SOLD OUT

WTF?
What the hell is the government thinking? If you’re wondering what I’m on about then you obviously haven’t been listening to the radio or checking out the latest news on the box. These seriously clever officials have taken it upon themselves to get the legal speed limit in urban areas DROPPED from the already pathetic limit of 60km/h to 50km/h. They say this is going to help keep the rising number of pedestrian deaths down.
Lets try and figure this out then. The 60km/h limit was put into effect like a thousand years ago when cars were huge three-ton machines that had to rely on small diameter drum brakes to stop them. The big old cars could do it just fine back then. As in the past, the motoring industry grows in leaps and bounds. It wasn’t long before cars came out with discs and calipers on the front wheels, which were also assisted with a booster located in the engine bay. Then the cars got lighter, a lot lighter. In effect, better brakes and lighter cars meant a much shorter stopping distance. The other thing is that engines were getting smaller but more powerful which meant quicker cars. Was the speed limit ever increased? No, because then the government would lose out on its easiest form of revenue, speeding fines.
Most cars today have good brakes (even if they’re around ten years old) and can stop damn quickly from 60km/h. I’ve done my own unscientific tests myself and challenge everyone out there to do the same. Take your little brother’s watch that he got for Christmas, it will have the stopwatch function that you will need for this test. Now climb in your car, whatever it is, and hammer it until you reach 60km/h (this should leave you in second gear!). You are now traveling at the legal urban speed limit. You will notice that you have in fact wasted thousands of Rands on a car that came equipped with 5 gears.
A two-speed gearbox would have been cheaper. Anyway, now that you’re at the legal urban speed limit and you’ve remembered to stick your boet’s watch to your steering wheel with some Prestic or MacGyver tape (with the activation button within reach of one of your thumbs), you’re ready. Make sure there aren’t any cars behind you and then push the activation button on your boet’s watch, the tricky part is slamming on anchors at the same time. As soon as you have come to a complete stop, push the button again (obviously to stop the timer!). You will now have a 60km/h to zero stopping time. Do it a few more times so you can get yourself an average stopping time. Then you’ll have to inform your little brother that you need the watch for a second batch of tests. To everything exactly the same, but this time keep your speed to the proposed new speed limit of 50km/h.
Depending on your car, you may still be in first gear, more proof of wasted money spent by car manufacturers on developing useless extra gears to fill your gearbox. Slam those anchors from this new “safer” lower speed and record the time. Do it a few times too so that you can get an average time. Now compare the time at the new “pedestrian saving” speed to that of the old “pedestrian killing” speed. You should end up with less than a second difference.
Now clever government people, could you please tell us how a car will swerve to miss a pedestrian or how your average man on the street will successfully jump out of the way of a speeding car (60km/h) in less than a second. It is highly unlikely that it will make any difference at all. On the other hand, if you’re driving a new model car with fancy ABS or BA or ESP or any other fancy abbreviation, you could probably stop your car in the same amount of time even if you were doing 80-100km/h!
So, I propose that the government officials should stop thinking of ways to earn extra money by making life worse for us motorists. Instead of decreasing the speed limit, why not spend some money on upgrading the roads and painting all the relevant road markings in colours we can see. Spend more money on pedestrian education, it can’t be that hard to explain to someone that a car is hard and if you walk in front of it there’s a good chance of getting hurt! Pedestrians should be on the pavements anyway. Sure, there have been cases where people have been killed while walking on the pavement, but this is very far from the majority. In just about any European country you will get into heaps and heaps of crap if you approach a zebra crossing without treating it as a yield, even on the busiest roads at peak hour. If a pedestrian puts a foot on the tarmac at a designated crossing and the approaching car doesn’t come to a complete stop in a hurry, the driver is liable for a huge fine and can even get his or her licence suspended for the offence. Why doesn’t that happen over here? Because the police don’t really give a shit. Have you ever tried to cross a road at a zebra crossing in any major city in this country? You still have to wait until there’s a gap in the traffic to cross and even then you have to haul ass or you’re toast! If the police enforced legal crossings like they do in Europe, the number of pedestrian deaths would also decrease.
So sure, drop the limit, but then prove it’s a valid reason. Research must be done on the subject first. Examine a place, like Gauteng. Take six months worth of pedestrian accidents from the police records. Out of those, filter out all the ones involving un-roadworthy vehicles. Then filter out all the ones involving pedestrian faults, like not looking both ways or not crossing the road at designated crossing points or even being drunk. Then filter out all the accidents that were actually suicides where the pedestrian jumped out in front of the car on purpose (yes, it happens!). You will then be left with a much, much lower figure. Hell, even filter out all the ones involving slower cars and it will drop even more. Cars speed more on highways and open roads, and that is a fact, ask the brains at Metro.
I propose the speed limit be raised to 80km/h in urban areas and 150km/h on highways and that pedestrians start paying a pavement tax so they can use the pavements. Hey, we pay road tax for the same privilege. That should keep more pedestrians off the streets (so to speak) thus fewer deaths. It’s a win-win situation and we’d get to drive in third gear on the odd occasion without getting a speeding fine!
Just a thought...
Krutch