However, the next incident I witnessed was even scarier. While waiting at a red light, I saw 2 cars make a left on an advanced green. The inside car made it through the intersection first, but the outside car put on a burst of speed, then swerved at the inside car a couple times, almost tagging him on the door, then pulling away, passing him and swerving right in front of him, forcing the inside car to brake and stop. Complete insanity. I waited a minute and made sure the car was long gone before proceeding on my way, which was the same route they were on. Only once in my life have I seen a worse case of rad rage, where two New York City drivers actually escalated from cutting off, to demolition Derby on Sixth Ave, to pulling over and throwing down right in the middle of the street — never was I so relieved to have a light turn green so I could get away.
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Despite all this reckless driving that I saw, there is one thing I will give Israelis credit for: they know what a yellow light means. It does not mean “speed up so you get into the intersection before a red;” it means you should stop if you can come to a safe stop at the intersection. The lights in Israel also have a flashing green to indicate that a light is about to turn yellow, and Israelis commonly stand on their brakes just to stop for these flashing greens. Me, I couldn’t get it right — I would either end up stopping and having people fly by me, or I would be driving through intersections well into the yellow. Luckily my rental had big yellow Hertz stickers that clearly marked me as “Tourist: does not know how to drive like a local.”
I’m also still undecided whether I respected the people on scooters and mopeds (the Israeli word is toos-toos, translating loosely as fly-fly), to whom all the regular road markings do not apply, except, for the seemingly sacred red light. You will rarely pull up to a red light at any city intersection without a couple of them weaving between you and other cars, up on sidewalks and medians and lining up in the crosswalks, only to pull away at a pathetically slow pace until the next downhill.
My final gripe: why can’t they have large, legible street signs in visible locations in major cities? Every intersection was like a game of Where’s Waldo to try to find a puny road sign nestled in a bunch of advertising, store signs, and other road markers. Many intersections seem to lack street signs entirely, so good luck finding your way around with a map and your wits about you.
