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After reading my previous article on causes of road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe, a reader suggested that I had left out one major one – traffic hogging.
This feedback prompted me to highlight the need to use common sense when driving. Drivers and other road users must always bear in mind that the law does not give anyone indisputable ‘‘right of way’’.

In fact, drivers and riders must always exercise due care and attention with reasonable consideration for other road users while upholding courtesy and common sense. The point is that the roads are not for one person but for everyone. These are our roads and hence, we must share them. This totality of care and courtesy when driving is what I have termed ‘‘common sense’’ driving. Research has shown that 99 out of 100 road accidents that could have been prevented are due to lack of common sense and courtesy.

It is the duty of every driver to avoid accidents regardless of them having the right of way. Actually, there is no such a thing as right of way in defensive driving.

If it makes you prevent an accident, then always give way to other traffic. Even when you feel that you have the ‘‘right of way’’, you ought to still make sure that the other road user is going to give you way before proceeding.

Road safety activists generally agree that such application of common sense cultivates common courtesy and, therefore, driving courtesy is a must.

We have observed that there are several blunders and stupid things that some drivers commit daily. Our heroes on the roads are those drivers who always express common sense and courtesy over and above obeying road traffic rules and regulations. One can only pray that other drivers may emulate this best road safety practice. Courtesy is the fundamental basis upon which all defensive driving elements, skills and techniques are founded.

How can common sense driving be exercised? Below are some tips and guidelines that can inculcate common sense driving in some drivers:
Don’t overreact to thoughtless or deliberately aggressive driving behaviour by another driver/road user;

Remain calm when others are angry/ aggressive. An eye for an eye on the road aggravates the road carnage problem. Forgiveness is a Christian virtue. We hear that more than 75 percent of Zimbabweans are Christians. I wonder why forgiving each other for road traffic mistakes should be a problem;

Stay alert. Always be able to scan and understand the road ahead, the road behind and the road at your sides.
Make an allowance for children, cyclists, parents with babies, the frail or elderly, the disabled and the mentally challenged who might not be able to move quickly;

Communicate effectively. Let the people around you know what you are doing so that they don’t need to guess;
Get out of the way. If there is at least a dual carriageway, don’t hog traffic. Keep to the left lane and leave the fast lane for faster vehicles.

Most of us are not police officers and thus do not need to control how fast someone goes. Don’t stay in the fast lane hoping that you are regulating the speed of your fellow drivers. Once those you hog manage to drive around you, they are tempted to speed in order to cover up for lost time. Use the fast lane when overtaking. Avoiding hogging traffic helps keep road rage down. Also, while the primary benefit of using at least a two-way road is to ease traffic congestion, the benefit is blown when traffic hogs the fast lane. Those who might have driven along Harare-Ruwa, Harare-Norton;

Harare-Chitungwiza and other similar roads might have realised this frustrating scenario I have described above. Out of the resultant road rage, some drivers have since designed and have started using undesignated yet, to them, convenient ‘‘lanes’’. At the end of the day, the congested traffic jungle degenerates into traffic tangle. This obviously often renders some intersections along Julius Nyerere Way impassable without the presence of traffic cops directing traffic.

If you agree with the contents of this article, please spread the word to fellow road users.
Common sense driving can reduce road traffic accidents.

The writer, Tatenda Chinoda is a Traffic Safety Officer — Marketing and can be contacted on email: [email protected] / [email protected]; cell: 0772 966 075 or phone 04-751203.