Violations of common sense
Perhaps sandlands police could spend a bit less time fretting over "corrupting" pop videos and getting websites blocked and a bit more time revamping their monumentally deficient traffic laws. After all, no one has yet died from YouTube, but thousands die every year from murderous motoring morons. So perhaps it's about time tailgating was relegated from legal national sport to criminal offence:
"A total of 211 people thought that the consequences of tailgating were ‘that you can frustrate other drivers and make them angry’. While that is probably perfectly true, the real answer to the question is ‘tailgating cannot result in a traffic violation’. That’s right. As 27 people knew, tailgating is not illegal in the UAE.
"And yet 250 knew that the main cause of rear-end shunts was driving too close to the vehicle in front - a case of how the law needs to catch up with common sense?"
Common sense: it's not really part of the culture here, is it? Not when there are djinns and various other mystical sand fairies to blame. And it would be very sad to see the sandlands miss out on yet another Guiness World Record, especially when 2006 looking so promising for the biggest road death toll yet.
So turn off those evil Western style pop music channels, and hit that accelerator. Anyone driving more than two millimetres from the White Nissan Sunny in front is a big camel's blouse.
"A total of 211 people thought that the consequences of tailgating were ‘that you can frustrate other drivers and make them angry’. While that is probably perfectly true, the real answer to the question is ‘tailgating cannot result in a traffic violation’. That’s right. As 27 people knew, tailgating is not illegal in the UAE.
"And yet 250 knew that the main cause of rear-end shunts was driving too close to the vehicle in front - a case of how the law needs to catch up with common sense?"
Common sense: it's not really part of the culture here, is it? Not when there are djinns and various other mystical sand fairies to blame. And it would be very sad to see the sandlands miss out on yet another Guiness World Record, especially when 2006 looking so promising for the biggest road death toll yet.
So turn off those evil Western style pop music channels, and hit that accelerator. Anyone driving more than two millimetres from the White Nissan Sunny in front is a big camel's blouse.
Labels: driving
10 Comments:
Sorry to be pedantic, but the UAE doesn't actually waste any time whatsoever blocking sites. They run everything through a server in America which only blocks particlar categories on the Internet.
PS: There's still a BIG online betting company Etisalat have still failed to find ;-)
"Sorry to be pedantic, but the UAE doesn't actually waste any time whatsoever blocking sites. They run everything through a server in America which only blocks particlar categories on the Internet."
Yes they do; they do however assign the majority of the blocking responsibility to two US based companies... securecomputing and another one.
You can even check what a site is categorised as by visiting here
It's less about the law than about common sense. There's probably not a law against jumping off the top of Burj al Arab, but common sense says you shouldn't do it.
You can't legislate for stupidity, so even if the laws are in place we're still going to have the cretins driving as they always have.
A phrase in the report caught my eye: they make shocking reading for those of us who drive on the roads of the UAE, and those who police them. A large part of the problem is the fact that the roads are not policed.
Even without a specific law to ban tailgating, the practice is reckless or dangerous driving and they could be pulled up for that. Confiscation of the vehicle for a period is the punishment. But if the police aren't around it won't be stopped.
"Confiscation of the vehicle for a period is the punishment."
And I have my doubts that even that will work; given that the most frequent violators own enough cars to start a dealership.
I'm all for busting the tailgaters, but something must be done about that goddam white sunny that drives 75 in the fast lane.
I tailgate all the time. One of the many things my Dad taught me how to do.
DG - those legendary motorists have not been forgotten:
here
here
here
here
here
here
here
(Please note that all these refer to white Nissan Sunnies, even when not specified).
;)
Youtube is blocked?
SD sometimes u just crack me up even though your writing is very sombre... i would suggest a holiday.. preferably someplace far far away from it all.. someplace where there is no sand, and no police in green.. alaska maybe? sapporo in japan?
anyhow.. the post is illuminating and entertaining and a great read!
Tail-gating seems to be a uniquely widespread UAE phenomenon. People here are given to psychotic lane changing at the hint of a slow-down in traffic, and tail-gating even if one is travelling at the maximum speed for the lane.
The other bad habit, with equally dangerous consequences, is the continuous use of the high-beam function. This is a particular favourite of the Nissan Patrol/Range Rover brigade. The worst are the xenon light kit users, who use their beams like light sabres on other cars, in the vain effort that if they can stun the driver in front, maybe he will (a) go faster or (b) change lanes, not realising that he may probably end up (c) losing control of his/her car.
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