Road Rules In Phnom Penh

Seth: One of the amusing little joys of life in Phnom Penh is utilizing the public transit system. And by that, I mean dudes with motorcycles.

I’ve never been to any city anywhere near this size that has no bus/train system. Since none exists, “motodops” flourish on every street corner.

Apparently, they installed bus services a few years ago. But they failed due to unhappy motodops and spoiled residents used to cheap door-to-door transportation.

Motodops use baseball caps to identify themselves, and can be seen on the majority of Phnom Penh’s street corners playing cards and soliciting passers-by.

Even though Phnom Penh has a logical grid system with even-numbered east/west streets and odd numbered north/south streets, the motodops rarely know street numbers. They do know major landmarks and Buddhist temples, as we learned after several frustrating negotiation sessions. Apparently, we’re staying near Wat Langka.

The driver in the photo is named Hy (rhymes with “bee”). We’ve adopted him as our official motodop to take us to work, since he knows how to get us to the actual building. If he’s not around, we have to go through two or three motodops before one finally understands our pronunciation of “Russian Hospital”, the closest landmark to the center where we work.

The last syllable (in English or Khmer) has to be heavily accented, or you’ll never be understood. Again, we’ve learned this the hard way. “Hospital” is unrecognizable, but “hospiTAL” naturally means hospital.

Driving rules here are somewhat chaotic. Like many places with accelerated modernization, there is always a system of road rules, regardless of whether visitors understand it or not. Here are a few that we’ve picked up on:

Driving on the correct side of the road is more of a general guideline than a ironclad rule. So if you’re turning left (they drive on the right side here, which is weird for us now), you just cross into oncoming traffic about 100 meters before the turn, weave through the oncoming motos/SUVs, and make the turn.

If you want to go one direction but you’re starting on the wrong side of the road, simply go against the grain of traffic, slowly picking your way until you reach the side of the road you wish to be on. Be careful though! The area closest to the sidewalk has drivers going all direction, so don’t stray too far.

Petrol stations serve a two-fold purpose: sell gas to the public and offering a way to cut through a light without having to wait. The stations don’t seem to mind the constant stream of motos driving through, many have even attracted snack-cart vendors and the like.

Safety is important. While helmets are rare, most motodops have dustmasks to protect their lungs.

Pile on as many humans as you can possibly fit onto a moto.

It is best to turn when a car/SUV is turning in the same direction you are. Let it go first, and turn parallel to it to take advantage of its fearsome size. It creates a wall of protection that no motodop going the other way will challenge.

However ridiculous these “rules” may sound, the system actually works. Everyone understands the rules, so everyone obeys them. We haven’t seen one accident, although we’ve heard plenty of old wives tales.