The scary advice for driving on South Africa’s roads – from the UK government

[BusinessTech]

The scary advice for driving on South Africa’s roads – from the UK government

As part of its foreign advisory services, the UK government has provided tips on driving in South Africa.

 

[The_Librarian]

Welcome to Potholia, where the residents bathe in potholes and giraffes peek out of deep potholes.

 

[reactor_sa]

Why is this news?

 

[Visser]

They are right though

 

[ekske1]

Why is this news?

" The scary advice "

To the safe rooms !!

 

[supersunbird]

Why is this news?

Cause some in SA think it will shame SA, it won't...

 

[noxibox]

but that some roads in remote areas are less well maintained and may have potholes

That I'm sure is something with which people from the UK who have ventured out into the countryside of the UK are quite familiar.

 

[vancity33]

The truth hurts, but is still the truth.

 

[C4Cat]

Driving in UK was pretty scary for me, I must admit. Really narrow roads and often with high bushes on both sides and lots of curves so you can't see what's coming towards you

 

[krycor]

So basically even the UK realized that the majority don’t obey the law.. can’t wait for them and others to request eToll invoicing for new immigrants from SA

You don’t think SA is the only country with such an arrangement.

 

[Milano]

Fair and accurate. Visitors may well expect that a fairly advanced road network would be utilised by civilised drivers. It seems prudent to warn visitors in advance that this is very often not the case as reflected in the annual body bag count.

 

[Swa]

Interesting when mentioning our standard of driving to people in the states it doesn't sound out of the ordinary to them. Guess our drivers aren't the only ones that suck.

 

[The Voice]

Makes sense, especially when reading the overtaking part.

In the UK, there is NO "fast lane". On a three lane "motorway" (mention highway here and they look at you funny), the inside lane is where you're supposed to drive - the other two are for over-taking.

In SA, inside lane is for trucks and broken down cars, middle lane for normal people, and outside/fast lane for people in BMWs who like to check how close they can get to the car in front of them with their feet slammed onto the accelerator pedal.

Also, you're unlikely to ever be stuck behind a piece of crap held together with tape and wire in the UK. Every car older than 3 years has to go through an MOT (basically a roadworthy) every single year, or it gets scrapped. Also, every single driver has to be insured - or take the bus.

Ironically, random potholes aside, our highways and residential roads are superior to anything in the UK. They're also much, much wider.