South African Drivers

Cops chasing speedsters numbers

Ever bumped into someone you haven't seen in a couple of years and remarked on how they've changed?  You pick up immediately the changes in hair style and colour, wrinkles and body shape.  Now if you'd spent those years in the company of the same person, the changes would be less apparent over the years.

I had always suspected the courtesy and common sense of drivers on the road in South Africa has been declining over the years.  It became immediately apparent, after I'd returned from a year and a half stint in Europe, that this was indeed true.  The level of road rage has increased, the agressive behaviour has increased, and the painfully rude manners of most on the road have reached unbearable proportions.

Agreed, I'm generalizing.  But that's okay - because it is "in general" that affects all of us on the road.  I attribute this trend to the increase in the number of vehicles (more condensed housing estates), and the poor show the traffic department has displayed in enforcing the rules of the road and road-worthiness of vehicles, especially those transporting passengers - busses and mini-bus taxi's alike.

Unless more effort is made by all, it will spiral into unbearable proportions, to the point where our roads are like intersections in India, without the bicycles.

• Get people out of cars and onto public transport.  Personally, I think Gautrain is an awesome and challenging endevour, and I hope it's a start of many similar initiatives to come.
• Introduce recurring road worthy inspections, similar to the MOT in the UK.
• Slow the people down.  Everyone's in way too much of a rush.  We all have to get "there".  Deal with it.
• Enforce the law of the road.  Who the hell do these mini-busses think they are - the only vehicles on the road?  Sure, they keep the economy running, but unless we want more road deaths, they must shape up or ship out.

And the list continues...

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