Bucharest city tales: The traffic police – waving and whistling

Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she talks about the “dancing” traffic police conducting the traffic with the whistle. The king of the roads, you have all seen them dressed in a green-blue jacket conducting the traffic. I mean the traffic policemen, they always fascinate me, and not just because they're men in uniforms. It is a whole different thing I can’t keep my eyes off. In Romania, the traffic is controlled not only by the changing lights but also by policemen signaling to the drivers where and how to drive. This is seen in many places in the world, if the traffic lights don’t work, a policeman will have to take over and sort of conduct the traffic. What is slightly different from what I know is that in Romania, they will also conduct the traffic even if the lights are working with the intention of getting the crowded traffic to go faster, even if this sometimes seems relatively impossible. The traffic policemen – or women - usually standing in the middle of the intersection have two tools here in Romania to conquer the traffic and the drivers: signaling with their hands and arms and then the whistles. In Romania, it is although they really like to conduct the traffic, and take every chance they can get to be in the middle of the traffic waving their arms about. It is a whole dance show that will impress most aerobics instructors. Actually there are a lot of different combinations to their waving, some use their arms, wrists or the whole body, and often I am impressed by their skills. How nice it would be to be the fly on the wall in their classes where they are taught how to signal the street. Who is the instructor? As some of the policemen signal in a way that looks like ballet, others look like they are at a techno party or had a former life as a discus thrower at Olympic level, others look like it’s the Harlem Shake that is happening, where their whole body is in movement. I am curious to know if it is possible for others who want to get fit to attend these classes? Their coordination skills are excellent; they both handle the traffic and their movements, a coordination feat of which everybody attending an aerobic or zumba class would be jealous. The whistles' sound makes your ears turn yellow. The whistles have a sound to them, that could be pleasant, but in their eagerness, some of the policemen have the tendency to blow the whistle with an unpleasant tone, a sort of non-stop tone, that will make your ears scream for mercy, because you can end up being part of this noise while just trying to cross the street. And if you are a bit stressed, certainly the sound of the whistle will make your blood pressure rise sky high, since the tone really gets to you. But luckily there are also the policemen who keep the beat with the traffic, that is sort of cool, like a DJ in the middle of the traffic. All in all I am not so happy with the “hysterical” whistlers, since pedestrians and car drivers all seem to be affected by this in a way that makes the traffic even more frustrating. So since there are so many very gifted musicians in Romania, could it be possible to teach the policemen to sort of play on the whistle, maybe even change the whistle to another instrument - even if I can see the problem with a policeman conducting the traffic with a violin- but a trumpet could work. Something unique for Romania, and, at the same time, way more pleasant.