Where There Is A Traffic Jam...

Where there is a traffic jam in Amman, it's a pretty good bet that the police are directing traffic. I kid you not, when it comes to controlling traffic flow, these guys are utterly useless.

Just before they started the 4th Circle Crater, I sat for 7 minutes waiting for the police officer in charge to allow the right-of-way for my line of traffic. During that time period, the officer allowed traffic coming from the west to flow for 6 minutes. After that, traffic from the east were permitted to flow for an entire minute before he opened it up to traffic from the north.

Just this morning, I sat for 20 minutes on Wadi Saqra while waiting to clear the intersection. During that time period, I only moved about 20 meters. One meter per minute; way to go guys. Keep up the good work!

Here's how I think the process works. The police recruitment officer walks out on the street asks some poor schmoe, "How would you like to become a police officer? Really? Great, here's your badge. Now go direct some traffic."