Loosing Trust in Traffic

It is extremely difficult to pass your test here in South Africa. I heard this mentioned in the radio last week; they're starting to investigate the situation as it's neigh on impossible to pass the test. A colleague tried and failed for ten years. He's now left the country, never getting his African lisence, always driving with a photocopy of his American one.

No-one seems to mind how you drive after you've passed the test. We do get the occasional ticket after zooming past easily triggered hidden speed cameras, but other than that people seem to drive more or less how they please without anyone telling them off.

You're allowed to run a red light if you don't feel safe stopping. I've never done that as I've never felt unsafe. In that kind of a situation I would probably not pay much attention to the traffic regulations in any case.

You're allowed to pass a car from either side, which results in cars zigzagging with near-impossible manouvers at high speeds in the motorways. You must be especially aware of minibuses at all times. The drivers hire the cars for a day and must do a huge number of trips to cover the daily hire fee. The drivers cram as many people in the car as they can, stopping suddenly where ever there are potential passengers. On top of that, the different minibus companies are at war, occasionally shooting eachother.

The road signs look professional. There are some exotic ones, warning you of turtles, toads, baboons and springboks on the road, and ones in parking lots reminding you to check under your car for any sleeping penguins. Some signs can be confusing, and on the way to school there's a stretch of road where you can't be sure of who has the right of way. You stay alert, be polite and don't quarrel with the minibus drivers as they will squeeze before you no matter whose turn it is.

I was taught to obey the lines between yours and the oncoming traffic's: a solid line is like a brick wall and you just simply do not cross it. Here the lines between the two lanes seem to be more like a suggestion. The may be a nice indicator of when it may be possible to overtake in the mountains but you frequently need to drive through the 'brick wall' in order to turn at a junction.

Depending on the location, the Stop-sign may be considered more as 'slow down, why don't you?' than 'come to a full stop at the white line'. They use stop signs instead of round-a-bouts so often all the cars coming from all the directions into a junction must stop. The one that came first gets to go first. They also request you to treat junctions as a 'four way stop' when traffic lights are out of order. It's total chaos, naturally, but think about the level of chaos in major morning traffic if every car really stopped and figured out who came first.

Even having lights in your car also seems to be more of a suggestion rather than a rule. The cars are roadworthy as long as someone gets them to move. They only need to have a checkup when you buy the car, but no MOTs after that. You see cars on the road and you wonder how the pieces stick together, let alone move together in one piece. Hazard lights mean you're stopping. Then again, you see cars whizzing by you in the dark with their hazard lights blinking – in this case the head lights don't work so the driver is using the hazard lights as a means to see in the dark.

Sometimes you drive along and the car in front of you puts the right blinker on. You naturally move a bit to the left to be able to easily pass him as he'll slow down and turn right. Suddenly the car moves in front of you, puts the breaks on and comes to a full stop, with you missing him by inches. The car hasn't been planning to turn right at any point. Instead, the driver has indicated he'll stop by putting the hazard lights on, but as the left blinkers don't work the only light you see blinking in the right one, which made you think he'll turn right. I've realised you need to completely loose your trust in other drivers or you're screwed.