Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Over the last two years, Dave and I have made careful scientific note of traffic patterns in Poland. Our conclusions are: driving in Poland is like a full contact sport, and not for the faint of heart. While this may seem completely arbitrary, the fact that Poland suffers from the highest number of traffic fatalities in Europe seems to support our conclusion.

Our friends (both Polish and ex-pat) have suggested numerous reasons why Poles are such lead-footed aggressive drivers. Some say that it's because under Communism it was more about having the right bribe and less about successfully passing the drivers test. Other's blame poor road conditions.

Dave and I have always maintained it's because of the confusing traffic signage in the country - the driver's handbook in Poland is about 50 pages long, and 30 of those are pages explaining what hundreds of different signs mean (trust me - most of them are not intuitive).

After two years in Poland, I am proud to say we finally captured the perfect illustration of Poland's baffling traffic signs:This is an actual picture shot from our car while driving in Warsaw, and yes, that IS a stop sign mounted on top of a traffic light. I am baffled. When the light is green...do you stop and then go? And when the light is red...do you have to stop twice?? Maybe what it really means is that obeying the traffic light is optional as long as you stop first. Since we've seen many cars in Poland treat red traffic lights as mere recommendations, it seems like the stop sign would still be a bit superfluous...