Lament about the roads

[Mamil]

It is probably about 5 percent of road users who are causing all of the problems we face. Even it it’s 1 percent and my radar counts 1000 cars on a ride, that’s 10 of these murderous @sshats.
Here’s some thoughts about the people I saw on Sunday’s loop – before the death in Camp’s bay, past the ever increasing spots where I know someone has been killed – seapoint where the youngster was doored, chappies, suikerbossie, black hill, Kommetjie road … 

Maybe you recognise them.

________________________

Three Porsche cabriolets in colours vivid like a hooker’s toenail with preppy Americans in pastel slacks and Birckensoles rev their engines aggressively and accelerate towards the corner  close to where the ghost bike is on Chappies. I ride past them as they wait in the queue at the toll booth. I tell them they are w@nkers.
They roar past me again and I catch them at the viewpoint and decide to have a conversation in which I learn their nationality and tell them they are guests in this country and they can be grateful we don’t treat them like their leadership is treating visitors to theirs.
A superbike on Victoria doing about 140 streaks past in an ear-splitting scream  - like an infant who’s mother never heard him. Harley’s revving their visceral growl into a wall of sound, grown men with their inner Chiwawa’s wishing they were Rotweilers.
A tendrepreneur’s son, barely old enough to shave, behind the wheel of a Ferrari in Camps’ bay, revs his engine in a traffic jam going nowhere fast, while the chick in a sequined dress kneels on the passenger seat to take a selfie. God knows how many cocktails they have in them.
An informal taxi in Hout Bay, a clapped out i10, panel beaten at the front and back but not resprayed, blue smoke from a rusty exhaust ….  a brand new Suzuki swift, a girl younger than my daughter on her phone one handed, weaving into the yellow line, a beer belied balding mofo in a Discovery for whom the task of finding his belly button would be a voyage of discovery, close passes me on the corner just beyond the bootleggers,  the upwardly mobile outdoorsman in his Ford ranger, occupying all the road with a “me first attitude”, compensation for his microcephalic looks and microphallic undercarriage … on and on and on, the roads a display of entitlement and self aggrandizement, a parade of rights to the commons with no compensating responsibility to keep the greed, selfishness and narcissism in check. Ego unfettered by empathy.
And I haven’t even started on the 28,7 liters of pure ethanol every member of the drinking population in south Africa consumes per annum.

And one mamil – taking a break from his mother-in-law’s visit, curmudgeonly because he’s scared and resentful of the carelessness that is such a dominant feature on our roads, telling any motorist he pulls up next to that being on the phone while driving impairs motor activity to the same level as being 2x over the limit for alcohol, gassing himself up chappies when he’s supposed to be in zone 2 because there’s another mamil 200 meters ahead ….

 

[Shebeen]

12 minutes ago, Mamil said:

It is probably about 5 percent of road users who are causing all of the problems we face. Even it it’s 1 percent and my radar counts 1000 cars on a ride, that’s 10 of these murderous @sshats.
Here’s some thoughts about the people I saw on Sunday’s loop – before the death in Camp’s bay, past the ever increasing spots where I know someone has been killed – seapoint where the youngster was doored, chappies, suikerbossie, black hill, Kommetjie road … 

Maybe you recognise them.

________________________

Three Porsche cabriolets in colours vivid like a hooker’s toenail with preppy Americans in pastel slacks and Birckensoles rev their engines aggressively and accelerate towards the corner  close to where the ghost bike is on Chappies. I ride past them as they wait in the queue at the toll booth. I tell them they are w@nkers.
They roar past me again and I catch them at the viewpoint and decide to have a conversation in which I learn their nationality and tell them they are guests in this country and they can be grateful we don’t treat them like their leadership is treating visitors to theirs.
A superbike on Victoria doing about 140 streaks past in an ear-splitting scream  - like an infant who’s mother never heard him. Harley’s revving their visceral growl into a wall of sound, grown men with their inner Chiwawa’s wishing they were Rotweilers.
A tendrepreneur’s son, barely old enough to shave, behind the wheel of a Ferrari in Camps’ bay, revs his engine in a traffic jam going nowhere fast, while the chick in a sequined dress kneels on the passenger seat to take a selfie. God knows how many cocktails they have in them.
An informal taxi in Hout Bay, a clapped out i10, panel beaten at the front and back but not resprayed, blue smoke from a rusty exhaust ….  a brand new Suzuki swift, a girl younger than my daughter on her phone one handed, weaving into the yellow line, a beer belied balding mofo in a Discovery for whom the task of finding his belly button would be a voyage of discovery, close passes me on the corner just beyond the bootleggers,  the upwardly mobile outdoorsman in his Ford ranger, occupying all the road with a “me first attitude”, compensation for his microcephalic looks and microphallic undercarriage … on and on and on, the roads a display of entitlement and self aggrandizement, a parade of rights to the commons with no compensating responsibility to keep the greed, selfishness and narcissism in check. Ego unfettered by empathy.
And I haven’t even started on the 28,7 liters of pure ethanol every member of the drinking population in south Africa consumes per annum.

