Driving - part 2

As is almost a certainty, as soon as you write something, very shortly it is contradicted.

In Botswana there are speed traps and like everything else the Batswana have had the good fortune to by-pass old technology and jump to the latest technology.  For example, no need to string telephone wires all across the country, just go right to wireless or cellular telephones.

Similarly the police here have the latest laser speed guns that can see an extremely long way off and much further than a human can see.

Yesterday we started the trek to northern Botswana to visit Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park and the village where I taught for 2 years and met my beloved sooo many, many years ago...

The vast majority of the population of Botswana is concentrated along the eastern side of the country from the south east to the north east since the vast western 2/3’s of the country is given over to the Kalahari Desert.

In the southeast corner is the capital Gaborone and the largest concentration of population.  In the northeast corner of Botswana is Francistown, the 2^nd city (!) of the country.  Connecting the two is the A1 road, the only real north/south road connection in the country although in recent times they have constructed the Trans-Kalahari highway and other road links further to the west.

Thus the A1 is the main artery of the country and akin to the 401 connecting Toronto and Montreal.

The trip between the 2 cities is about 440 km’s with a scattering of other towns along the way.  However, for the most part the road runs straight to the horizon with very, very little in the way of things to look at.

Similar to the Canadian Prairies but instead of grain elevators you look to the distance to the next cell tower.  Reach one cell tower and off in the distance is the next cell tower and on and on for several hours on end.

The Batswana have created a fairly generous road allowance with remnants of the old road beside the newer road that you travel on now.  So to the left and right side of the road, a fair way back are two wire fences to help reduce the wandering of animals onto the road.  Inside the fence line on either side are 2 wide grass shoulders, in the neighbourhood of 90 feet wide.  The road itself has one lane in each direction with a centre white line and there are generous paved shoulders, ¾’s the width of the driving lane.  The paved shoulder is marked off by a yellow line along the side of the driving lane.

In theory the object is to point the car to the horizon and stay between the white centre line and the yellow shoulder line.  Much easier in theory since over the course of several hours with nothing to look at but the horizon and numerous cars passing and disappearing into the horizon or oncoming vehicles going by there is nothing to do.  A few times I momentarily found myself wandering over one or other of the lines before I realized what was happening and altered course.

Unfortunately this is one road race that I am not going to win.  Given the age and state of our borrowed vehicle I am limiting our speed to 110 kph.  Everyone else is driving in the neighbourhood of 120 to 150.  The posted limit is 120.

Thus there is a constant blur as countless BMWs or Mercedes blow past like we are standing still.  Not that the Corollas and VWs are not doing the same thing.  The only things we manage to pass are the transport trucks hauling goods to northern Botswana and into possibly Zambia and other countries farther to the north.

The faster cars seem to move in packs and you will be passed by 4 or 5 cars together and then there will be a bit of a lull and then another pack will pass by.  It is entertaining to watch since it like being lapped in a Formula One race as the passing pack jockeys for position and while overtaking us, the pack in turn is overtaking each other.  Thus you will have a car passing us and a car on the shoulder further over passing the passing car.  Since you can see kilometres ahead there is no worry about oncoming cars.

I should add that if I had the ability I would be travelling at 140 or 150.  It would cut almost ¾’s of an hour or longer off the trip from north to south.

Then we come to the matter of speed traps. 

Twice in our trip we came across speed traps.  This consisted of a police officer sitting on a chair beside the road with a laser detector mounted on a tripod in front of him.  Nearby was a couple of other officers and a police car.  It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel.  His laser would greatly outdistance a person’s sight line and there was no question no one was adhering to the 120 speed limit. 

The only drawback is getting people to pull over and stop since in a blur they would have been out of sight and gone past.  A police chase is not in the equation.  In addition, with the travelling packs of speeding cars it would be quite difficult to pick out which car was actually the one that was being recorded.  Thus I would think the implementation of the strategy needs a bit of a refinement.

For us the speed trap was not an issue. 

The other thing to note in our trip north was the fact that we encountered a roadside safety station.  At first I thought we had come across another police spot check.  However, on all long holiday weekends on the major roads, the police and Ministry of Transportation set up safety stations.  (Monday and Tuesday are national holidays for President’s Day.  Thus this Friday was the beginning of a 4-day long weekend).

Nine out of every 10 vehicles was waved over to the side of the road and the drivers had to get out.  Everything was well organized with cones down the centre of the road and numerous individuals in well marked vests directing traffic and helping people park.  There was a row of about 8 parked vehicles along the side of the shoulder.

Beside the road was a huge marquee tent with the side facing the road open.  Inside the tent was a row of tables lined up parallel to the highway and in front of the tables were chairs and on the other side of the tables were the safety people also sitting at chairs.  The ground was sand so when you pulled your chair out, the legs dragged through the dusty soil.  Rather an interesting visual picture.

Anyway, I like all the other drivers were provided with a brief lecture from a safety officer about road safety and given a pamphlet to read (once we got to our destination) as well as a sticky label with additional safety information to stick on the dashboard, back of the seat or some other suitable surface.

All very informative and the safety officer I spoke to was very pleasant and spoke English very well.

The bottom line is that 500 people are killed each year in road accidents in Botswana and the police and government want to reduce this.  Thus, the creation of these safety stations.  Interesting how the people here are willing to tackle a problem that we in the west would probably not even attempt since we are a car based society and how dare you interfere with me getting from point A to point B in the fastest possible time.

All in all the stop took about 5 minutes and we were on our way again.

Now stuck to the rear passenger window of my brother-in-law’s car is the safety sticker with some of the following points:

Leaver early when setting out on a long journey.

Observe the speed limit.