Speed Bumps

Jokingly, people often refer to cows as "South African speed bumps."
This is because in rural areas, free range cows will wander onto the
road in their herd and they have no fear of oncoming traffic. It can
slow things down when the taxi has to wait for all of the cows to
finish crossing the street before continuing.

Traffic slows for any number of reasons. In Mozambique, the potholes
keep cars from moving too swiftly. Swaziland actually has speed bumps
as we know them at remarkably (and sometimes frustratingly) frequent
intervals. Though of course they interfere with quick travel, it's
not a bad thing--if AIDS were cured tomorrow, young Africans would
still be dying in legions from preventable causes, thanks to the high
number of crashes. My NGO lists lobbying for speed bumps as an
important children's rights initiative, and I see their point.

In my village, we favor the Mozambiquan style speed bumps--our tar
road was not professionally made, and thus has not weathered the test
of time particularly well. Most taxi drivers have elaborate dances
they do on the road to go around the potholes, weaving in and out and
driving in areas on the side of the road in order to make the
smoothest possible ride for the passengers--as a side note, this
morning's taxi drive definitely did not do that. Some village boys
make a business (though not a very lucrative one) out of filling the
potholes with dirt and standing by the side of the road, hoping that
grateful drivers will give them a few rand for their trouble.

In Section A of town, which is primarily residential and through which
the taxi from my village has to drive to get into town, they recently
installed a series of very hardcore speedbumps, the kind that imitate
the shape of corrugated tin for a few feet. My drivers are no more
likely to put up with these speed bumps than the inadvertant ones on
the road to Mapayeni. There are two favored methods for avoiding
them. One is taking a different route through Section A on less
frequented roads. The other is to just get off the road and drive on
the side for the length of the speed bumps. I find the latter to be
excellently amusing.

Related driving safety head-banger: seatbelts. Drivers of taxis are
required to wear seatbelts, but they'll only be checked in town, so
often the drivers will start doing complicated calisthenics to get
their seatbelts on when we get close to town while still driving.
This happens in reverse as we leave. I really think we would all be
safer if they just opted not to wear them altogether--or heaven
forfend, actually wore them the whole time. Instead we seem to have
reached the worst possible compromise.