Thomas Edelmann :
We experience reckless driving on our roads pretty much on a daily basis. While high-profile cases such as stunt driving represent the tip of the iceberg, there are a lot of other reckless driving cases which go unnoticed because of poor education about road safety and enforcement.
Every day, we experience drivers speeding, tailgating, abrupt changing of lanes, disrespecting pedestrians and other violations.
In a recent survey RoadSafetyUAE.com conducted with Zurich, 54 per cent of respondents claim that traffic on UAE roads has become more dangerous in the last six months, with 66 per cent saying there are more speeding cars and 65 per cent saying there is more tailgating.
Only 39 per cent respondents claim not to seed, while the speedsters claim ‘running late’ (67 per cent), ‘for fun/to impress others’ (53 per cent) and ‘out of habit’ (45 per cent) as their reasons for speeding. This is even more puzzling since almost 70 per cent know that speeding is the biggest cause of accidents and more than 50 per cent state the same for tailgating.
What does this all come down to? Many motorists think the road belongs to them alone and that they can behave as they please.
The scary perspective is that reckless driving seems to be part of our driving culture. This is linked to a lack of respect for other traffic participants which, according to the authorities, represents the number two reason for accidents and fatalities on our roads, but also in the lack of proper education.
Many speeders claim ‘running late’ is the reason why they speed. The road is the wrong place to make up for lost time. Motorists must understand the basic math and that it is impossible to catch up on a 10-minute late start for a trip of 30 minutes!
They must also understand that reckless tailgating leads them to dangerous situations as even the most alert motorist needs some amount of reaction time to respond to a braking vehicle in front.
If the distance measured in seconds is not big enough, an accident is unavoidable. The education of motorists cannot happen only during the process of obtaining a driving license, but it must be ongoing and broad-based. Traffic authorities, police, media and corporates must work together to cascade the information down to every resident and road user.
The fact that more than half of speeders ‘want to impress others’ goes hand in hand with high-profile stunt driving. If we feel the urge to display this kind of behaviour, we must do it in a safe environment, like at the race track which offers access to petrol heads who want to test the capabilities of their vehicles. They can show off there, but this behaviour must be eliminated from our roads.
Almost 60 per cent of UAE motorists say that they get distracted by the behaviour of other drivers. We must get rid of our egocentric behavior and we must understand that we have to progress from the current culture of ‘driving against each other’ to a culture of ‘driving with each other’. We must show a caring attitude towards our own safety, the safety of our passengers and the safety of other traffic participants.
While education plays a important role when it comes to road safety, the element of enforcement is equally important.
We need to see more of the latest technology on our roads, like more of the high-tech radars which are currently being installed by the authorities. In addition, traffic police must be present at critical junctions and also for the element of surprise with randomly placed radars and road controls. In other parts of the world there is the perception, that you ‘don’t get away with it’.
The government plans to reduce road fatalities to three per 100,000 inhabitants by 2021, which will make the country the top-5 safest countries for motorists worldwide. It’s an ambition plan which can only happen if we continue to educate our drivers and enforce the rules of the road.
(Thomas Edelmann is a UAE-based road safety expert)
