The Grand Gallery Of Almightily Stupid Ideas, (Number Two)

 ORT, no longer just an airport, the Open Road Tolling system due in Gauteng has been the topic of much debate, to the point where it was put on hold leading up to the elections, to save a few majority party votes.
The Freedom Front (Plus) has been a driving force behind the protests against the proposed high per kilometre tariffs, with almost all other opposition parties joining in in some form or another. Although the gantries are built and installed, they aren’t being used until the tariff issue has been resolved.

I work far enough from home that I see quite a few of these during my commute, and have recently seen, with the coming of earlier sunsets, and laterhours on a buggy project , that they are lighting these non-functioning gantries at night…

The blue lights reflect purple against the support poles, and when passing under them, I cant help think of cheesy porn movie clichés, which in turn reminds me that the Gauteng roads agency will be screwing me a bit more once these start tolling.'

Yesterday, I passed under them around sunset, and found that the blue lights see their fair share of daylight too…



Now we have been told that the project has been put on hold to examine ways to decrease the tariff to a reasonable rate. I would like to ask the question :
What is the electricity bill for lighting up approximately 42 huge gantries from before sundown for the whole night, every night, on a system that is currently not generating any income. Every cent they spend lighting these eyesores up will be included in the rate you pay once they become operational.
Maybe someone should explain to SANRAL how efficiency works…

A traffic complaint

So most of us who drive have passed a driving test, and one of the things they take you through is the rules of the road.

So what is the first rule of the road (in South Africa at least)?

Its not sticking to the speed limit, its no about how Beemers get right of way.

Nope, it's :

KEEP LEFT, PASS RIGHT!

I have a roughly 50 km commute to work every day (luckily its opposite the bad jams), and every day is see this rule flaunted and ignored dozens of times.

At the moment, there are very few cars on the road due to the easter break, but still, its like most people have no regard for it.

My pet peeve is when travelling along at the speed limit (lets say 120 km/h) in the right lane, and you approach a driver, also in the right lane, doing 100.

They dont have a car in front of them for over half a km, and the person "in front" of them is probably pulling away, rather than being reeled in.

Theres no significant traffic to their left, often a huge gap.

This person is, in my opinion, partially responsible for rush hour traffic (well, that and trucks - http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/tel-aviv-to-ban-trucks-in-morning-rush-hour-1.317607 )

But people think that this doesnt apply to them, everyone drives well enough in their own mind, if they thought otherwise, they'd be like Sheldon from Big Bang and not drive at all.

So I have a handy hint on how to spot if you are the asshole.

If people are overtaking you on the left, you are the asshole.

Going back to the first rule of the road, keep left, pass right.

If you have people coming up behind you and you are in the right hand lane, you have broken the rule, you arent keeping left.

Thus, they have 2 options.. slow down to your middle lane speed, or overtake you on the left.

So now they are breaking the rule.

I try to teach people doing this on the road, but dont always have the time.

So please join me in this excercise...

When coming up behind an asshole dawdling along in the fast lane, with acres of space in front and beside them, do what you were going to do anyway, overtake on the right, then get back into the fast lane as quickly as possible, then slow down to 15 km/h or so slower that the asshole.

This usually results in them moving a lane to the left.

At that stage, move back to your normal speed and get on with your day.

If enough people do this, it might teach these assholes that as much as Beemers dont own the road, Mazda 323's with a top speed of 87 dont either.

ps. I wonder how Vodacom are going to tie their red re-branding with sponsoring the BLUE Bulls.

They're already talking on the radio how the bulls can "see red" and calling them the Vodacom Bulls, or just the bulls.

There might be a whole lot of discarded blue bumper testicles in Pretoria soon!!!