It's for you...

Driving while using your mobile phone is illegal in South Africa. It is illegal for a very good reason. There is no way you can concentrate on your driving while having a conversation with someone let alone sending an sms.

Today at a roundabout I saw 2 out of 3 cars with the driver on a cell phone. Then I entered a freeway behind a car that was behaving strangely. The driver stayed on the yellow line and never entered the lane. When I passed I saw the woman was sending a text message at 80 km/h on the freeway. Hopefully she saw the truck she was closing in on before she hit it.

I was once talking to someone using a hands free kit. I was asked a serious question and was busy answering when I realised how little attention I was paying to the road. I quickly ended the call and called later but the damage could have already been done.
A moments lapse can cost your life, or worse, others. Is the call really worth the death of one or more people? I don’t think so.

Just flipping wait!!

When you’re at a traffic light and there is a lot of traffic, chances are that you wont make it through the light this time. If you sneak through and wait in the middle of the intersection, you are grid locking it.
What that means is that if the light changes so the traffic crossing your path can go, and you haven’t moved, you are blocking the way. How are they supposed to get across? Must they go around you, over you, through you?

What you need to do is not enter the intersection if you cannot get out of it straight away. So wait at the line if there is no space for you on the other side. Then the other people, who have just as much right to be on the road and have a free path as you, can go freely.

If you are in a line of cars in traffic and there is a road to your side, don’t block it in case a car wants to go in or out of that road. If your lane is standing still there is no need for another road to be blocked because of you. It is a simple, courteous movement that will allow traffic to flow freely in some places even if yours is not. Who knows, perhaps the reason yours isn’t flowing is because someone gridlocked or didn’t give a gap when they could have….

Agression for Nothing

I pity people who are agressive on the road. You often se ethem speeding along only to brake hard behind another car going slower than them, hooting or flashing their lights to get them out of the way only to speed on to the next obstruction.

Ironically I always find myself next to them at the traffic lights no matter how fast they drive, how much they weave in and out of the slower cars they still end up in the same place as everyone else.

Imagine the frustration one must go through having EVERYONE in your way. It must feel like everyone is out to get you and hold you back.

I do pity them, I hope one day they realise they just need to chill and get there in the same amount of time and saving less fuel, tyres and brakes.

On a side note, the clutch on my car needs replacing. I managed to get more than 108,000km out of one clutch. Not bad if I say so myself...

Fuel Consumption

My Car has a function in the onboard computer that tells you your average fuel consumption as well as your current fuel consumption. I find this very handy as I try compete with myself (sad aren't I?) to see how low I can maintain it.

This helps me in that I now plan my routes around Durban to use as little fuel as posisble. I use motorways so that I don't stop continuously and I try avoid long, slow hills.

I've also started driving with upward pressure on my right foot. What that means is that instead of pressing down on the gas continuously, I get to my speed, then I lift my foot slowly until just before it starts to slow down then thats where I keep the pressure. It really helps keep your fuel economy right down and saves quite a bit of money.

Try it and see...

Petrol and time savers

I was driving through Durban's CBD yesterday and was stopped at every traffic light along a straight section of road. 
I wonder how much time and petrol will be saved by synchronizing those lights. Strictly speaking, if you get stopped at one light and all the others are synched, when you go you should get through them all. Not only will that be really pleasant, you wouldn't have to brake, then accelerate again in first gear and go through the gears again, your engine could run at constant, lower revs in a higher gear saving you fuel as you go.
This wouldn’t work for those that tear from light to light at high speed because by the time they arrived at the next light, the traffic that had built up there would not have moved off yet and they would be braking, then accelerating again, wasting more fuel than ever...

Who has Right of Way?

I do like a courteous driver. Someone who will let you into a gap in traffic, or get out of your way and let you all get on with your commute happily and safely.

We need to be careful with our generosity. Today I was at an intersection, a T-junction where I wanted to turn right an dtraffic was fairly heavy. A woman who was going to turn into the road waved me to go. As kind as her offer was, there were cars streaming around behind her basically meaning I could not go at all. She drove off with a frustrated look on her face because I didn't accept her gracious offer.

When doing this you need to be aware of a few things, look at the traffic from the other person's point of view. Can they actually go? Is there something that is blocking them and not you? Be mindful that you may have right of way on the road for a good reason, stopping to allow someone into the road will actually be causing an unexpected blockage in the road. We know that most people aren't concentrating on the road anyway, how would you feel if your corteous act caused a tragic accident a few meteres behind you?

My general rule is, if you have right of way, take it.

The Cost of Bad Driving

This morning there was an accident where a minibus taxi overturned when it swerved to avoid a car that had slowed down in front of it. Twelve people were injured.

That means the following;

• 12 people didn't make it to work today
• 12 people are now in a government hospital that won't help them much
• 5 people were seriously injured
• The hospital system, if it does save their lives, will probably leave them unable to work for a long time.
• Disability grants will be claimed.
• Further claims will be made from the Road Accident Fund
• There is one less taxi to take people to work (I'm not sure if this is a bad or good thing)
• A driver will lose his job, if he is not injured or killed and the Taxi owner will have to pay for repairs or a new taxi.

All this because one person wasn't paying attention on the road. Children die because of this kind of behaviour. The cost of an accident on the government, and ultimately our pockets is ridiculous. You and I pay for all those claims intax on our petrol. The worse we all drive, the more we end up paying...