In all honesty, all this fuss over PigSpotter (Jhb, Cpt, Dbn and so on) is getting a bit old and if the police are so blind to what social media is and the power of crowdsourcing information, then so be it.
Knowledge is power
Think of it this way: If I see a police trap I tend to phone (using handsfree) my family and friends and warn them about this awesome oke, looking like a yetti, hiding in the bush on the M5 north towards the N1. It's the same with social media, just using a different method of communication and being on... say a more visible and public platform. As @art2gee put it so simply: "We are all @PigSpotters"
So as a hard working (tax payer) individual like the majority of the people in this country, I simple ask one thing of the police:
Forget PigSpotter and sort out the taxi chaos on the roads. I know it's an age old issue but I drive the N2 to Stellenbosch every day of my life and cannot tell you how bad it is. Day in and out taxi's are travelling at 140km/h on the right lane (at no safe distance whatsoever) only to swerve across three lanes (yes, cars are in those lanes) to the emergency shoulder only to do the exact same back to the right lane again.
Here's another...
On Tuesday I watched a taxi swerve past the back of my car and drive in the emergency lane narrowly missing a motorbike. This is just one incident of hundreds that happen daily on my journey (which is only 50 minutes) and what do I see?
- Traffic officers on the opposite side of the road stopping the wrong vehicles stuck in bumper to bumper traffic
- Traffic cars parked on the N2 watching the traffic by the old Athlone Towers
- Provincial Traffic cars by the airport station ALL parked and not on the roads during those peak driving hours
Incidents like the Blackheath train tragedy where 9 innocent schoolchildren lost their lives or the underage taxi driver who knocked down and killed my mom's friend Kevin Brookes in a hit and run in the centre of Cape Town (in front of another family member who witnessed the entire incident) is becoming out of hand. There are many stories like this and I fear every time I get on the road to work that I may become a statistic and no one in their right mind should have to fear to drive to work.
So wake the *&%k up and sort our roads out. I'm not worried about PigSpotter or your traps, in fact I welcome this type of information because it promotes awareness / better driving among the public.
I'm worried about something more dangerous on our roads: death by a taxi driver.
4 comments:
I never go out of my way to notify people when I see a speed trap. As far as I'm concerned, if people insist on breaking the law then they should deal with the consequences. It may "just be speeding" but consider that if all the otherwise law abiding citizens that only break the law by speeding made a commitment not too, then there would be less need for speed traps and more police would be freed up to go after more serious offenders.
Nicely put Robyn. I am so over the taxis. Just look at the statistics from the past few weeks and 95% of the time there were taxis involved. I moan about this a lot. But also at other people not abiding by the law... ie. texting/or on phones whilst driving, not buckling up their children, drinking and driving, speeding... what can we do to get people to stick with the rules? We are teaching our young ones that it's ok to break the laws of our country. We have become desensitized. Where will it stop? People have already forgotten the horror of the 9 kids dead at the hand of a reckless taxi driver. :(
Steve - I get what you say but the biggest worry right now is having to deal with taxi drivers reckless driving. It's a hazard to any slow, medium or fast driver. If people speed, so be it. They get the fine and that's it. Cause and effect.
SuperSanti - Yep, I agree but the best way forward is social change. How do we create that social change? What platform do we use. This is never and will never be a personal attack on the Metro/SAPS. It's a plea to find a solution to the lawless behaviour of the taxi drivers who have taken many lives and will continue to until systems (like fleet management) is put in place. Something that can limit a car, report bad driving to the cops and automatically fine them. Something that they have no control over!
6 and a half years later, the case has still never been withdrawn or dropped.
They have all my info, handed to them by my lawyer on a silver platter, and still nothing to prosecute me on.
All this time later and taxi anarchy has gotten worse, informal and corrupt roadblocks are more prevalent and speed trapping contract has been lost due to corrupt practices by the Metro concerned, who failed to deliver the fines legally according to AARTO.
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