South Africans suck at driving

[w1z4rd]

I dont know how accurate or realistic this report is. Ive visited multiple countries where there is no rule of law on the roads and its much more chaos driven than here. So much so that when I got back to South Africa, I wanted to hug our taxi drivers for being such reasonable folks. (This was after several months with jeepneys).

Knowing the state of some countries and their road regulations out there, I feel this was written by someone without much international perspective.

 

[RiaX]

TIA !!!!!

 

[Quixotic]

I dont know how accurate or realistic this report is. Ive visited multiple countries where there is no rule of law on the roads and its much more chaos driven than here. So much so that when I got back to South Africa, I wanted to hug our taxi drivers for being such reasonable folks. (This was after several months with jeepneys).

Knowing the state of some countries and their road regulations out there, I feel this was written by someone without much international perspective.

Perhaps it is based on those countries who have meaningful road regulations (and roads) or at least still retain a serious intent and have not just succombed (yet) to a free-for-all (so beyond point of return to educate socially responsible behaviour) - this is most of Africa, the Middle East and the Asian sub-continent.

 

[porchrat]

Go to Jordan or Israel, or hell anywhere in the middle east,

Israel even tried going crazy on laws, big fine, if your missing a garbage can in your car,

South Africa is crazy, but far from the worst.

I can believe it. Darn near anywhere in the Middle East must be terrifying. Afghanistan for example must be hell. I doubt they have dedicated lanes out there.

South Africa is far from the safest, but I refuse to accept that it's the worst.

 

[j4ck455]

“It is impossible they could have passed a properly-administered government driving test. But they have a valid driving licence card, properly registered on e-Natis.”

He estimates that driving licence corruption has resulted in over 300,000 excess road deaths in the past 25 years.

“But South Africa seems to lack the will to hold the corrupt licensing examiners — and their corruptors — accountable for these crimes,” he said.

“By which I mean that it’s strange that hundreds of thousands of 18-year-old licence applicants seem to know how to buy a licence, but SAPS and the Hawks don’t.”

The number and frequency of road accidents in Gauteng seems to have increased significantly since the last quarter of 2024, it is getting to the point where hardly a day goes by where there aren't serious accidents in Gauteng.

The obvious conclusion is that the number of drivers that don't have legally obtained drivers licences has recently been increasing significantly.

Some analysis of available stats on recent road accidents would help to confirm.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Its very easy.
1. You dont need insurance. 70% dont have insurance on the road. You will get your door dented often when parking at a mall and the culprit simply drive away.
2. Jaywalking fines arent enforced. People cross the road and even freeways with no care in the world.
3. Taxis are the biggest mafia organization and dont keep to the rules of the road, 53% of all critical accidents on the roads are due to minibus taxis.

Then there is drunk driving, unroadworthy vehicles and well, those pedestrians.

If you enforce 3rd parthy insurance on all I bet these figures will be approved.

Third party insurance was incorporated in the fuel price in the 1980's and became the Road Accident Fund. It's much fairer because those who drive more pay more insurance. You also don't have to fork out a hefty sum annually for the disc to show you're insured.

The fact that the RAF was looted does not make the principle wrong.

The third party disc had the year it was valid for printed big in red on it. This car has a 1979 disc on the windscreen:

 

[Cosmik Debris]

I dont know how accurate or realistic this report is. Ive visited multiple countries where there is no rule of law on the roads and its much more chaos driven than here. So much so that when I got back to South Africa, I wanted to hug our taxi drivers for being such reasonable folks. (This was after several months with jeepneys).

Knowing the state of some countries and their road regulations out there, I feel this was written by someone without much international perspective.

Try driving in Luanda, Angola. Cheap cars and fuel mean most have a car. No traffic lights and narrow roads mean it's like driving in a beehive. It can take an hour to do 5 km.

 

[j4ck455]

Try driving in Luanda, Angola. Cheap cars and fuel mean most have a car. No traffic lights and narrow roads mean it's like driving in a beehive. It can take an hour to do 5 km.

Except that bees (from the same hive) are a lot more organised and cooperative.

In Joburg its like we don't have traffic lights since most of them are often deliberately taken offline by the clowns that think they are going to get tipped messing about in intersections.

Centurion is less problematic, traffic lights that are out usually get fixed much quicker than in Joburg.

 

[me_]

Most cameras don't even work anymore.

I know of 3 in Durban that don't actually have cameras in them anymore.

I recall reading an article a while back where CoCT said they had about 3 times more housings than cameras and they move the cameras between housings so only 1/3 of cameras are ever working.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I recall reading an article a while back where CoCT said they had about 3 times more housings than cameras and they move the cameras between housings so only 1/3 of cameras are ever working.

Thats always been the case...

I do know Durban used to have a few permanent fixed cameras, but the contract lapsed or wasn't paid or something so even those lost their cameras awhile ago and I doubt thats ever been sorted out.

 

[Lupus]

The number and frequency of road accidents in Gauteng seems to have increased significantly since the last quarter of 2024, it is getting to the point where hardly a day goes by where there aren't serious accidents in Gauteng.

The obvious conclusion is that the number of drivers that don't have legally obtained drivers licences has recently been increasing significantly.

