Cyprus-Forum.com

[Maximus]

Ok but if you read my earlier posts, you will see that I have also made observation about the standard of driving in Cyprus.

However, these, like yours and anyone else are just opinions and they mean jack shit when trying to compare standards of driving between one country and the next.

You have to look at the numbers.

Statistically speaking - you are only about 4% more likely to die if you are involved in a car accident in Cyprus than you are in Australia.

That is a fact.

It doesn't matter whether a Kangaroo jumps out in front of you after driving 2000 kms or hung over from one too many castle maine XXXX's or because you gave way to Kylie then drove off a cliff.

You are only about 4% less likely to die than you are in Cyprus.

It cant be THAT great and Cyprus THAT bad.

[Robin Hood]

When you put a Cypriot behind the wheel of any motor vehicle, their brains, if they have any, just switch off! For instance, two things that piss me off:

Firstly ......when you enter or leave the highway you do so on an ‘acceleration’ slip road or on a ‘deceleration’ slip road. This allows you to either enter or leave the traffic flow at the same speed as all the other vehicles, thus not impeding other drivers.

Oh no .... not for Cypriots; when they join the ‘acceleration’ slip road they slow down whilst looking for a large enough gap in the traffic, don’t bother to indicate and then pull into the nearside lane often travelling 20kmh slower than the traffic stream. They treat it as a road junction!

Try slowing down a bit to let one accelerate and join the moving stream of traffic in the nearside lane ...... and they slow down too! They don’t trust their own countrymen to do that, so they don’t know how to react.

When leaving the stream of traffic, they slow down on the nearside lane until the end of the ‘deceleration’ lane then pull off. Turn indication is optional.

Pull off the hi-way onto the ‘deceleration’ slip road ....... and they overtake you in the nearside lane as you slow on the slip road and then break and do a sharp turn in front of you. Of course if they happen to have a car behind them as they slow, that car will pull into the outside lane, usually without looking, to avoid the slowing car ....... presumably because the accelerator is stuck and/or the brakes don’t work?

No.1 pet hate.......... ROUNDABOUTS !!!!!

Cypriots treat roundabouts as a cross road junction without traffic lights but having the inconvenience of a big round bit in the middle that slows them down ..... but not a lot!

No matter which direction they are coming from and whilst cornering on the limits of tyre adhesion..... they assume they have absolute priority. If they are going to turn off left from the lane nearest the impediment of the roundabout, usually with no signals, they automatically assume you know what they are going to do. They assume they have absolute priority over all other road users. If you happen to be transiting to the next exit (and in the correct lane) they get irate, blast the horn, wave their arms in the air in apoplectic rage because you are an idiot and got in their way.

Try using the system as you should and transit across the lanes to your exit, giving a signal of your intentions and those in the nearside lane will accelerate and blast the horn rather than ease off and let you pass in front of them. If you are in the nearside lane and do give way, the idiot behind you who took off at the last entry like a racing driver, he will blast the horn, because you are in his lane, slowed him down and are letting someone else get into his place.

Add to the list tailgating, cutting corners, stopping in front of you to have a chat through the car window with a friend, no seat belts, badly adjusted headlights or maybe just one headlight, parking 2 or even three abreast at the Kiosk because they cannot actually park inside, eating/drinking/ using the mobile whilst driving etc.etc.etc .......... really, anything you should not do as a considerate and law abiding driver ..... the Cypriots can do it with their mobile in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Thank goodness the don’t fly aeroplanes with the same attitudes they display on the roads!

[Paphitis]

Ok but if you read my earlier posts, you will see that I have also made observation about the standard of driving in Cyprus.

However, these, like yours and anyone else are just opinions and they mean jack shit when trying to compare standards of driving between one country and the next.

You have to look at the numbers.

Statistically speaking - you are only about 4% more likely to die if you are involved in a car accident in Cyprus than you are in Australia.

That is a fact.

It doesn't matter whether a Kangaroo jumps out in front of you after driving 2000 kms or hung over from one too many castle maine XXXX's or because you gave way to Kylie then drove off a cliff.

You are only about 4% less likely to die than you are in Cyprus.

It cant be THAT great and Cyprus THAT bad.

More than just an opinion.

The average Cypriot driver, is an inconsiderate road user, in comparison to drivers in Sydney where you would think its dog eat dog.

