If we think about this carefully. What is the major reason why cyclists are hit while driving in the road:
1) Taxi drivers usually don't own the taxi they drive. They have a quota set by the owners of how much money they wants in their pocket each day. Therefore the driver drives at top speed where possible to drop off his load of passengers and return to the rank as soon as possible to repeat the process.
Drivers will also try and overtake other taxis on longer routes to get to pick up more passengers en route.
2) Drivers tend to lose focus on the road with cell phones, children in the car disturbing them, fiddling with the music or infotainment set up in the car or just generally losing focus on the road. (I can always remember an argument I had with an ex-girlfriend, while driving my car, who demanded that I look at her while we were arguing) She didn't last long.
3) Alcohol, drugs and late night party people who have hardly any control over their vehicles and wouldn't have the ability to swerve or miss a bunch of cyclist. This can also be due to the usual high speed they are travelling at.
4) SAPS and Metro Police used to work eight hour shifts - now they work twelve hour shifts. When I brought this up with a Brigadier he said that the Trade Unions would never go back to 8 hr shifts. The main reason is that when you work a 12 hour shift you get a longer time period off. In my opinion, no policeman/woman can be effective over a 12 hour period and that's why you see them strolling around shopping centres and goofing off.
Another memory is seeing a metro police Hi-ace full of members (10-12) parked off near a bank at around 9:30 am. They were waiting for over half an hour for this single member to complete his banking requirements. I'm unsure how many other banks they stopped off as to allow other members to get their business done and possibly draw cash for lunch.
An entire load of constables sitting around doing nothing for an hour or two before they are dropped off in their separate area.
The reason why there is increased crime levels an hour before the 6 am/pm shift change time is because the police have already left their posts to return to their HQ.
5) Monkey SEE Monkey DO, is an old expression, an idiom describing the act of imitating someone else’s actions, behavior, or habits without understanding the reasoning behind them, often resulting in mindless copying or repeating actions simply by observing them, regardless of whether those actions are wise or foolish. Often the thought behind this is: If they can do it, so can I.
My conclusion: if we don't have effect policing and there isn't effective enforcement then we will never solve this problem. We've got to start reeling in the bad habits but officers on the beat don't like to be effective and stand out, making their underperforming colleagues look bad.
As a kid in Westville I remember a traffic officer with the surname of Burns. He was all over the place all the time. You'd be guaranteed to see him three or four time a day patrolling around just on his own, a single officer. He'd visit school yards and check on bike licences. He ran a tight ship and everyone towed the line. (Oh, the good old days)
