Today's topic I would like to explain first by means of a parable...
Say, for instance you and I are standing up, facing eachother, and without warning, I slap you in the face for no reason...You were completely unprepared for the slap and it stings because you were not able to react quickly enough to get your face out of the way... (Of course I won't slap a woman, I will get a big Russian female masseuse to do it...)
Reaction-time is the crux...
Then I ask you:
"Why didn't you get your face out of the way? You think mos that you are Superman or something, don't you? The way you drive on other car's bumpers on the highway and in town...?"
I cringe all the time when I see the following distance that most drivers maintain. Its apalling. Do you realize the danger that you are in? And the danger that you are putting your fellow drivers in? And don't give me that crap of 'everyone does it'... Its stupid and careless and you know it...
What I want people to realize is that when you are less than ten metres away from the car in front of you, and driving at speeds of sixty kilometres and up, you have much less reaction time than it would take you to get your face out of the path of my big, heavy, slapping right hand when something happens...much less. And believe me, eventually, something WILL happen...
So... Please... If you are reading this, send it, re-share it, mail it, I don't care... Just let people know of this site in some or other fashion so that they can read what is writen here... Get the word out.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
To stop or to go...that is the question...
From a cold and a bit windy Johannesburg in Gauteng I greet you with chattering teeth...
Today I would like to address a very serious issue... To stop, or to go and take that chance... At a stop-sign or a traffic light that is...
With this issue I am afraid that I can't point the finger at anyone in particular. In fact there are very, very few drivers in South Africa who are not guilty of this awesomely stupid crime, me included.
What I am referring to is when the traffic light goes orange and your car is still two hundred metres away and you speed up so you can still make it over before the red light strikes...
Meantime, when you reach the crossing you are doing ninety kilometres per hour but the light has already turned red. In my opinion you have absolutely no excuse for crossing the red light. You saw the orange way ahead of time. You should have stopped...
The funny thing is, while you are speeding over the red light at ninety, a taxi driver starts to cross in front of you because, in stead of waiting for his green, he was looking at the opposite traffic-lights turning orange and started to cross without paying any attention to any other cars doing stupid things.
Now you plough into him from the right...
Of course, you die instantly, because it doesn't matter what safety features your car has, at those speeds they don't count anymore... Of course, all of the people in the taxi, on the side that you hit at ninety, die instantly from the sheer force of the impact shattering their bodies like a contained explosion...
Now, no matter how you look at this, you are also to blame...
What I'm trying to get at here is that if we all just shed this attitude of trying to be first in line, this sickly attitude of entitlement that we all still have left over from "you-know-what" that ended in 1996... If we all just relax, give eachother a chance, and NOT TAKE ANY CHANCES!...we will all be so much safer on the roads of this amzing country of ours...
And then... That taxi driver that started to cross on the orange light, a lot of us do that too...
Now listen, if I happen to tread on anyone's toes with anything that I write on this site, I would like to say this: Get over it...
If you feel offended by anything on this site then you are one of the guilty ones...
A few weeks ago, on my scooter, I was driving past a school that is on my route home. Just as I was driving over a speed-hump, a blue BMW came flying past me over the hump. I say flying because he was in the air with speed. I know he was in the air because a BMW's side mirrors are not high enough for my elbow to touch when I'm on my scooter... But...this BMW hit my right elbow with it's left side mirror...
Lets just get the facts straight:
1. I was on a scooter
2. BMW was going fast enough to be airborne from the (very shallow) speed-hump
3. Close enough to me to hit my elbow as it passed me
As it happens, on my route, I saw the the BMW pulling into a driveway after it had disappeared for a while on a different route. I was not happy. So I pulled over and got onto the kerb and confronted the driver of the car as he waited for his automatic gate to open.
I asked him if he realised that he had almost just killed me...?
Take a guess at what the justification of his actions came down to...
He said: "I almost killed you... but I didn't kill you... so what?
Goodness gracious me!
I have made peace with that incident and just thank my Creator that He was looking out for me...
But...
From the overwhelming condemning evidence pertaining to driver-attentiveness, driver-consideration, respect for road-law, respect for other drivers and motorcyclists, I put it to you that most of us have the same attitude on the road as the guy in the BMW...
Think about it...
Today I would like to address a very serious issue... To stop, or to go and take that chance... At a stop-sign or a traffic light that is...
With this issue I am afraid that I can't point the finger at anyone in particular. In fact there are very, very few drivers in South Africa who are not guilty of this awesomely stupid crime, me included.
What I am referring to is when the traffic light goes orange and your car is still two hundred metres away and you speed up so you can still make it over before the red light strikes...
Meantime, when you reach the crossing you are doing ninety kilometres per hour but the light has already turned red. In my opinion you have absolutely no excuse for crossing the red light. You saw the orange way ahead of time. You should have stopped...
The funny thing is, while you are speeding over the red light at ninety, a taxi driver starts to cross in front of you because, in stead of waiting for his green, he was looking at the opposite traffic-lights turning orange and started to cross without paying any attention to any other cars doing stupid things.
Now you plough into him from the right...
