The Other Side of Motoring

There appear to be two groups of motorists on the road:
1) those who believe that expensive, safe and roadworthy cars are all that’s necessary to ensure road safety, and
2)those that believe common courtesy based on a lack of arrogance and lack of impatience is the answer.

Group 1 probably are more motivated by looking good and improving life quality, and inflating ego, compared to group 2 who are more into functional transport, ie actually using the vehicle as a transportation tool.

Many of us, including, I suspect, the enemy Taxi Drivers, believe that speed and impatience is more the major problem, and it would be really nice to hear some wisdom from this group once in a while, since the motoring editors and writers are always group 1. For example, our group, the courtesy group 2, do not think that the right hand lane is reserved for speedsters going 120+, and others should move out the way. If speedsters want to endanger their lives, they should weave in and out of the lanes and leave us in relative peace. Fancy, expensive cars should, in fact, be banned, simply because the speed limit is 120, so anything with the ability to go significantly faster (say 140+) should be banned or modified accordingly. SUVs and 4x4s should be limited to 100kms/hr, since they can cause a lot more damage than ordinary cars. They also use more petrol, and poison the environment more. All cars should be fitted with soft impact front ends to preserve pedestrians and animals when involved in collisions with them. Airbags should be banned – they simply encourage drivers to drive more recklessly, since their chances of emerging unscathed from accidents is now better than other driver’s, not to mention pedestrians. ABS should be compulsory on all cars. Making things more fair on the road, for example not having 250km/hr supercars and super 4x4s sharing the road with 100km/hr taxis and 30km/hr trucks would greatly improve road safety, especially as the expensive cars may feel less arrogant if their cars were slower. Taking things to their logical conclusion, what is the point of having more than one type of car? People should get out of this culture of thinking that a car is an extension of themselves, or a reflection of who they are. They can do that in the privacy of their house, and it won’t have any effect on anyone else. They can customize their driving look by wearing sunglasses. This may also encourage people to use their car less, which would help save the environment.

Pride, Arrogance, Racism - Where are we going?

Why do we have these problems? Probably, well definitely, a throwback from evolution. These have always been required human traits for survival. Certainly a troop of early men needed them to create group unity, to ensure group success, and to fend of others and enemies. Then prophets realised that these traits are also whats causing wars and friction among humans, so they write books like the Bible, which say we must be humble, and love our brother man. So we have a natural clash within us. Certainly education helps, but it must be the right kind of education, and this is happening less and less in the world, not more. Maybe its because teaching is a low-grade profession, whereas accountancy and law are high grade and highly paid. It may have been possible for man to choose the survival route. The most likely countries to lead such an effort may be UK or Nordic countries, where socialism is strong, and pure capitalism is weaker. However, this is not going to happen, and many people will say, "who cares?", since we should not try to alter our destiny, the natural way we are going. So I suppose George Orwell's 1984 scenario is what we will end up with. As a common member of the public, I would certainly not choose such a route, but I see that its becoming accepted and even looked forward to by the majority of people on earth. The new Mercedes Benz advert even has people with barcodes on their neck, suggesting thats what the future holds. I know many people like to be controlled and like to do huge amounts of administration required for vast and complicated legislation, and be penalised for any mistakes, but for many of us, its going to be tough. In fact, you can expect a high rate of people taking up risky ventures such as crime, since no one will care whether they live or die anymore. Except, of course, the politburo...