THE existing road and driving regulations are not working because they are not being enforced and new regulations will be pointless until there has been a drastic improvement in enforcement, says The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“To give you an idea of how hopeless enforcement is, I can tell you that our provincial government collects only 17 percent of its traffic fines,” said Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber. “That is a dismal performance, but we suspect that the situation may be worse in some other provinces.”
The real question was why the Province continued with the failed system. “The only reason we can think of is that it wants the easy money from people of conscience who pay up without asking questions.
“We also have a massive incidence of forged or corruptly obtained driver’s licences. This is the problem that needs fixing and retesting drivers will be a pointless exercise until we have got the fake licences off the road. Unless this happens, five-yearly tests will just create a whole new market for forgers and the corrupt officials who sell licences,” Ms Myburgh said.
It was clear that re-testing was an impractical idea as driving test centres would never be able to cope with the massive increase in the demand for tests. “In fact, there is a need for some retesting but the people who should be called in for retesting are those involved in accidents. This will be a much smaller number and this kind of retesting programme will take us straight to the problem drivers.”
Keeping goods vehicles off the road during peak hours had been suggested before and rejected for very good reasons. “Transport managers already go to great lengths to keep their trucks out of rush hour traffic because trucks stuck in traffic are not productive. All they do is burn massive quantities of diesel while going nowhere.”
Ms Myburgh said reducing town speed limits to 40 km/h would be a formula for gridlock.
“Make no mistake, South Africa does have a very serious road accident problem but you can’t solve the problem sitting behind a desk and making regulations. You have to get out onto the roads and enforce the regulations we already have,” Ms Myburgh said.
Full Article: Cape Chamber of Commerce » Chamber Releases – New road and driving regulations will be pointless – Dean
Click here to submit your Cape Town News.