Of course, you die instantly, because it doesn't matter what safety features your car has, at those speeds they don't count anymore... Of course, all of the people in the taxi, on the side that you hit at ninety, die instantly from the sheer force of the impact shattering their bodies like a contained explosion...
Now, no matter how you look at this, you are also to blame...
What I'm trying to get at here is that if we all just shed this attitude of trying to be first in line, this sickly attitude of entitlement that we all still have left over from "you-know-what" that ended in 1996... If we all just relax, give eachother a chance, and NOT TAKE ANY CHANCES!...we will all be so much safer on the roads of this amzing country of ours...
And then... That taxi driver that started to cross on the orange light, a lot of us do that too...
Now listen, if I happen to tread on anyone's toes with anything that I write on this site, I would like to say this: Get over it...
If you feel offended by anything on this site then you are one of the guilty ones...
A few weeks ago, on my scooter, I was driving past a school that is on my route home. Just as I was driving over a speed-hump, a blue BMW came flying past me over the hump. I say flying because he was in the air with speed. I know he was in the air because a BMW's side mirrors are not high enough for my elbow to touch when I'm on my scooter... But...this BMW hit my right elbow with it's left side mirror...
Lets just get the facts straight:
1. I was on a scooter
2. BMW was going fast enough to be airborne from the (very shallow) speed-hump
3. Close enough to me to hit my elbow as it passed me
As it happens, on my route, I saw the the BMW pulling into a driveway after it had disappeared for a while on a different route. I was not happy. So I pulled over and got onto the kerb and confronted the driver of the car as he waited for his automatic gate to open.
I asked him if he realised that he had almost just killed me...?
Take a guess at what the justification of his actions came down to...
He said: "I almost killed you... but I didn't kill you... so what?
Goodness gracious me!
I have made peace with that incident and just thank my Creator that He was looking out for me...
But...
From the overwhelming condemning evidence pertaining to driver-attentiveness, driver-consideration, respect for road-law, respect for other drivers and motorcyclists, I put it to you that most of us have the same attitude on the road as the guy in the BMW...
Think about it...
Friday, June 24, 2011
Traffic circles... What the hey?
Good day to you.
The issue that is on my heart today is the one concerning traffic circles.
The main aim of a traffic circle at a busy intersection is to let the traffic flow. The reason why it is so effective is because it doesn't require a driver to stop unless there is traffic coming from the right. Yes, a driver entering a traffic circle only has to give way to another driver entering the circle from his right.
Let me sum up the rule in understandable terms: Only stop at a traffic circle if someone approaches from your right.
Don't look around and try to see who stopped first or try not to annoy anyone. Thats not the point. The point is that if everyone follows this one premise upon which the effectivity of the traffic circle rests, the traffic will flow like a river, because that is what it was designed for.
I have to cross many traffic circles in Johannesburg every day and I am flabbergasted at the magnitude of congestion around these circles of ergonomica. Instead of letting the traffic flow, most of our brothers and sisters who don't know the traffic rules because they never actually went for a driving test, have mangled the rules and mechanisms that were designed to ease congestion through ignorance, selfishness and sheer aggression.
O.K. To recap:
At a traffic circle:
1. It is not a first-come-first-served setup like with a stop sign.
2. Entering a traffic circle you, as the driver of the car, only give way (i.o.w. stop for) to a driver who is entering the circle or coming round the circle from your right.
Just to be clear... Your right is the side on which the steering wheel sits in your car. Its the side where the sun comes up if you are facing north. Its the side opposite the hand that wears your wedding ring...
Please spread the word about this "supposed" common knowledge, send it on to everyone you know so that we can start to raise the awareness and bring down stress levels on the roads, especially in Johannesburg.
The issue that is on my heart today is the one concerning traffic circles.
The main aim of a traffic circle at a busy intersection is to let the traffic flow. The reason why it is so effective is because it doesn't require a driver to stop unless there is traffic coming from the right. Yes, a driver entering a traffic circle only has to give way to another driver entering the circle from his right.
Let me sum up the rule in understandable terms: Only stop at a traffic circle if someone approaches from your right.
Don't look around and try to see who stopped first or try not to annoy anyone. Thats not the point. The point is that if everyone follows this one premise upon which the effectivity of the traffic circle rests, the traffic will flow like a river, because that is what it was designed for.
I have to cross many traffic circles in Johannesburg every day and I am flabbergasted at the magnitude of congestion around these circles of ergonomica. Instead of letting the traffic flow, most of our brothers and sisters who don't know the traffic rules because they never actually went for a driving test, have mangled the rules and mechanisms that were designed to ease congestion through ignorance, selfishness and sheer aggression.
O.K. To recap:
At a traffic circle:
1. It is not a first-come-first-served setup like with a stop sign.
2. Entering a traffic circle you, as the driver of the car, only give way (i.o.w. stop for) to a driver who is entering the circle or coming round the circle from your right.
Just to be clear... Your right is the side on which the steering wheel sits in your car. Its the side where the sun comes up if you are facing north. Its the side opposite the hand that wears your wedding ring...
