A Muse from World Transport to the Olympics

Having an office in Thailand means one has to take the occasional trip out there.

Life can be hell, hot weather, sandy beaches, deserted coral islands you know – work.

One of the things one always notices is the somewhat casual attitude to transport. This seems also to go hand in hand with the somewhat casual attitude to life (and death) on the highway.

When one (that means me) fancying a little blog ‘research’ as opposed to work it’s fairly easy to find people who have even more strange methods of getting about than one finds on the average Thai highway where four on a moped is, well, pretty unremarkable.

Now I went to school in the 60’s and I KNOW how many people can get in a mini (it’s 5 less than you can get on a 500cc Sunbeam and sidecar and 6 less than fit on and around a Bond three wheeler if you’re allowed to jump off on roundabouts and only go downhill).

But some of these people take it to a new level.

Now when it comes to trucks, well that’s a different story.

No problem fitting on lots of people, ask any driver who leaves his rig unattended at Calais when en route to Dover, but trucks need to be driven carefully.

A close friend of the Handy Shipping Guide moans constantly about Polish drivers nicking his work. He says he can’t understand how they not only cover it so cheaply but how they can transit so quickly.

I think I may be able to give him a clue.

Now THAT's a bit special!

Driving styles then vary from country to country. Many years ago we used to joke that the desert drivers (Iranians, Australians) were great on their own country roads; just don’t let them into town. It was alleged that nobody dare live on the first corners of a village as one emerged from the Iraqi desert because the truck drivers would knock the walls down so regularly.

I can remember tales of drivers taping cushions to their steering wheels so they could drape their legs through and go to sleep on the endless straight stretches.

Let’s face it, even in a civilised country like the States things must get pretty boring.

Whilst we are in the US and motoring south from Iowa through Missouri and Bill and Hill Country we get to Louisiana and this next vid is like an instructional presentation for Sebastian Coe and his ilk.

The London Olympics loom and with only two years to go we need, as a nation to study how the best of the best do it.

Now Atlanta is in the Southern state of Georgia and provides a template for how to run a Summer Olympics.

What is less well known is that they gleaned their organisational skills from the guys shown here.

You have to sit through a couple of minutes of intro to get the flavour of the, somewhat different, schedule of events, but stick with it, it's worth it.

Enjoy

Comments

[Thomas]

hehe! the European trucking video is pretty crazy! Does anybody know why they were all doing that?

[Sprog3]

Must be a short cut so they don't have to go down the motorway for miles then turn round twice to get back. That or one of those Sat nav glitches where it takes you the right place but the wrong side of a river or motorway!