the above, or mix at match at your leisure. But choose wisely – you may not have the option to change your mind for quite some time later.

Finally – tollbooths. Thankfully there are few of these. Now I don’t expect them to show signs in English, but how about some useful icons. For example, I ran across one where I could figure out not to use the express lane, so went for one of the cash options. But there was no booth. No person. No sign at all, just a slot.
Fortunately there was a help button (unmarked of course) that got me in touch with someone who fortunately spoke English. He explained this lane was credit card only. OK, so how about putting the standard stamps for Visa and Mastercard and whatever next the little slot that must feel so naked and unstylish in its bland brushed-metal grey. So I whipped out my card quick as I could, but not soon enough to avoid an irritated hoot from behind as I raced away.