Please spread the word about this "supposed" common knowledge, send it on to everyone you know so that we can start to raise the awareness and bring down stress levels on the roads, especially in Johannesburg.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
This has to stop!
For too long now the roads of South Africa has been such a hell-bound horror that I can not hold my tongue anymore. Something has to be said... Something has to be done...
Minibus-taxi's are the first on the list. The first and the last for that matter. They have taken over control of the roads from the government and do exactly what they want, when they want. And we let them do it.
I sit at traffic lights in Johannesburg every day, waiting for the light to turn green with all the other normal people, and we just watch the taxi drivers shoot past us on the left side of the yellow line at the intersection, before the light has even turned green, pushing in past everyone on the left side of the road... and we all do nothing. Why?
No horn is heard, no obscene finger gestures made, no voices raised, nothing... We have become so complacent with this behaviour that we have come to accept it as the acceptable norm.
But it's not! These actions, these behaviours, are not right.
Another example: Why do we let them push into a packed double carriage way from outside the yellow line? This causes such a congested bottleneck on an already congested road... But we we let them in? I propose that we don't let them in. That we don't give them a chance.
Here is a thought for you...: If you see a taxi stopping in the yellow line at a robot, pull your car in front of it and stand there until all of the law-abiding traffic has passed by. He can't get mad at you because the emergency lane is to stop in, not to drive in. If no-one gives the taxi a chance to get into the stream, it will have to wait there until everyone has passed, before it can go.
I know this sounds radical but I have done this, with my little scooter. The driver lost about seven minutes in seriously heavy traffic and I know it affected his business in a big way. It felt great and I got a load of hoots and waves and smiles and thumbs up from the normal traffic crowd. I propose that we hit taxi drivers where it will hurt them the most. Their time.
The only way that we are going to start to have safer roads is if we make it safer in some passively-positive resistance manner.
ALTHOUGH, I am by no stretch of the imagination suggesting that anyone should put themselves in harm's way or do anyting rash. Never, ever, lose your temper when you are on the road. I repeat: NEVER LOSE YOUR TEMPER. If you do, you are irrational, and you are endangering not just yourself but all of the other innocent people who use the road with you.
I am starting this blog in order to get some or other momentum going toward research that I am conducting regarding a legislated system for the effective control of serial traffic violators. If we can get a large enough movement going through this blog, we might, at some stage, have enough momentum to influence someone, somewhere... Who knows? Lets try. Who is with me?
If you are, then sign up to this blog. I would like to build up a large database of like-minded people who can be contacted and who will be the backbone of this organization as it grows.
Minibus-taxi's are the first on the list. The first and the last for that matter. They have taken over control of the roads from the government and do exactly what they want, when they want. And we let them do it.
I sit at traffic lights in Johannesburg every day, waiting for the light to turn green with all the other normal people, and we just watch the taxi drivers shoot past us on the left side of the yellow line at the intersection, before the light has even turned green, pushing in past everyone on the left side of the road... and we all do nothing. Why?
No horn is heard, no obscene finger gestures made, no voices raised, nothing... We have become so complacent with this behaviour that we have come to accept it as the acceptable norm.
But it's not! These actions, these behaviours, are not right.
Another example: Why do we let them push into a packed double carriage way from outside the yellow line? This causes such a congested bottleneck on an already congested road... But we we let them in? I propose that we don't let them in. That we don't give them a chance.
Here is a thought for you...: If you see a taxi stopping in the yellow line at a robot, pull your car in front of it and stand there until all of the law-abiding traffic has passed by. He can't get mad at you because the emergency lane is to stop in, not to drive in. If no-one gives the taxi a chance to get into the stream, it will have to wait there until everyone has passed, before it can go.
I know this sounds radical but I have done this, with my little scooter. The driver lost about seven minutes in seriously heavy traffic and I know it affected his business in a big way. It felt great and I got a load of hoots and waves and smiles and thumbs up from the normal traffic crowd. I propose that we hit taxi drivers where it will hurt them the most. Their time.
The only way that we are going to start to have safer roads is if we make it safer in some passively-positive resistance manner.
ALTHOUGH, I am by no stretch of the imagination suggesting that anyone should put themselves in harm's way or do anyting rash. Never, ever, lose your temper when you are on the road. I repeat: NEVER LOSE YOUR TEMPER. If you do, you are irrational, and you are endangering not just yourself but all of the other innocent people who use the road with you.
I am starting this blog in order to get some or other momentum going toward research that I am conducting regarding a legislated system for the effective control of serial traffic violators. If we can get a large enough movement going through this blog, we might, at some stage, have enough momentum to influence someone, somewhere... Who knows? Lets try. Who is with me?
If you are, then sign up to this blog. I would like to build up a large database of like-minded people who can be contacted and who will be the backbone of this organization as it grows.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
And so the days go...
Here at the office we are all working hard on different projects. This one has to do that and that one has to do this. Not one day is ever the same. But that's how it is when you are woking in a creative environment. We all have to make sure that everything is in place for the top brass to do a presentation. We all have to work together so that when the brass have to give a progress report, they have all the information to present a coherent picture to the client. In a working environment like this the most awesome relationships are formed and nurtured. IT IS AWESOME!
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