There are two things I learnt when learning to drive nearly 50 years ago that I have never forgotten. It appears that those two things are no longer taught, judging by the way people drive today.
The first was to treat all solid white lines and all painted out areas as if they were solid brick walls. In other words, stay off them. The only exception that I’m willing to accept is the painted out areas at the end of designated right- and left-turn only lanes – there are often more vehicles waiting to turn than can fit into the designated space, and rather than hold up the traffic not turning, I can deal with people waiting on the painted out area.
The second thing was the meaning of the white and orange directional arrows painted on the road. White arrows were informative, but the orange ones indicated compulsory directions. This means that you cannot lawfully turn right or left out of a lane marked with an orange arrow pointing straight ahead.
Somebody should bring these facts to the attention of the multitude of minibus taxi drivers who blatantly ignore these arrows and lines, and encroach on lanes meant for other traffic, and to the civilian drivers who appear to think that if the taxi drivers can get away with it, so can they.
Take the T-junction of Wilgerood and Christiaan de Wet Roads as an example. There is only one lane designated for vehicles heading uphill to turn right off Christiaan de Wet Road, yet dozens of drivers, mostly taxi drivers, use the middle lane, which is clearly marked straight ahead, as a supplementary right-turn lane, pushing in front of the people who have patiently waited in the designated lane. The encroachers then cross the solid white line separating the right-hand lane on Wilgerood from the left-hand one. That lane has a permanent green light for traffic coming downhill off Christiaan de Wet and turning left into Wilgerood Road, and one of these fine days, two vehicles, or more, are going to come to a nasty end when they meet forcibly in that left-hand lane.
Perhaps the JMPD should patrol this intersection every weekday between 6m and 9am. The taxi drivers won’t like being prevented from making illegal right turns, but the law-abiding citizens will certainly feel a whole lot safer!
