Those taxis again

Living in a sleepy seaside village with minimal traffic leaves one quite unprepared for running the gauntlet of the main road through Sea Point, where taxis appear to reign supreme, restraining even the cheekiest of Audi drivers and even the odd Ferrari, who prefer to hang back rather than risk a contact that would remove rather more than the paintwork.

Having been to Cape Town three times this week (I usually go about once every six months), I thought that I was quite well adjusted to driving in relatively heavy traffic, but today's drive through Sea Point took the cake.

My initial anger and frustration at the taxi drivers' unparalleled lack of consideration for other road users and arrogant assumption that they have right of way in every situation soon faded as it became apparent to me that they are severely handicapped. The vehicles seem to have only two speeds, fast and stop. The wheels appear to be fixed in one direction, straight ahead - they are unable to pull over to the side of the road to let their passengers out and have to just stop in the lane they are in. Sometimes they are in the outer lane and alighting passengers run the risk of being run down by other vehicles, causing them to shout and make wild gesticulations aimed at the taxi driver. It must be emotionally quite traumatic.

There is an inbuilt mechanism - possibly some kind of giant magnet - that drags the taxi forward as you pass it and somehow hurls it towards the front of your car, making you relieved that your car came equipped with brakes and a functioning steering wheel, enabling you to take evasive action to prevent being forced into the oncoming traffic. How difficult it must be to control such a vehicle! And taxis don't come equipped with indicators like most other vehicles (with the notable exception of BMWs), so they have to rely on other drivers being clairvoyant to avoid collisions.

And so we need to have sympathy for and be tolerant of these unfortunates ....

Ha! In your dreams! One can only hope that in their next lives they are their passengers - that should be a suitable payback.