We all know about the macho game called Chicken where two cars hurtle towards each other to see who swerves away first. I looked up the definition of the game and found this: “to play dangerous games in order to discover who is the bravest.”
So why bring this up? I have talked about motorcycle mayhem a lot in past entries. For example in December 2022 I wrote a piece that itself referred back to entries in March and November of 2018. All of these entries generally discuss how motorcyclists in Bangkok happily use the sidewalks to drive on when the traffic on the road is heavy. It happens all the time on the route that I often walk on to get from my apartment to the hospital campus.
For example, the other day, I was walking back to the apartment after a long work day, when dozens of motorcycles riding on the sidewalk came speeding towards me. The traffic was heavy so what the hell, ‘let’s just use the sidewalk’, all these motorcycle guys were saying. So that’s what they did. And they were moving fast – maybe up to 40-50 kms/hour.
I felt like I was playing chicken against speeding bikers who, on masse, were racing towards me. I was the chicken in this game for sure. I had to keep veering a bit to the right or maybe a bit to the left to be sure that they would miss me.
Riding on the sidewalk is against the law. But in my part of Bangkok, not yet a tourist area, the police don’t seem to worry about enforcement. Knowing this, the bikers use the sidewalks as streets daring pedestrians to play the chicken game.
It’s all good as long as I remember that I am the chicken in this game.
I’m not amused