Home | Feature | ANOTHER KIND OF TRAFFICKING?

ANOTHER KIND OF TRAFFICKING?

12/11/2020 00:47:00 BY CHRIS MORGAN

Font size:

We can thank the French and Italian peoples for the word traffic. Nothing negative about it and the day-to-day activities to which it refers. Even the activity itself – trafficking – is only defined as the moving of vehicles and people along routes of transportation. Nothing wrong with that either. However, the word trafficking has developed highly odious associations,being nowadays almost exclusively applied to the trafficking of people and drugs.

Today, in response to a concern expressed by a number of readers, we will extend the negative implications of the word trafficking to the recalcitrant behaviour of some motorists. Let’s start with a definition, status informal - vehicle trafficking: The activity of selfish, irresponsible and potentially dangerous moving of vehicles by people on public roads. That is entirely different from the perfectly respectable activity of vehicle driving.

This is not trivialising the seriousness of the other forms of trafficking. Merely, that each is life-threatening in its own way. It should be added that vehicle trafficking within our new definition is not confined to this country. On the main motorway of a European country, a driver was recently observed driving – well, hardly driving – with a cellphone held by hand to the ear, and the other hand working a laptop exactly where it started its global life – on the lap; with only periodich and contact with the steering wheel. We are not told which way his eyes were looking! Thanks to motorway cameras, the motorist got nicked. We don’t have that monitoring facility, but if we had,we would also see some extraordinary behaviour on our roads. An alarming proportion of drivers at any one time are on their cellphones. Gone are the days pre-1998 when motorists in Eswatini waited till the destination to make or take a call.

Apart from the loss of manual control, there is apparently a reduction in driver concentration when in conversation with someone physically remote. Interestingly, that has been shown to apply equally to the hands-free telephone facility installed in some vehicles. Quite simply, it is not the same as listening to music or holding a conversation with another occupant of the same vehicle. Hard to appreciate? Scientifically proven.

Reflection

Then you have the driver behind you trying desperately to attach his or her bumper to yours. This is surely the most lucid reflection of an individual’s personality in and out of the car. Sheer impatience. Didn’t the Highway Code advised you to put a sizeable distance between you and the car in front? Otherwise you are endangering the well-being of the occupants of both your vehicle and the one ahead. The brakes applied harply by a vehicle may cause the vehicle too close behind to deliver a very painful dose of neck-whiplash. Or worse.

And then there’s the roundabout, where there appears to be a lack of awareness of the basic urban or Highway Code rule- give way to the right unless otherwise directed. It does not matter whether there are a hundred cars coming to the roundabout from your right. You have to wait. There is of course the impressive courtesy of many good motorists on our roads who voluntarily stop at the roundabout and allow traffic in from the left. A socially commendable action, but potentially dangerous in encouraging the poorly-informed to treat the roundabout as a free-for-all. And then, of course, you get the cowboys who choose to ignore entirely the rules – even the existence - of the roundabout and take the shortest route, going right and directly into the oncoming traffic. Well, like all cowboys, they should just get back on their horses and leave the vehicle driving to the mentally balanced.

Boots

And if the Royal Eswatini Police Services wants to boost its revenues,at the same time as protecting life,then it should post its officers on the traffic lights in the urban centres. The frequent sight of a motorist driving across the red light, long after its appearance, makes the observer shudder, and wonder when that will end in tragedy. And how many times have you stopped at a zebra crossing only to see vehicles behind,in another lane, carrying on through? With the driver often on a cellphone and blissfully unaware of pedestrians leaping back to safety. The police do not have to man the traffic lights permanently. Spot visits,with the necessary interventions,will cause those drivers to soon get the message and start behaving.

I reserve the final comment to a problem that did not start with the driver. It is the number of potholes on our urban roads. Where’s the money from rates going? In the meantime, the sight of cars weaving across the road to avoid potholes, endangering human life just to protect springs and shock absorbers, makes you want to weep. This is a well-mannered society. Let’s extend that fully to our roads.