And one mamil – taking a break from his mother-in-law’s visit, curmudgeonly because he’s scared and resentful of the carelessness that is such a dominant feature on our roads, telling any motorist he pulls up next to that being on the phone while driving impairs motor activity to the same level as being 2x over the limit for alcohol, gassing himself up chappies when he’s supposed to be in zone 2 because there’s another mamil 200 meters ahead ….

 

Yet the cycling tjops who ride like chops are the ones that everyone wants to apprehend.

[ChrisF]

2 hours ago, Mamil said:

It is probably about 5 percent of road users who are causing all of the problems we face. Even it it’s 1 percent and my radar counts 1000 cars on a ride, that’s 10 of these murderous @sshats.
Here’s some thoughts about the people I saw on Sunday’s loop – before the death in Camp’s bay, past the ever increasing spots where I know someone has been killed – seapoint where the youngster was doored, chappies, suikerbossie, black hill, Kommetjie road … 

Maybe you recognise them.

________________________

Three Porsche cabriolets in colours vivid like a hooker’s toenail with preppy Americans in pastel slacks and Birckensoles rev their engines aggressively and accelerate towards the corner  close to where the ghost bike is on Chappies. I ride past them as they wait in the queue at the toll booth. I tell them they are w@nkers.
They roar past me again and I catch them at the viewpoint and decide to have a conversation in which I learn their nationality and tell them they are guests in this country and they can be grateful we don’t treat them like their leadership is treating visitors to theirs.
A superbike on Victoria doing about 140 streaks past in an ear-splitting scream  - like an infant who’s mother never heard him. Harley’s revving their visceral growl into a wall of sound, grown men with their inner Chiwawa’s wishing they were Rotweilers.
A tendrepreneur’s son, barely old enough to shave, behind the wheel of a Ferrari in Camps’ bay, revs his engine in a traffic jam going nowhere fast, while the chick in a sequined dress kneels on the passenger seat to take a selfie. God knows how many cocktails they have in them.
An informal taxi in Hout Bay, a clapped out i10, panel beaten at the front and back but not resprayed, blue smoke from a rusty exhaust ….  a brand new Suzuki swift, a girl younger than my daughter on her phone one handed, weaving into the yellow line, a beer belied balding mofo in a Discovery for whom the task of finding his belly button would be a voyage of discovery, close passes me on the corner just beyond the bootleggers,  the upwardly mobile outdoorsman in his Ford ranger, occupying all the road with a “me first attitude”, compensation for his microcephalic looks and microphallic undercarriage … on and on and on, the roads a display of entitlement and self aggrandizement, a parade of rights to the commons with no compensating responsibility to keep the greed, selfishness and narcissism in check. Ego unfettered by empathy.
And I haven’t even started on the 28,7 liters of pure ethanol every member of the drinking population in south Africa consumes per annum.

And one mamil – taking a break from his mother-in-law’s visit, curmudgeonly because he’s scared and resentful of the carelessness that is such a dominant feature on our roads, telling any motorist he pulls up next to that being on the phone while driving impairs motor activity to the same level as being 2x over the limit for alcohol, gassing himself up chappies when he’s supposed to be in zone 2 because there’s another mamil 200 meters ahead ….

 

 

It is that time of the year .... whatever the heck that might mean .....

 

Somehow there just seems to be more chops out on the roads ... on ALL kinds of transport.

 

From lost visitors, to cellphone fixated pilots, to drunken muppets .....

 

It is bad enough dealing with this "holiday traffic" when in a motor vehicle ... but at least there is some steel and insurance protecting us from these "mindless operators" ..... Sadly we are so exposed to this on our bicycles.

 

Stay SAFE out there guys and gals .... we have lost TOO MANY of our friends this year !!

Edited December 17, 2025 by ChrisF

[cadenceblur]

And yet you still see “law enforcement “ out there handing out “petty fines” how about some visibility and patrols and roadblocks and on the spot breathalysers . Not rocket science to figure out where the hit spots are. 

