The rules are, there are no rules!

One of the biggest challenges I have found living in Cambodia is the traffic, which is crazy. I have got more used to it now but it can still be a bit scary.

On 1 January 2016, Cambodia introduced a new law on road traffic (http://www.infinity.com.kh/claims/RoadTrafficLaw2015EN.pdf).  When you read the new laws, they seem to make a lot of sense and are things that we would probably take for granted.  For example, Article 7 states that vehicles "shall always keep to the right side of the road" and Article 8 includes restrictions on drink driving and using mobile phones, requirements to wear seat belts and helmets and limits to the number of people using a motorbike (three - two adults and one child).

However, in reality there are challenges in implementing these laws.  For a start, at any one time the majority of the people on the road are breaking at least one (if not more) of the new road rules.  In particular the ones I mentioned above are routinely not followed. It is not unusual to see a motorbike with more than three people, not wearing helmets, riding the wrong way up the street, whilst the driver is talking on a mobile phone.

Part of the problem is that it is really easy to get a drivers license here and there are no tests.  So there is very little education about how to drive and the road rules - what they are and why they are important.  For motorcycles under 125cc (which is most of the vehicles on the road), you don't even need a license at all.

There are also financial constraints.  For many people the motorbike is the one and only family vehicle, so it is used to transport the whole family (and often an assortment of other goods).  They simply can't afford to just use a motorbike to transport two adults and one child.

There are also challenges with corruption.  I read that there would no longer be on the spot fines but I think that in most cases you can just pay the police rather than the fine.  So there isn't much incentive for following the rules.

Despite these rules having been in place for six months, I haven't really seen much improvement and most people either seem to not know or not care about the rules.  Although, I think that there are more people wearing helmets - so that might be having some impact.

So, the rules really appear more like suggestions and even those suggestions are rarely followed.  For me it shows that laws are not enough to change behaviour, you really need to have good education and effective incentives (positive and negative) to get people to act differently.  

Having said all this, the traffic in Siem Reap is much calmer than in Phnom Penh.  Mainly due to the fact that it is so much smaller and there are way less vehicles on the road.  So now when I am cycling around I feel much less like I am risking my life.  Or maybe I have just got used to the chaos.