Traffic jams in Sydney are horrendous and when you get caught in one, its a nightmare and the road network is intricate with bridges, tunnels and overpasses. When you get it wrong there, you will have a very bad day, so drivers have learned to be considerate. Same with Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The least considerate drivers in Australia are located in Adelaide. Why? I don't know but Adelaide is probably the best planned city in the world with the best planned road system as well. Therefore, drivers there can be idiotic, but still not as bad as Cyprus by any means.

What do I mean by that? Well you could be in a jam and indicate to change lanes and 99% of cars will make space for you. That to me is a hallmark of a good driver. In Cyprus you see females doing their make-up at the lights. Or drivers on their mobiles.Try doing that in Australia where they have put cameras everywhere. Just the other day, Police were pretending to wash windscreens at traffic lights to catch people touching their mobile phones, and if they saw someone out came the badge and in your hand came a $500 fine. And you can't play the Koumbaro card here either. If you indicate to change lanes they will put their foot down so you don't get in front of them. And let's not talk about the fact you guys think you can park anywhere you like. In Australia, the sticker lickers will be there to give you a nice little present (fine) or they will impound your car.

Also you said 54 road fatalities. Do you understand that Australia is larger than the EU? Cyprus is one seventh the size of Tasmania with a population of 550,000 people. Tasmania is about half the size of Greece. Road fatalities were 34, so the incidence is half that of Cyprus. Tasmania is also very mountainous and the roads are winding.

If you ask where it is safer to drive, it is Australia by a big margin. In a country where it takes 9 hours to drive between Melbourne and Adelaide, 9 hours to drive from Sydney to Melbourne, 16 hours to drive from Sydney to Adelaide, 22 hours to drive from Brisbane to Adelaide, 35 hours to drive from Darwin to Adelaide, and 45 hours to drive from Perth to Sydney.

The road statistics in Australia if you are to consider the kilometers the average Australian does per year is less than a quarter that of Cyprus.

But as I said, it is no competition for me. I don't particularly care. As long as this road behavior remains in Cyprus then it doesn't bother me. When you guys come to Australia to drive, you will then appreciate the difference and there is a huge difference between the behavior of road users and I am sorry to say, but I prefer the behavior of Australian road users because they are much nicer and better drivers and less likely to look like they will kill you.

Plus, motorway slipways. You guys don't know what to do and roundabouts in Cyprus is like playing Russian Roulette. I have seen cars stop in roundabouts for no reason because they are in the wrong lane. Why not just keep going round no one knows?

Now look, most Cypriot drivers are ok, but there also seems to be a bigger abundance of stupidity either because people do not know the road rules or because they just got no idea or are deliberately just being selfish. Plus road manners are a big thing too, and I believe there isn't a lot of that in Cyprus. Which is a real shame because we are a warm people yet on the road we treat other people with total disregard and become selfish, yet you go to big huge mega cities like New York and Sydney and you just breath a big sigh of relief because other road users got your back because next time they might need the same consideration otherwise you end up in woop woop because you were in the wrong lane and missed your exit or turn.

[Pyrpolizer]

for 2016, which is what the data goes up to;

Fatalities made up 7.7% of total injury accidents in Cyprus. These fatality numbers also include pedestrians and passengers not driving a vehicle.

Although a touch higher than the EU average for the year you are not looking at the combined.

Overall, you are less likely to be involved in an accident in Cyprus but if you are, there is a slightly higher than average chance it could be a fatal one.

Welllet me give you a statistic to mull over.

The Australian Death Toll is about 1143 people per year - population 25 million and a continent that is larger than all of the EU.

Cyprus, which is a seventh the size of Tasmania has a road toll of about 150. You do the math.

Where are you more likely to die?

My rudimentary mental arithmetic suggests that you are 420% more likely to die on Cypriot Roads than I am on Australian Roads.

Now given that this is true, and similar to the UK, Netherlands, and others across Europe, why not have a look at what these countries are doing or have done to reduce their roadside fatalities. There are things can that can be done in Cyprus to save lives.

I knew you never read links, but never could have imagined you couldn't do simple arithmetic either.
Read the previous links. The relative odds are 0%.

[Pyrpolizer]

All you need is just visit a place as a tourist, a la Paphitis, see some impressively bad things and then overgeneralize.
Here are some from Holy Rosy Australia, where everything is sooo damn perfect

[Pyrpolizer]

For the usual slanderers of anything Cyprus related:

Look at this perfectly designed and perfectly marked roundabout.
Yet people are caught one after another doing the exact same mistake.
Are they bad drivers??

