“Rules” of the road

Can you guess what’s wrong with this picture? Yes, this tractor-trailer is passing a car in a no passing zone as it approaches the top of a hill. I failed to capture other equally impressive moments of bravado on the highways of Mexico. While we were passing a car, another car passed us in the breakdown lane… of the opposite side of the road. A car would decide to pass without regard not only to the fact that there was oncoming traffic, but also that cars were passing each other in the lane of oncoming traffic as well.

Yet, somehow it all manages to function. Everyone expects the same type of behavior and knows which signs to look for. After a while, you start to feel the rhythm and participate in the dance. Only after a few road trips, I found myself expecting slower traffic to edge toward the shoulder so I may pass, regardless of some arbitrary double yellow lines that some government worker painted in the middle of the road.