Should we be nice to taxis on the road?
Most of us have experienced the frustrations that come with having to deal with obnoxious taxis on the roads. It only takes a few minutes on any highway or main road while sitting in traffic to witness a taxi or two pushing through traffic, often breaking the rules of the road with reckless driving.
(Find out how to deal with other people’s road rage here).
Good karma for taxis?
MD of MasterDrive, Eugene Herbert, strongly believes that if motorists interacted with taxi drivers in a positive manner instead of treating them as a threat, there would be less crashes.
Also read: All good drivers have these 10 habits
Herbert commented that while the official cause of the crashes is unknown, many drivers may automatically assume it was the taxi driver’s fault.
However, last week road and transport officials across South Africa issued stern warnings to all taxi owners and drivers, saying that action will be taken for perpetrators to face the full wrath of the law, following recent tragic road accidents involving taxis that claimed the lives of many.
Read more: Taxi drivers have been warned!
Drive nice, it’s contagious
His motto, ‘Drive nice, it’s contagious’ stems from his idea that the tendency to ill-treat fellow drivers as we do in South Africa is not an attitude echoed in other countries.
“Our challenge in interacting with taxi drivers is to teach them how to interact with other drivers whose values and norms are different to theirs. When you make a mistake and need to get back in, who is the first one to let you back in? It’s probably the taxi driver because he knows what it is like.”
According to MasterDrive, Herbert believes that by becoming courteous drivers, South Africa has the opportunity to not only reduce road tragedy but benefit society as a whole.
“The shocking part is road crashes and fatalities cost the fiscus about R300 billion a year. If some of that was ploughed back into education or health services, think of the difference we could make to half the issues today.”
- How do you feel about the idea of creating good driving karma with taxis? Send us your thoughts to [email protected].
Source: MasterDrive
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