Cotonou is the second capital of Benin in West Africa and it’s a rapidly growing city. It’s one of those example of old world meets new – and the traffic seems to have become a victim of this clash or worlds.
Now, we’ve seen plenty of wild traffic situations in our travels. In fact, the flow of traffic in Jakarta is amazing. Packed roads but with give and take, however the lines mean nothing. It just keeps rolling.
This intersection in Cotonou, however, did not have the same flow. Cars had to insert themselves into the fray and demand to be let through. The motions were hectic and jerky and there didn’t seem to be much of an overall agreement as to what the rules should be.
Ultimately, they make it work, but we were there for a couple of months and I have no idea how they did it.
I think my best travel tip is to not cross at an unregulated intersection like this when it’s busy. go down the block and cross in the middle somewhere. Much easier.
Oh, and despite the traffic at this intersection in Cotonou, Benin is an absolutely wonderful country with awesome people and we can highly recommend traveling there.
Video Transcript
Okay, we are at one heck of an intersection in Cotonou.
I just want to share the intersection. It’s a crazy intersection.
And I can’t tell you the names of the streets because there’s no street signs. It’s one block off of the main street that leads to our hotel.
Our hotel is down that way, but one block to the right.
The first few times we went through this intersection it was nerve-wracking, to say the least.
And the first time I tried to cross by myself on foot, equally so. Although I had training from Jakarta, so, that was actually really good training.
See, every once in a while it clears, and that’s when you gotta go.
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