1000 Flowers for the Planet - #195 Know Your Road Rules

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #195 Know Your Road Rules

I cannot vouch for how people drive their vehicles in other countries, nor can I comment on how they drive in most of my own country. Coming from personal experience I can say that Sydney drivers are better than Melbourne drivers, here in Australia. The drivers in my home town are disgraceful. One can rarely sit behind the wheel and leave the driveway without putting one’s life at risk because some idiot has decided to create his/her own rules. Anarchy has no place on the roads. It is not negotiable to make up your own set of rules whilst most other people are working on a different set. People need to know their road rules and stick by them. This is the only way the system can work properly.

How does this help the planet? Poor, anarchical, inconsiderate driving causes accidents, some minor, others serious enough to cause death. There is a human cost in the form of hospital stays, medical investigations and long term health issues which become a drain on the health system and the public purse. There is also the cost in finite resources as vehicles are damaged and need repair, often involving replacement parts. Major accidents create landfill as vehicles are unable to be repaired and are subsequently crushed or put into car graveyards. This is a waste of metals, fuel, glass, foam, and many more resources that are often not recycled. A great deal of this waste could be avoided, in every country in the world, if people simply knew their road rules.