禁漫天堂

@Cheryl As usual I represent the outliers since I live in a very small village and we have an almost new car that I bought for my wife, but I also have a driver to get us around at times. I myself do not drive, but my wife does and when she went to renew her driver's license this was on the test. Again, I remind you we live in a very small village.

Q If you come across a car that is disabled with the passenger in need what do you do.

American Test Answer: 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 Call 911 and try to flag down help.

Small Brazilian Village Test Answer:聽 聽 聽 聽 聽Proceed to check health of driver and

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽provide mouth to mouth, if necessary,聽 聽

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 since ambulances and EMT's are not available.

聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 (actual answer)

Roddie in Retirement馃槑

23 July 2025

@cheryl, limited driving experience in Brazil - but spent 1 week recently navigating the roads of Recife in Pernambuco....

A few observations

1. The roads do not have names posted at corners.聽 Hence if you don't have google maps or waze, you will be going in circles or at least stop at every corner to figure where to go.聽 Very unsafe.
2. There are mopeds and motorcycles everywhere - and I mean everywhere - passing on the left or the right or even between large trucks.聽 聽I have seen countless motorbikes hit or under a big truck....聽 Some of those accidents were gruesome.
3. The only place where I see drivers of cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc... follow the rules is at the numerous traffic camera where speed is monitored.聽 Those are called "fiscalisa莽ao de velocidade" which simply means that you pay a fine for speeding.
4. Those traffic cameras can be located every 200m - which means that people speed in between those 2 locations and then abruptly slow down when passing the cameras.聽 Very inefficient in terms of petrol usage and traffic flow....
5. The roads of Pernambuco are not known for being in good shape.聽 Lots of potholes and unmarked or hard to see speed bumps.... Resulting in a lot of harsh braking....
6. Finally, please make sure to drive defensively as most of the cars around tend to have dents - probably from fender benders and from just driving the way everyone drives - i.e. without inhibition - which is typically Brazilian.

@Pablo888 Well the first two sound like my Village, except the roads don't have names etc. I am impressed with the memory of the locals, because there is nothing to mark street roads. I do remember the first time I came to my wife's village decades ago. Her brother picked us up in his truck and we literally had to drive through a jungle with no markings to get to her parents' old house. We have come a long way since then except no street signs, traffic lights etc. Everything is done by memory. (DHL uses locals to deliver packages and usually drops them off at the Post Office) ...and yes electric bill's or anything else are delivered by agents who just bring it to the property.

In fact, comparing it to my old life, I used to work in Radio Sales and did very well selling :30 commercials to major advertisers. Since hardly anyone uses a car here, there are small trucks with speakers in the back bed that blast commercials as they drive the village streets.

Roddie in Retirement馃槑

FYI, I have in my three years here have never seen an accident in my village. Definitely 90% of the people ride motorcycles, a lot with underage kids on them, but no accidents. Kinda reminds me of the old tarzan movies. If you grow up in this environment things that would normally be very dangerous you develop an instinct for avoiding them.

Up where I am in the north east:

No right on red That one took me a moment to adjust.

Motorcycles pass on the left, the right, sometimes over you. Look three times before changing lanes鈥�.you still may almost hit an ifood driver.

Blinkers mean little. Gotta stick out your hand to merge.

People will magically appear running across the road, its like frogger but with human life. Even on the interstate. I鈥檓 told that if you hit one of these random materializing people, its your fault.

Don鈥檛 follow the 鈥渉ey I will be nice and let that person merge / back out鈥� rule or you will just confuse people with your courtesy and cause utter chaos. Just keep going and laugh maniacally

lambadas used to be painted, but the paint has worn off, and the warning sign has been removed or covered with vegetation. At night, some roads are not well lit, so its customary to slam on your brakes the moment before you hit it at 80 kph and rip your oil pan off. Locals know where they are however. (Also random potholes have the same effect for added fun!)

You will rarely see traffic police like in the U.S. just mainly well posted and known automatic radar posts. You are supposed to do 140 kph between these, no matter the posted speed, then abruptly slow down 30 feet before approaching and pass well under the legal limit, then wide open throttle until the next one. Waze is pretty good at alerting where these are.

Its everyone for themselves鈥�.THIS IS THUNDERDOME!!!!

@HURTCHRIS "No Right on Red"...well at least you have stop signs and traffic lights.

Roddie in Retirement馃槑

Here in the state of Rio de Janeiro it seems drivers view stop signs, traffic lights and other traffic control devices as mere suggestions lol. Oh, and as for speed bumps, in Cabo Frio they are called montanhas, and rightly so.

07/26/25 Here in the state of Rio de Janeiro it seems drivers view stop signs, traffic lights and other traffic control devices as mere suggestions lol. Oh, and as for speed bumps, in Cabo Frio they are called montanhas, and rightly so. - @ibdegen

This is the absolute truth for the ever-growing number of motorcyclists here in Manaus.聽 In fact, I was hit by one in a crosswalk in broad daylight a couple of weeks ago.聽 He was talking to his girlfriend seated behind him, and they ended up sitting even closer than usual when he saw me late and slammed on the brakes, with the result that the rapidly decelerating cycle stopped as soon as it bumped me.聽 The poor kid started melting into a puddle of "desculpes" immediately; I just pointed at the light, said, "It's RED!" and walked on.聽

Since the cyclists not only ignore lights but ignore lanes as well, crossing the street between cars stopped at a light here has become a constant adventure, too.