[Paul Ruinaard]

19 hours ago, Mamil said:

It is probably about 5 percent of road users who are causing all of the problems we face. Even it it’s 1 percent and my radar counts 1000 cars on a ride, that’s 10 of these murderous @sshats.
Here’s some thoughts about the people I saw on Sunday’s loop – before the death in Camp’s bay, past the ever increasing spots where I know someone has been killed – seapoint where the youngster was doored, chappies, suikerbossie, black hill, Kommetjie road … 

Maybe you recognise them.

________________________

Three Porsche cabriolets in colours vivid like a hooker’s toenail with preppy Americans in pastel slacks and Birckensoles rev their engines aggressively and accelerate towards the corner  close to where the ghost bike is on Chappies. I ride past them as they wait in the queue at the toll booth. I tell them they are w@nkers.
They roar past me again and I catch them at the viewpoint and decide to have a conversation in which I learn their nationality and tell them they are guests in this country and they can be grateful we don’t treat them like their leadership is treating visitors to theirs.
A superbike on Victoria doing about 140 streaks past in an ear-splitting scream  - like an infant who’s mother never heard him. Harley’s revving their visceral growl into a wall of sound, grown men with their inner Chiwawa’s wishing they were Rotweilers.
A tendrepreneur’s son, barely old enough to shave, behind the wheel of a Ferrari in Camps’ bay, revs his engine in a traffic jam going nowhere fast, while the chick in a sequined dress kneels on the passenger seat to take a selfie. God knows how many cocktails they have in them.
An informal taxi in Hout Bay, a clapped out i10, panel beaten at the front and back but not resprayed, blue smoke from a rusty exhaust ….  a brand new Suzuki swift, a girl younger than my daughter on her phone one handed, weaving into the yellow line, a beer belied balding mofo in a Discovery for whom the task of finding his belly button would be a voyage of discovery, close passes me on the corner just beyond the bootleggers,  the upwardly mobile outdoorsman in his Ford ranger, occupying all the road with a “me first attitude”, compensation for his microcephalic looks and microphallic undercarriage … on and on and on, the roads a display of entitlement and self aggrandizement, a parade of rights to the commons with no compensating responsibility to keep the greed, selfishness and narcissism in check. Ego unfettered by empathy.
And I haven’t even started on the 28,7 liters of pure ethanol every member of the drinking population in south Africa consumes per annum.

And one mamil – taking a break from his mother-in-law’s visit, curmudgeonly because he’s scared and resentful of the carelessness that is such a dominant feature on our roads, telling any motorist he pulls up next to that being on the phone while driving impairs motor activity to the same level as being 2x over the limit for alcohol, gassing himself up chappies when he’s supposed to be in zone 2 because there’s another mamil 200 meters ahead ….

 

I see your post - wht do i call it? A diatribe. I also feel this.

However can I add that this also requires us to as cyclists to take ownership of our own actions  and that unfortunately we are not totally blameless and need to have a hard, deep look inward. I am not sure of the circumstances of the two deaths we are all so aware of - however it would seem that as the backgrund details have energed, that in both cases the situation would indicate a lot of negligence on the motorists behalf. In these cases I cannot but say that the deaths are as close to killings as you can get and I have no hesitation to ask for the maxiumum penalty for the perpetrators of this injustice. 

But truth be told, there are and have always been a lot of instances when the bunches, or packs of cyclists, have behaved like entitled feral mobs to motorists who are as entitled to be there. I still do not understad what happens to some people when they get on their bikes ? How do they become such boxes? Its pretty much like a jekyll and hyde transformation. Its like guys on sports motorbikes - they go from rational people in to crazies in a short space of time. I just cant get what happens in that transiiton. This really needs to be something that is spoken about and coached by the clubs or riders as its not cool. This is all very one sided but we all know the truth is much more multi faceted and we all know cyclists can be a bunch of knobs. And in so doing you lose the war of popular opinion as there are a lot less cyclists than motorists.

My take on it is when these accidents happen and there is a death the average motorist privately believes the cyclist shoudnt have been on that road anyway or was behaving like an entitled knob as per usual so whats the major problem if one gets offed - teach them all to be careful. And I say this as I have had this exact conversation with many non cyclists. Similar to people who feel motorbikes shouldnt lane split. The converstaion I had at work years ago when a senior manager didnt know i cycled or rode motorbikes (who was also an elder of his church) was how he loves to squeeze the motorcyclists a bit in the traffic in the morning on his commute and make them worried as "what right do they have". From a senior person who was also a church elder. The hypocrisy of course was lost on him - I did try and point out that many of his fellow church goers were also likely cyclists and motor bike riders but that didnt seem to compute as his rage against these type of folks was deeply seated.

Until this changes we are destined to repeat the experiment but are all hoping for a different outcome.