There have been countless posts, articles and funnies made about driving standards in just about every country on the planet. From the hilly roads of Malta where the buses drive in the shade (even if that sometimes means being on the wrong side of the road!) to night time driving in India where two headlights can mean a truck, a car, or two mopeds carrying a wardrobe, the funny side of driving is never far away.
Since the first powered contraptions that didn’t involve a horse started to amaze the world, we’ve come a long way. Technology has certainly far exceeded Mr Ford’s imagination and we now live in an age of cars that can drive themselves, park themselves and even avoid accidents for you. So whilst advancements in safety, efficiency and driver assistance have abounded, the inquisitive side to us crazy humans means that despite all the dangers, even more of us than ever want to feel the thrill of controlling a lethal weapon under the guise of necessity, fashion, status or personality. This fascination, in turn, generates a never ending source of humour when we get it wrong, well at least for some.
Remember how we laughed, as the man tried to reverse 500m back to an exit on a 7 lane motorway, how we chuckled as we came over a ramp to find a security company car perched on top of the central reservation like a beached whale and my, how we smirked when yet another car pulled out into the fast lane only to violently swerve back across 4 lanes to make the exit they were about to fly past! That’s just 3 incidents out of countless experienced in just 1 week of driving around Dubai!
Many would think them serious, not a source of humour, and in part they’d be right. So many involved in incidents aren’t lucky enough to call them a near miss; people are injured and people die from their, and others, irrational behavior behind the wheel. But driving every day in an environment where there’s a near miss a second, well that starts to alter your attitude. It makes you realize that if you took every incident as being serious then you’d be in an early grave from stress, let alone an accident, before you even got to where you were trying to get to!
Better then to drive in a way that protects yourself, whilst affording you the opportunity to laugh off the most incredibly stupid driving decisions that occur every second. You see it’s not the driving that’s bad, it’s peoples’ poor life decisions that are really at fault. Confused? Well try these as examples, including my potential solutions:
- The person that’s running late for work because they’re so disorganised at home, then decides to drive like James Hunt on a good day, just to reach somewhere where they don’t actually like being. Cure – get your home life sorted or change job!
- The person that had a nightmare getting the kids to school, is stressed to the max and is taking it out on every other road user in their efforts to get to a coffee shop. Cure – don’t be stressed around your kids and they won’t stress you!
- My mobile phone is my life – the greatest distraction since, well, time began to be honest! Because texting, chatting, checking emails, posting a selfie whilst twittering, they all seem to be more important than controlling the aforementioned deadly weapon, obviously! Cure – don’t use your phone while driving??!
I’m a firm believer that the choices and decisions we make in life, no matter how small they seem at the time, have an impact further on down the line. That time you were texting your friend about a party, looked up and slammed on the brakes so you didn’t hit the car in front? Well the person who was involved in the accident behind you was actually the director that could have given you that big career break you’ve been dreaming of but now you’ll never meet them. Too extreme an example? Not really, I know it’s actually happened and it’ll happen again – karma, see!
It strikes me that so many people have jobs for the sake of having a job; they work because they think they “have to”. But what if you worked because you love to? I’m not talking about loving your job like the sycophantic, egomaniac you met the other week – he who loves his job because it pays him a gazillion a month and he has all the worldly possessions he could possibly never actually need. I’m talking about having drive, passion, a desire to really make a difference and excelling at what you do, not just doing what the boss said to do.
Next time you’re driving, think about this – the road in front of you! See, you thought I was going to give you some wisdom to consider on your drive to work tomorrow. Well, actually I am, and it’s going to be this:
Stay safe, think twice, check three times and don’t spill your coffee – that way you’ll be around to read the other half of this and it might just all make sense! Part II to follow……………..
Image Credit: Phil McGovern
