Road manners of today’s Lankans

The motorists and pedestrians of the older generations are appalled at the road behaviour of today’s motorists and pedestrians. In bygone days motorists were courteous and obeyed road rules, documented and conventional. They always gave right of way to traffic on the right, especially at roundabouts, and to traffic turning in from a byroad. The driver of a vehicle going downhill always gave way to a climbing vehicle. This type of courtesy is very rarely seen these days.

The motorists were extra careful at pedestrian crossings giving right of way to pedestrians crossing the road. Whenever a pedestrian was on the crossing, even on the other side of the road, motorists always stopped and gave way. This happens even now in countries such as Australia. In Sri Lanka, I think the traffic police might have to seek the help of the 7Up character we see in a TV advertisement to assist the pedestrians to get across the road on a pedestrian crossing! Of course, we get some pedestrians who cross anywhere except at pedestrian crossings.

All these rules were observed even by the drivers of private buses prior to nationalization. Thereafter, the drivers of the then Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) were trained to follow the rules which they did after their training. The CTB drivers were the most courteous drivers at that time. At present CTB drivers are as reckless, dangerous, and arrogant as the private bus drivers. This is because most of the CTB’s new recruits started on private buses.

Today it is an entirely different set of drivers and riders who show scant respect to rules and regulations that drivers must observe. This is especially so with private bus drivers and the drivers of big vehicles such as SUVs and limousines, who think they own the road and everybody else must give way to them.

At present it is the size of the vehicle that determines the right of way. As such, smaller vehicles must give the right of way to the bigger vehicles. The present day private as well as CTB drivers are the worst culprits. Then, to add to these categories we have the three wheelers and motor cyclists who will even use the pavement to get ahead endangering pedestrians. The number of accidents on roads in Sri Lanka have increased to such an extent that many lives of young and old people are snuffed out by reckless drivers. Added to the number of deaths on roads, there are some drivers who have knocked down pedestrians and vanished from the scene abandoning the victims.

It is only the traffic police who can correct these drivers by booking them for breaking road rules. But we rarely see them doing this and errant drivers and riders take the upper hand.The traffic police must take stern action to stop maniacal driving habits of today’s drivers by continuously monitoring the vehicular traffic. This should be done even on the roads connecting the Galle Road to the Marine Drive as some drivers and riders are seen merrily going in the prohibited direction.

HM Nissanka Warakaulle