Some analysis of available stats on recent road accidents would help to confirm.

Or... The fact that traffic lights are mostly out since 2024, in fact there isn't a road that doesn't have an entire set of working traffic lights, hell you'd be lucky to have working street lights.

 

[pstation]

Why is self preservation not a thing? Why does bad driving globally not self regulate when number of accidents or death goes up?

SA in particular is a place where lives have very little value. People don't even value their own lives

 

[thestaggy]

No surprise there.

The licensing system is so corrupt that you cannot really pass without paying a bribe. A few years back it was even newsworthy when driving schools complained about the hike in bribery fees...Not that they were paying bribes, just that it was starting to cost too much. The consequence of this is that whether you can drive or not you can and will get your license.

Policing is next to non-existent. Sitting behind cameras and randomly pulling cars over is not policing the roads. That is going for low hanging fruit and easy money.

The selfish, ''Fvck you'' attitude many road users seem to have these days. It is no longer just taxi drivers who do what they want, drive where they want and drive like nobody else is on the road. More and more drivers are exhibiting this attitude.

This may be Johannesburg specific, but the level of aggression and impatience when driving is insane. Everybody is in a hurry and then you have the likes of your middle-aged Hilux/Ranger drivers trying to ram you out of the fast lane.

 

[konfab]

Those variables are everywhere tbh.




In South Africa for example, pedestrian deaths make up a large proportion of road deaths:

The rate of road traffic fatalities

in South Africa is alarmingly high, imposing a substantial burden on families, society, and the economy

due to lost productivity, and skills, and the emotional toll on survivors and families who lose their

breadwinners. Pedestrian fatalities remain a significant issue, accounting for 45.1% of all road user deaths

in 2023, up from 43.0% in 2022.

8 These figures highlight the urgent need for enhanced measures to

protect pedestrians.

https://noyam.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EHASS202451664.pdf

Pedestrians contribute to the problem with jaywalking and intoxication. That is not necessarily reflective of people's ability to drive.

 

[R13...]

I dont know how accurate or realistic this report is. Ive visited multiple countries where there is no rule of law on the roads and its much more chaos driven than here. So much so that when I got back to South Africa, I wanted to hug our taxi drivers for being such reasonable folks. (This was after several months with jeepneys).

Knowing the state of some countries and their road regulations out there, I feel this was written by someone without much international perspective.

The report is probably a subset, overall even though South Africans are terrible at driving and disregarding rules they're 58 per capita fatalities. And 18 by total per annum which is huge at almost 20k people killed on the roads.

List of countries by traffic-related death rate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[thestaggy]

Pedestrians contribute to the problem with jaywalking and intoxication. That is not necessarily reflective of people's ability to drive.

This is also true.

Last night they had to close a piece of the highway near our house because a pedestrian was hit.

The fact that they closed all lanes means it was a mess too.

 

[thestaggy]

I dont know how accurate or realistic this report is. Ive visited multiple countries where there is no rule of law on the roads and its much more chaos driven than here. So much so that when I got back to South Africa, I wanted to hug our taxi drivers for being such reasonable folks. (This was after several months with jeepneys).

Knowing the state of some countries and their road regulations out there, I feel this was written by someone without much international perspective.

India is often brought up when people talk about chaotic traffic and laws being treated as suggestions.

Their annual road deaths per capita is 17/100k.

Ours is 24.5/100k.

EDIT:

Pulled this up on Wikipedia. Seems like Africa in general is a lethal place to be on the roads, but I suspect it has more to do with the point @konfab raised, pedestrians. Car ownership in Africa is likely to be a lot lower than elsewhere in the world, but then Africa is also likley to have a lot more pedestrians milling about. I'd also imagine the presence of large numbers of minibus taxis is a factor here as well. The minibus taxi is very much a (sub-Saharan) African thing, and an accident involving a single minibus can have multiple fatalities. Perhaps the lack of quality road infrastructure as well; poor road conditions, non-existent/functional traffic lights, single lane roads leading to head on collisions, etc. Using SA as an example, poor road safety awareness/poor attitude to road safety and inadequate policing may be other African-wide issues.

 

[konfab]

India is often brought up when people talk about chaotic traffic and laws being treated as suggestions.

Their annual road deaths per capita is 17/100k.

Ours is 24.5/100k.

 

[R13...]

India is often brought up when people talk about chaotic traffic and laws being treated as suggestions.

Their annual road deaths per capita is 17/100k.

Ours is 24.5/100k.

India's driving is chaotic and worse than ours. Maybe what saves them is that it is probably a bit hard to drive fast on their roads with them being so congested. I'd love to see the accident rate per capita.

 

[Sworaxe]

R75 between Uitenhage and PE, notorious for pedestrians being hit. Low light 80km zone but most people travel +120km
Gov tried to curb this by installing fences, pedestrian crossings with traffic lights.
But because this is Africa, we can't have nice things.
Criminals started waiting at the gates to rob people
So, to avoid being robbed people broke the fences so they can cross somewhere else.
Wiring for all the traffic lights were also stolen, sold for scrap metal, Wiring got stolen the same day they are repaired.
Eventually gov gave up repairing them.

End result, bunch of cash spent to end up right back where you started.