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.
