So you want to drive in Rome?

First, remember that in Rome there are about 2 million registered cars. That's about 1 car per human being. And then there are all of the cars owned by people who are residents elsewhere, but domiciled in the city of Rome, so, I'd put the figure around 3 million. That's right, 3 million cars in Rome. You and 3 million others on the road. Crazy.

Now that I have the car I had to get a parking permit. This is sort of a pain because I don't live in the neighborhood where I am a resident. The center and semi-central zones of Rome are divided up in a way that you can only park in the neighborhood where you are a resident. You look at a map of Rome and it is broken down into neighborhoods. Then, you look at an ATAC map (Rome transportation and parking authority) and these neighborhoods are broken down even further into what I would call "parking districts". That's right, to hell with all of the ancient historical zoning dating back 2000 years. Rome's current leaders have modified the layout of one of the world's most ancient metropolises in order to efficiently collect revenue for parking.

All of the modern day politics having to do with the city of Rome deal with traffic and parking. City streets are modified with ugly barriers to physically prevent drivers from parking on the sidewalk. Every time you read about public works or city initiatives it has to do with building a new underground parking garage, doing a traffic block for vehicles whose license plates end in an odd number, or putting up new video cameras to guard the ZTL (limited traffic zone in Rome's city center). Buildings are specially designed to prevent cars from parking near and to make them as inaccessible as possible for mopeds. Get a car, cars have more rights than people in this town.

The first rule of driving in Rome is to never ever think about anything you learned in drivers education class. There are no rules. Once in a while the city splatters some white paint on the road but it is soon worn away by skid marks and grease stains. In the end, one can safely say that the road markings in Rome amount to the biggest waste of white paint known to man. Since there are no rules, let's discuss some fundamental principles instead.

Never ever give way, it just doesn't exist in Italian driving culture. I try to wave people to go ahead of me, there's a pause of about 10 seconds because it is likely that the person has never seen a gesture like that in their life. Giving way is more like saying "bastard, go ahead" and not "why after you neighbor". Stopping for a millisecond and making no gesture means "go ahead". If you want to be sure that someone is not going to turn on to the road in front of you you must honk your horn and flash your brights like a maniac. And then that only works sometimes. Do not be afraid to use your horn and blinkers often, even if you think it's not necessary.

Never stop at the pedestrian crossings. You are more likely to get the pedestrian killed by another car passing you because you've stopped. I read that about 100 per year are killed while trying to cross the streets of Rome. Makes you wonder why people are so worried about Bird Flu. I see this all of the time. I stop at the cross walk, a car passes me and has to skid to avoid running the pedestrian over. You're not doing them a favor. At best, you'll get rear-ended.

A common tactic when merging into traffic from a cross street is to inch out slowly, wait for someone to stop, and then hit the gas. This is a very common cause of accidents. For example. I need to turn left or right on a busy cross street. Instead of stopping (I'd be there all day because nobody would ever give way) I have to inch out until someone who'd rather not get into an accident that day (the minority, seemingly) stops and lets me go. The problem is that the moped drivers often do not stop along with the car and they wind up getting clipped. I see this just about every day. Someone lying in the street in agony next to a smashed up scooter. Watch out for this.

It seems as if Italian drivers are always trying to pass each other in situations where passing would normally not be highly recommended. Do not feel pressured into moving over to the right by an obnoxious motorist flashing their brights at you. I can understand doing this on larger state roads outside of town, but Romans do this on city streets! It makes no sense whatsoever due to the amount of traffic lights but whatever, they do it anyway. Just ignore the rear-view mirror if this happens. Italy needs a few more cases of road rage before people will learn not to do this anymore. For now, road rage is mostly limited to the occasional murder over a parking space.

Parking, as mentioned, is a contentious issue in Rome. Generally, parking on the sidewalk, as long as you are not blocking another car or building entrance, is acceptable. Double parking is a huge problem. Most of the traffic would probably move pretty smoothly if it weren't for the double parkers. The problem is that there is no punishment for people who double park. A traffic cop is more likely to just write parking tickets for illegal parked vehicles without permits or who haven't paid the meter instead of haggling with some double parker. A common problem is a bus not being able to pass down a street because it is being blocked by a double parked vehicle. If the double parker doesn't move the car the passengers must get off the bus and walk the rest of the way and the bus remains lodged in the street blocking the street. When I used to take the bus, this would happen every day. What bugged me the most was the obvious indifference of the double parker when they finally did come and move their vehicles.

The problem with overcrowding of vehicles has to do with the public transport. The average Rome inhabitant has resigned to the fact that they are going to spend a good amount of time stuck in traffic, so, they would rather do it in their own private vehicle instead of a packed city bus. I can't blame them. I prefer to risk death on a scooter than take the bus. It takes me 10 minutes, door to door, to get to work on my scooter. the bus would take 45 minutes or more. Bus lanes are not honored and 30 minutes can pass before a bus arrives at its stop. The metro is filthy and packed with thieves. It is actually difficult to ride the metro and not get robbed. My friend takes it to work every morning and says that he has to let 2 or 3 pass before he can get on because they are always packed. He stopped carrying a wallet because it got stolen twice.