Driving and intolerance

Well, it's the second day of having a blog and I decided to live up to the title of the page, namely to "ramble" on about stuff that happened to be on my mind.

Like most other people in South Africa, I travel to and from the office or my place of work almost every day, which means I'm in traffic for some time. As stated before, I ride a motorcycle, which makes my time in the traffic less than if I had been traveling by car, but I am in the traffic nonetheless.

This morning is one of the rare occasions I decided to travel to work by car, seeing as it has been raining non-stop for the last couple of days and I DO actually have a car to keep me dry when necessary. (Putting on the rain suit for a short trip like today is just not worth the effort!)

On the way to work I was struck again by how intolerant people are of each other when in traffic. I can understand when people become intolerant when you do something really silly and endanger those around you, but what really gets to me is the fact that people become most intolerant when you actually obey the traffic signs and rules.

All you need to do is stop at a traffic light that has gone amber and is about to go red, or stop for the obligatory 3 seconds at a stop sign ...

I am on the brink of having to teach my daughter to drive and ride bike, as she turns 16 in the next couple of months. I have actually been thinking of starting a driving/riding school that combines the legal side of the driver's test with tips for survival on the roads. The legal side will be to help the student pass their driver's test, obviously.

The survival tips part of the course will cover subjects like:

• How to stop legally at a stop sign or red traffic light and not be hit from behind by the guy who thought you were going to go through it like everyone else.
  
• Safely negotiating the new traffic light system. (Also known as: Green means "Go", Amber means "Go like Hell" and Red means "Last Chance".)
• 101 ways to keep a safe following distance and still move forward.
• How to focus on and predict what the 8 people around you are going to do next. (Also known as: "Focusing like a chameleon.")
• Prayer before, during and after a trip.

It would be interesting to see what other course titles people could come up with for the survival tips part of the course, because I am sure there are quite some interesting experiences out there.