Crossing the Street
Crossing the street in Yerevan is dangerous. Basically you have to run as fast as you can and pray in order to make it.
[Via A1+] Well, the “Police Car Inspection” department (what the heck is that? I guess the licensing department?) has started a new initiative to help kiddies cross more safely.
We turn to all the parents to use only underground crossings and to follow the signals of the traffic lights. Dear drivers, keep to the traffic rules while driving, and be especially careful in the areas near schools. Dear teachers, remind the children about the necessity to follow the traffic rules. Pupils of high school, help your young co-learners in any way you can.
Good luck…
Why is such safe driving action necessary? I mean, Colonel What’s His Name told us right this morning that the streets of Yerevan are not dangerous at all!
(http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2005/08/28A26F77-22B4-406A-A41B-4242096774C7.ASP)
I wonder how his kids go to school each morning…
Comment by Myrthe — 8/31/2005 @ 6:20 pm
His kids probably in the very expensive car from the very expensive house that these guys usually manage to afford despite having such low salaries…
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 8/31/2005 @ 6:30 pm
Do you think he himself is a safe driver?
Comment by Myrthe — 8/31/2005 @ 7:00 pm
Oh no, I forgot: he probably doesn’t drive himself. Thatss what his driver is for, isn’t it?
Comment by Myrthe — 8/31/2005 @ 7:02 pm
“Use underground crossing”
How many of them in Yerevan? And, don’t those few availabe became public urination cites?
Comment by firefly — 8/31/2005 @ 7:08 pm
People use just about anywhere for public urination cites, including the entrances to apartments because of the lack of public toilets. One Diasporan even had someone crap on his stairwell.
Anyway, the underground passes are few and far between. Either near a few metro stations in the center or on Mashtots. Zebra crossings, traffic lights that work and the traffic police actually upholding the law rather thank shaking down drivers is part of the answer.
Unfortunately, it’s part of the system here. The money gets handed upwards which is why the police themselves don’t acknowledge the problem. Someone once told me that it’s worth $50,000 per month for each of two people — a senior police official and a senior government official.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 8/31/2005 @ 7:57 pm
It made me pee myself laughing today when I saw this 10 day “initative” on the armenian state tv. How can these news readers allow themselves to talk such crap ARRG!
We all know the traffic police achieve absolutely NOTHING in their fight against bad driving. All the police should mean Yerevan is the safest place to drive in the world!! Alas, this is not the case.
When driving in Armenia my friend and I got stopped randomly countless times for NOTHING, and got let off because “we were young students” ..if anything..this is reason to write a ticket.
Were they too ashamed to admit to(white skinned, blonde -me) foreigners that they take bribes?
Or is it just a “don’t harass odars” order from above?
Whatever it is..sack them all..shoot them if need be. I hate it.
Agression gets one nowhere..but seriously…they park that damned peugot in the middle of mashtots and block everything..and smoke.
Absolutely laughable.
Comment by Harmick — 9/1/2005 @ 3:03 am
my 2 cents about police traffic bribery:
it is direct taxation. if the state paid them enough to feed their families, maybe they would stop forcing people to give them money for no reason.
fun side note: all of the exchange students that I work with are SHOCKED that American cops don’t take bribes at traffic stops.
Comment by Katy — 9/1/2005 @ 4:32 am
It’s a Catch 22 situation with the exception that this “direct taxation” does not go into the state budget. Firstly, traffic cops do not take bribes because they are hungry. Take a look at them. They are more than fat enough. They take bribes because that is actually one of their jobs and most of the money is passed “up.”
Secondly, salaries cannot be increased because the state budget is too small because tax evasion is rampant, especially for the oligarchs. Look at Georgia, however. They increased salaries but they also had to dismiss the entire traffic police and employ new guys because as I said, these guys are not doing this because they[’re hungry.
It’s part of their job specification and one example of how corruption is how Armenia functions and enriches the entire system.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 9/1/2005 @ 6:43 am
Okay Onnik, maybe I’m been too rosy-eyed about it…
Comment by Katy — 9/1/2005 @ 2:01 pm
Someone I know pays the head of the traffic police in our marz a monthly “fee” to stop all the traffic cops in the area from harassing any company vehicles…Sad, but it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
Comment by Harmick — 9/1/2005 @ 3:45 pm
Two years ago the bribe was 500 drams for speeding on the highway close to Stepanavan. I think the same was 1000 drams in Yerevan.
