None of these observations is meant to depict the UK as motoring heaven. Roads are overcrowded, fuel is expensive, trying to drive into London is actively discouraged, and it requires great patience to pick your way through narrow town streets. The M25 ringroad around London is a perpetual nightmare. mobile phones, drinking coffee, shaving or reading at the wheel. Some have lost their jobs after employers were alerted to their behaviour in company vehicles. Nanny state? Probably. But if it increases the chances of me – or, more importantly, my children – getting home alive, I’m all for it. Driving in South Africa is a macho sport, but deadly. Naturally, even the most nanny-ish rules don’t preclude accidents. During my visit, I drove through blizzards and on ice as temperatures fell to minus 13˚C in some places. And one should never discount good old British rain, which is rarely absent throughout the year. Injuries and deaths are inevitable, but nowhere near the proportion experienced in South Africa, where anarchy is allowed to flourish on the roads.
www.automobil.co.za
One indication of different attitudes is that a three-death road accident in the UK creates many more headlines – and greater soul-searching – than a 30-death incident here, where reports quickly disappear from news columns.
Counter-balancing this are nondiscretionary road rules and heavyhanded policing – supported by a continuing desire among many Brits to drive responsibly. Some old habits die hard.
Some other British automotive habits would be unthinkable in South Africa. Most garages are used to store household goods, not cars, which are left out at night on unfenced driveways. Many times during my holiday, the first few minutes each morning were spent defrosting car windows.
The biggest difference between here and there is that the UK sees a car as a responsibility; a one-ton guided missile capable of inflicting serious injury. In SA, it’s a toy.
One night in South London, with the house’s single allocated parking space accounted for, I had no hesitation to park my car on a street 10 blocks away. Given South Africa’s vehicle crime rate, how many of us would dare do that here?
David Furlonger is the industrial editor of Business Day and Financial Mail
I know which attitude I prefer.
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