Our driving habits

“If you can drive in Karachi, you can drive anywhere else in the world”. This is the one advice that all of us have heard as amateur drivers, trying to get used to the reckless driving and the culture of ignoring traffic lights in our country. But it is true that most people in this city drive like lunatics — and so driving in London was like a walk in the (Hyde) park for me. Unfortunately, earlier this week, my ride to work morphed into a nightmare when I crossed paths with one such hooligan. A cheeky guy was recklessly driving his black Honda Civic – with dark, tinted windows – creating havoc on the street, and getting angry looks from others on the road in return. This was his, hopelessly ridiculous way of gaining attention, I assume. When my brother gestured at him as if to ask: “What’s wrong with you?” he got angry and started swaying his car in front of ours, trying to stop us by blocking our way, and seemed ready to pick a fight in one fell swoop.

When will people learn to drive more carefully? More importantly, when will they start driving in their own lane? Surely we all know that there are driving ethics, but is it all that complicated to understand and follow them, especially for the educated? Among others, if keeping in one’s lane is understood as being subsumed in the code of ethics, deaths caused by road accidents can be prevented. Aren’t we the same people who adopt and follow rules in a canter when we are abroad? So why can’t we do the same here? We must be hypocritical to the core. The awful driving habits of many are a shame we all have to bear, sometimes as a frightening experience, other times as the loss of a loved one, however reluctantly. It’s about time we wake up, smell the coffee and opt for some responsible driving.

Published  in the Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2010.