Drivers Education In Israel

I had been in Israel for a week. Time was flying. I was starting to feel like an old pro to the area. Exploring Tel Aviv in relative solitude brings a powerful sense of confidence and each day brought about more experience (whether I planned it or not).

On Saturday (eh hem… Shabbat), E and I went to her families house in Rishon LeZion; a suburb approximately 20 minutes away.

She surprised me when we arrived at her car, tossed me the keys and said, “You’re driving”.

What!?

I stammered for a minute but then remembered I had taken care of all the international driving details prior to my departure. There was no reason not to give it a go. No reason besides fear. And does Ms. Babble know fear? (Keep your smirking and muffled snorts to yourself!)

It’s a wonderful experience to get back behind the wheel after not driving for a while. I’m particularly attached to driving. I find it extremely liberating. But now wasn’t the time for liberation. It was the time for hyper vigilance.

E stressed two of the most important rules of the Israeli road:

A vehicle can NEVER take a right turn on red.

A vehicle NEVER turns left on a green light unless there’s an arrow which specifically says so.

No problem. I was too busy trying not to hyperventilate anyway. Driving straight was more than enough for me.

I was feeling giddy taking the vehicle out of the side streets and onto the main drag (Dizengoff). During my daily walks of the city, I observed the driving behaviors of the locals. The first thing I noticed was that they honk… a lot.

If the light’s been red for too long, they honk. If someone gets too close to their car, they honk. If a bird shits on the hood of the car, they honk.

It isn’t necessarily meant to be rude either. Sometimes it’s to let you know they’re there and you should take caution. Such as when a woman was pushing her baby up to a curb next to me and a truck honked at her. The driver leaned out of his window and told the woman to watch her baby as he was turning. It’s simply a matter a safety. Sometimes.

Other times it’s just a matter of being rude and impatient.

By the time I reached my first stop light I had forgotten another little quirk of Israeli road rules:

The light will go yellow a few seconds before the green light.

Likewise, the light will go yellow again a few seconds before a red light.

What this means is that the driver can get a rolling start prior to the green light. I knew this information long before I was behind the wheel. But old habits die hard.

The yellow street light came on for approximately .04 seconds and the guy behind me was honking already. It was a little irritating since I didn’t even have a chance to move my foot from the break to the gas. But I had to make a mental note of the occasion as I had been hearing everyone else get honked at that week. Now it was my turn.

Other than getting honked at that one time, It was a nice drive out of Tel Aviv and we arrived in Rishon LeZion without incident.  The highways were clear and it was a beautiful day.

More on Rishon next time.

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