Most of my driving experience in Brazil has been in ES (Vitoria + surrounding neighborhoods, and rural areas like Pedra Azul, Domingos Martins, Guarapari), and have driven down the coast of RJ to Campos, Maca茅 and Rio das Ostras.

Are traffic rules strictly respected or enforced in Brazil?

1. It's a weird mixture of people following and not following traffic rules, but essentially if you're violating traffic laws the likelihood of facing consequences increases significantly. Vitoria generally has a fairly visible police presence so in my experience it's like 60/40% people following laws vs. not
2. You can count on motorcycles and scooters generally disregarding traffic laws
3. Speed cameras are very stringently respected from what I've seen. Constant speed ups and slow downs in the rural roads leading out of Vitoria which is super annoying and honestly more dangerous than maintaining a fast speed.

Are there any unspoken rules, unexpected habits or regulations that you had to adapt to?

1. See above about speed cameras. Their placement is massively inconvenient and unsafe IMO.
2. Speed bumps everywhere
3. No right turn on red blew my mind, given the complete disregard of other traffic laws.
4. Expect people to force their way into traffic and do just about anything to avoid waiting one more second.
5. Drivers are still generally very polite, but drive aggressively and without delay

Are the roads safe and well-maintained?

1. In the cities, for the most part. Usually there are a handful of potholes but I can't say it's that much worse than some areas of the Midwest. Getting out into rural areas often means dirt roads, which can get very muddy in the wet season and really need good vehicles to traverse.
2. Roads even in some rural areas are only 2 lanes (one each way) for long stretches, which means you are stuck behind slow vehicles at times especially going up hills. There are often passing lanes but it's also very normal for people to pass in open areas even if it's not explicitly allowed.

Are there specific times of day, weather conditions, or seasons that make driving more dangerous?

1. When there are heavy rains it can sometimes get precarious - poor visibility + slippery roads
2. Night can be very challenging because there are essentially no street lights once you're outside of a populated part of the city, so you can only see what your headlights illuminate.
3. My fiancee has stories about sketchy drivers following her in rural/unfamiliar areas

If you have children, do you feel comfortable letting them travel alone on local roads, whether on foot, by bike, or motorbike?

1. I don't have children but I would make some recommendations
2. On local roads, there are often sidewalks and a lot of people out and about, so generally it's safe.
3. Riding a bike is doable in our area because of bike lanes along the beach and in downtown, but it can be challenging to ride on the sidewalk. I wouldn't recommend riding in the street because it requires a lot of awareness and alertness that a lot of kids don't have in order to do so safely (even though a lot of Brazilian kids do anyway). It's still pretty unsafe for adults too.

What are your tips or advice to stay safe on the roads in Brazil?

1. Stay alert and drive "aggressively defensive", for the most part it's like driving in big cities in the US. I live in Houston and sometimes I miss driving in Brazil because people here are legitimately crazy on the roads.

It is interesting to hear Americans bemoan about no turn on right - having driven in dozens of different countries, the US is the only country that I have seen that ALLOWS right turn on red as the norm... Introducing that in Brazil would cause complete havoc - some Brazilians drivers would turn right, then cut across the traffic to turn left on the same road! Many Brazilians cannot even understand the rules coverning how roundabouts work compared to retournos...!

True most Brazilian drivers think they are Ayrton Senna (without any of his actual driving skills), but try driving in Rome, Paris or particularly Athens and you may see where they get it from.

As for road conditions, again in Italy and Greece I have seen the same in rural areas, and there are also lots of potholes in the UK away from motorways (that have areas that always seem to be in repair, with lanes closed off).

Probably the main road advantages in the UK is that Brits are usually very polite and respectful, and, of course, drive on the correct side of the road...! But then I may be a little biased.

@Peter Itamaraca

"It is interesting to hear Americans bemoan about no turn on right...." Here in Campina Grande going right after a stop is no problem. Who stops in the first place!!??? 馃槜

"...of course, drive on the correct side of the road...!"

Yeah, the first time I did THAT (Jamaica) I was seated in WHAT SHOULD BE the driver's seat - kept slamming my braking-foot down on the non-existent brake pedal. Then there was Ireland on "skinny" roads between rural road rock walls in a big bus - at least one car mirror was lost.

I actually find driving here interesting (don't say a thing abthree!! ) and have learned that if you don't do anything sudden (unless absolutely necessary) the Brazilians are quite adept at not hitting you - oh, except for the two times I got rammed by motorcycles.

There's a really good book by by Roberto Damatta (2012) titled "F茅 em Deus e P茅 na T谩bua" (Faith in God and Your Foot on the Accelerator) in which he he deduces that the aggressive behavior of Brazilians in traffic reflects an old system of social relations. Roberto DaMatta, professor of anthropology at Notre Dame 1987-2003....

mberigan