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.