Driving and Parking

Driving in Riga is surprisingly easy, I find.  On the plus side, the speed limits are fairly low, people seem to respect the limits (perhaps thanks to the speed cameras posted), merging is quite easy and there is not a lot of honking.  That being said, I would not say that people practise defensive driving here so I have already witnessed an accident (fender bender in a parking lot) and I have seen multiple car accidents with the occupants awaiting the police to arrive.

I have raised my eyebrows a few times at what I have seen on the road.  Just the other day, a car followed me on the sidewalk.  I don't know why he didn't choose to drive on the road. On another day, while I was waiting to cross at an intersection, a car drove around me, over the curb to drive into a park - there was no road, it was a large walking path into the park.  I scratched my head on that one  as well.

Parking sometimes has me stumped.  I have been startled when driving down a street and thought, "Is this a one way?" but no, on many streets, cars can park in either direction so you will find one car's front end facing the trunk end of another car.  In the middle of a very large intersection, I once saw a car stopped for at least 5 minutes.  Cars happily drove around with the occasional car honking its horn as if to remind the driver that he wasn't in a parking spot.

Another thing that still makes me chuckle is the normalcy of parking on a sidewalk.  There are usually signs indicating this and as the pictures show, the parking does not have to be parallel type parking.

Lastly, there is one thing that I think every country should adopt.  Haven't you ever wanted to thank the driver behind you, particularly after having had to cut in (aka merge)?  Here, they use the hazard light for 2 seconds or so.  It is brilliant.  Not only is it lovely being able to thank the driver behind you but it is also wonderful to be thanked after letting in another car in front of you.  What a simple and effective gesture.