[moyok]

This used to happen to me every time I had to go to the airport in the night, and would book some local taxi to do that. The drivers just never cared about the traffic signals in the night.

The prevalent attitude seems to be that traffic rules are more like guidelines and can be broken if it seems "okay" to do so. Driving on the wrong side of the road is for example quite common, and most people do it to avoid making a long U-turn. Someone who I knew was driving a car and had a head on collision with a scooter travelling the wrong way on a highway, and the scooter had three passengers on board it (it's called "tripling" and is also pretty common). Sometimes you get to see cars reversing on highways with fast moving traffic, because they missed a turn and wanted to go back.

Things could probably get better in the future though. In New Delhi, for example - according to a new law, if you are caught in a traffic violation (such as ignoring a traffic signal), you lose your license along with the right to drive for three months. I saw somebody's status on Facebook that this happened to them, so it's not just an empty threat too.

[asib]

When I was in Vietnam & Indonesia, I regularly saw people driving on the wrong side of the road. Luckily, they would generally drive just off the road, so traffic on the road wouldn't be at risk of a collision. It was also similarly common to see entire families riding on one scooter - I regularly saw families of 4 riding together.

[lucio]

If you're "driving" (a scooter?) just off the road, or walking alongside a road, it is better to doit counter-traffic so you can see the traffic comming.

If you switch sides, the traffic will aproach from your back, and that's a lot more dangerous.