[Paphitis]

Yeh we have bad drivers in Australia and the USA Pyro.

We also have criminal activity and high speed police chases which end up on TV with choppers in the air following the car and some real dangerous stuff occurs. Soi dangerous that people can get killed.

We also have TV shows that show all the stupid things caught on the camera.

However, Australian and American drivers are generally pretty good and I say that because they are more considerate drivers than Cypriots are. They will let you in when you indicate. They will indicate their intentions and generally they will follow the rules to and they won't park illegally.

The cops here are to be feared. They have zero tolerance.

If you transplanted Australian or the NYPD in Cyprus for a day, they would have a field day. you guys will not know what hit you.

They will pull over women for putting lipstick on. if they see a mobile phone, you will get pulled over. You guys will think they are draconian, but you know what, they will only target people who break the rules. In the process, they save a lot of lives too.

law enforcement is different here. It's actual law enforcement not a set of guidelines like in Cyprus which are hardly enforced.

[Paphitis]

But as I said before, I really don't care. Cyprus isn't a place I live so my exposure is minimal and if I can help it my exposure to Cyprus would be zero as I don't even care to come to Cyprus anymore. When i come in, I want instant out or to quickly extract myself. Cyprus isn't my taste anymore. no offence, but I have little connection to Cyprus these days and prefer to be in Greece. I am an ionian Sea junkie these days and I also love Italy.

I have driven in Australia, NZ, and the US. I have also driven in Greece and Cyprus.

By far, I feel safer driving in Australia, NZ and USA. It's just how I feel. The most dangerous place is Greece but Cyprus is just as bad, maybe only slightly better.

The attitude of drivers in Australia, USA and NZ is better. they are more pleasant, and you feel they are less likely to do something bad, whereas Cypriot drivers tend to be a lot more temperamental and unpredictable. It is nowhere near as bad assome other 3rd world countries though which are just insane.

You can read the traffic better and anticipate what others will do because 99.9% of drivers will do the same behavior. In Cyprus its a lottery. You don't know what the next driver will do. Some people might not even follow the speed limit in Cyprus. in my opinion its dangerous.

Our young drivers are less likely to do stupid things because they know there is a police patrol nearby and when they catch you being a fuckwit on a L or P plate, they will take your license away and then you got some explaining to do to Mum and Dad when you have to appear before a court on a traffic charge.

Our motorbike riders wear helmets and everyone wears a seat-belt. There are RBTs and Police do drug testing too.

Once our Prime minister Paul Keating was pulled over by a police patrol because the officer say that the driver was not wearing a seat belt. The police officer quickly realized it was the Prime Minister. The Police Officer issued our Prime Minister with a fine. This is what you are dealing with here. Police don't give a fuck and they will do their job. They leave their emotion out of it. They are like robots.

Plus all the speed cameras everywhere and intersection cameras. big brother is watching.

Last week, there was a murder. Police found the perpetrator within a few hours just from surveillance cameras.

We have these Police Helicopters that have Infra Red. They can see people in their cars, and they cave cameras that can zoom in from 25 kilometers away.

Virtually everything that happens is caught on camera.

[Get Real!]

This one's for you Paphitis...

Su-27 treats an F-15 like dirt!

[Paphitis]

Released by RT Get Real.

Do you see the Americans release this footage? Have you seen footage from the IAF or the RAF or the RAAF?

No you wouldn't see it because they are classified and highly secretive. For the Russians its a propaganda exercise or a dick measuring context.

For the USAF, the IAF or the RAAF, we know our capabilities and do not believe that we need to prove anything to anyone. You will just get bombed to kingdom come, and if you are lucky you might get a couple of pixelated FLIRS but that's it.

I don't watch these videos. The Russians are not going to show you when an F-15 fucks them over they are just going to show you what makes them look good.

We will show NOTHING. Because that is how we roll. These things are highly classified for us.

You can't even photograph certain planes when they are carrying certain ECM pods which people don't even know exist.

You don't see FOX News, CNN, BBC or ABC post these kinds of videos because if they did, they would be in the shit.

And as for getting out. F-15s and F-16s from the IAF are flying into Syria weekly. no Russian aircraft to intercept them because they know they would get fucked over like when Turkey fucked the Russians over near the Turkish border.