 |
| Hey, if I had indicators like this I'd use them as much as possible! |
Dubai Police have recently announced a week-long campaign to
encourage indicator use. According to the front page of last Monday’s 7DAYS
newspaper, the majority of motorists do not use indicators when changing lanes,
which resulted in one in four of the deaths on Dubai’s roads last year.
According to the head of Dubai Traffic Police, indicators are perceived by the
yoof as only for old people. Western drivers, however, do use their indicators;
this is part of their culture.
Er, no. Culture is related to art, music, dance, literature.
How people behave when they get behind the wheel isn’t cultural. It’s all down
to education and enforcement. Although, as the roads resemble a battle zone at
times, it seems only appropriate that so many motorists appear to be cultured
enough to have read Sun Tzu’s The Art of
War:
- “All warfare is based on deception.”
- “Mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy.”
- “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.”
And the idea that we are at war on the highway seems to be the prevailing attitude. Just try to
indicate before changing lanes, and inevitably that gap you were planning to
move into will vanish. We give away our tactical advantage if we show anyone
else what we’re planning to do.
For crying out loud, people, this is not Death Race 2000.
However, getting everyone to indicate isn’t going to solve
the original road safety problem. “He changed lanes without signalling” becomes
“He signalled and then changed lanes, heedless of the fact that someone was in
the way.” Wednesday’s 7DAYS ran a story of a fatal crash, in which the victim
was hit “by a driver who changed lanes without looking or indicating.” How
would the outcome have changed if the driver had indicated, yet moved anyway? Not
by very much, I suspect.
Indicators, the current road safety panacea du jour,
actually do not provide a divine right to change lanes or turn. Irrespective of flashing lights or any other signals, we can only
move into an empty space.
Sun Tzu again: “Be where your enemy is not.”
]}:-{>
No comments:
Post a Comment