Realities of Ukrainian Life: Car signage

You know what’s crazy? I haven’t driven a car in almost two years. The minute we got to Kyiv and I took a look at how the people in this city drive, I swore that I would not, under any circumstance, get behind the wheel of a car here. I am smart enough to understand that I am a nervous driver in the US, therefore would be an absolute wreck here. Potentially causing an absolute wreck. I really think it’s been best for everyone. So I haven’t really taken a lot of time to learn what different street signs mean (not that the drivers here seem to pay any attention to them anyway…), but I did notice rather quickly that there are certain signs posted in cars that kind of look like warning labels. As I’ve learned more about these, I really feel like they give a helpful insight into the psyche of the average Ukrainian driver.

The Student Driver: This may look like a “Y” to the average American, but here it’s a Cyrillic “oo” and it means that the driver is a student. I’m not really sure exactly how long a driver is considered a student, but some days it seems like half the cars I see on the street have one of these stickers in the window.

The Female Driver: Yup. That’s really what it means. When I first saw one of these, I was totally disgusted and offended, but it definitely is a reality of Ukrainian life that it is totally acceptable to stereotype the sexes.

Baby on Board: This craze may have ended years ago in the US, but it’s still going strong in Ukraine. There are many different versions of this one – in English; in Russian; in Ukrainian; some even have Winnie the Pooh on them.

I’m not sure what to call this one, but it’s my personal favorite, as I feel it says a lot about what’s going through the minds of Ukrainian drivers. This (it’s a “sh” in Cyrillic for those of you keeping track) means that the car uses studded tires during the winter months. Which is supposed to let other drivers know that it will actually be able to stop on icy/snowy surfaces. In my thinking, this means that the majority of cars on the road are expected to slip and slide all over the place like a bunch of bumper cars. How inconvenient of some drivers to essentially turn their vehicles into brick walls on the road by equiping themselves to be able to stop on the ice.