Formula Two

This is our transportation in San Paulo. It is a 6 years old Ford Fiesta with 1.0 engine. It has heater and air conditioning. It is a bit slow, but still can make 120 km/h.

In Brazil, you will see mostly small cars made in Brazil--VW, Ford, GM, Citroën, Renault, Fiat, Honda, Toyota.

Imported cars are more expensive as the local auto industry is protected.

Brazilians are passionate people. When it comes to driving, they are passionately excited. On the highways, they will tailgate you until you move out of their way. There are a few famous Formula One drivers here. The others are trying to make Formula Two on highways.

Like in North America, they drive on the right side of the road and most often over the speed limit. There are photo radars all over the state of San Paulo. You can get both fines and points. I haven't seen police chasing speeders, only stopping suspicious autos.

Using cell phone is prohibited while driving but still many people do. All cars are equipped with fire extinguishers by law. Yes, you have to wear seat belts here.

Stop sign! What Stop sign? Here it becomes a "Yield" sign. Practically no one stops before the stop line. In some cities, motorists can ignore red signal lights due to crimes at intersections.

The State of San Paulo has a very good infrastructure of highway systems. There are state highways, federal highways as well as privately owned highways which require toll payments. The best highways are those privately owned. They can match those in California.

The highway system of São Paulo is the largest statewide road transportation system in Brazil, with 34,650 km. It consists of a hugely interconnected network of municipal (11,600 km), state (22,000 km) and federal (1,050 km) roads. More than 90% of the population is within 5 km of a paved road.

We do plenty of highway driving here. My favorite part of highway traveling is the roadside restaurants. These are huge restaurants with sit down and counter service. There are also shopping for stuffs, food items, drinks, bakery, etc. We usually stop to have espresso and snack.

My favorite highway restaurant is Frango Assado http://www.redefrangoassado.com.br/. I love their dry fried chicken. It is like Shanghainese' "炸八塊 Fried 8 Pieces".
http://www.redefrangoassado.com.br/pratos_restaurante.asp