Driving in Tanzania

Driving in Tanzania

Many roads are not paved and are therefore very bumpy necessarily slow travel. It can take 10-20 minutes to drive 5 km on the dirt roads.  It is very tricky navigating the holes in the road and can often make for lots of swerving back and forth.   

Unlike roads in the US, there are constantly people and animals walking around.  Even very young children can be seen walking to and from school.

I don't know how people find their way around because street signs are scarce, even in Arusha. 

On the paved highways - which only have 2 lanes- it feels a little more like driving at home. 

There are 2 types of speed signs. 

This means all vehicles need to stay below 50mph. 

When the speed sign has these lines it means the end of the speed limit. Commercial cars with passengers can not go above 80, but there is no limit for private cars!  The difference is obvious looking at license plates- private vehicles have yellow plates and commercial vehicles have white plates. That being said, there are no police cars driving around. What we have seen a lot of this trip are police stops, where they randomly pull cars over and talk to the driver and occasionally check for seat belts. 

In Tanzania you drive on the left and pass on the right. You can pretty much pass cars whenever you want to and if you want to pass 6 cars and the oncoming lane is clear, then go for it! 

This sign indicating speed bumps (or humps as they are called here) are a common sight.

                                         

You can see video from out last trip of the bumpy ride to TAFCOM
by clicking HERE.

Click HERE to see video of driving through Moshi.