There is a roundabout in Vanadzor next to the Avtogenmash. There usually is a cop car with two cops next to it. Whenever the busses going to the nearby villages pass, the driver stops, gets out and approaches the cops. The cops don’t even bother to stop the bus. After a short ‘talk’, the driver gets back and continues the journey.
These busses are rickety, unsafe and packed with people. The driver is breaking the law hence has to make regular payments to the cops.
Comment by nazarian — 9/1/2005 @ 4:40 pm
The bribe taking process is really being streamlined. In some cases, the drivers don’t even bother to stop the vehicle. They just put the money in empty cigarette boxes and throw outside the window while passing by a traffic cop point.
Comment by Nanul — 9/1/2005 @ 9:42 pm
Yes, what happens in Armenia is ugly and wrong, yet
I am surprised at this corruption related discussions. Proclamations like ” Oh my god, traffic policer took money from such and such at this intersection”. Of course they do. They are not hungry Onnik, but they have to take bribe, not to be hungry, and have to pass the big part of it up, so up there they also not hungry and moreover happy, to keep the traffic officer at his job. It is how society function everywhere. In organized states the money is taken from your pocket by taxation and distributed among police and other state structures, in not so well organized states it is done the way you see in Armenia and many other “corrupt” countries.
Then there is this in other blog about FM’s son: will Bush children get away with that?. Guess what Onnik, they may be no get away easily with that, although I am sure they will (dont know about Blair’s son, but Margaret Thutcher’s son didn’t share prison with armenian pilots) . But whats Armenia’s corruption compared to that of Bush and his gang? They wage a war against innocent country, steal their oil, kill tens and hundred thousands of people, their own among them. The aim: to channel taxpayers money through Iraq, Huliburton and similar companies into their pockets. To grab and waste as much as possible, pollute the whole globe and don’t give a damn about it. Thats what I call corruption!!!
Comment by Գագիկ — 9/1/2005 @ 9:47 pm
Hi everyone.
What offends me most is not the pay-upwards / bribe system itself. This is a old soviet thing and you will find this in most old soviet countries.
No it is the fact that the police only stoppes the ordenary man in his lada and let the rich mercedes guys get away with anything.
I actually watched a big mercedes 600 change to the wrong lane and took a red light with full speed at Tumanyan/Khanyan khachmeruk. A lady with her 2 children were crossing the road, and the car came so close that she had to pull hard to save her little daughter. And here comes the best part. I was standing at the other side of the road, watching the whole thing and beside me stood TWO armenian policemen with their car. They both saw what happened but they did NOTHING! Not even when I walked over to them and wrote down the licenceplate of the Mercedes (pretty easy to remember, 09 SS 009) - They didnt care and they did absolutely NOTHING!
After this (and after several other incidents) I am no longer paying them anything. Mostly when they stop me I just pretend like I didnt see them and drive on, and if they finally manage to get me I start speaking Danish, English, German, Swedish or French to them, and demanding a reciept and telling them I want a lawyer etc.. They grow tired really fast and let me go.
One time I actually got pulled over FOR WEARING A SEATBELT!! hahaha can you believe it! Well, only stupid forigners like me wear a seatbelt here, so im a easy target. Its amusing how offended Taxi drivers get when you put it on. “Why you do that?? You think that I am bad driver???”
And this with making $50.000 a month…. They should put a couple of German traffic policemen in the Opera khachmeruk, and let them had out standard german traffic tickets. They would make $50.000 a day and confiscate 500 driverslicences
I love everything about this city and this country - I am even starting my own company here.
There are only 2 things that I hate….
1) Metsamor Powerplant
2) Armenian Traffic Police
So dear Robert Kocharyan, if you read this please fix these two small things, and I will buy you a big bottle of Malburry “TTI” Vodka
- Torgom
Comment by Torgom — 9/2/2005 @ 4:02 pm
Torgom,
I bet you didn’t live in Armenia in 1992-1995. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so categorical about Metsamor.
Comment by firefly — 9/3/2005 @ 1:09 am
Agree with firefly… depressing stuff.
I do hate Armenian traffic police tho..
When we got stopped we just drove on..
or asked for a ticket..the policeman just got peed off and told us to go.
They need a huge load of tut dropped onto their heads…actually thats a waste of good fruit.
Comment by Harmick — 9/3/2005 @ 3:28 am
What they need is…. deportation to Azerbayjan. We will clean our mess and screww the azeris.
Comment by firefly — 9/6/2005 @ 3:13 pm
Firefly, that is inappropriate, please follow the comment rules.
Comment by Katy — 9/6/2005 @ 3:33 pm
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keno
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