Comments on: Potholes: The solution to our speeding problem

By: Dave Thorpe

Dave Thorpe — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:04:37 +0000

Hi Sarah

I really enjoy your sense of humour.

I drive a little Daewoo Matiz so speed humps are like climbing mountains and potholes are akin to doing the 4×4 thing in deep dongas!

The potholes might even encourage courteous driving and reduce road rage, slower driving means better fuel economy and less carbon going into the atmosphere, and we might even get to spare a smile or two for each other!

By: Simba

Simba — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:19:14 +0000

Sarah, lost in translation is all I can say, anopothole is probably from some dark corner of Poffadder or some such dorp.
Arguably a lot of accidents are caused by the peophols driving at some ridculously slow speed in the middle/fast lane causing everyone behind them to lose patience and try overtaking on that blind rise… etc etc. I’ve seen so many times someone in the middle lane of highway causing traffic jams – and just in front of them is clear road whilst behind is a long queue. I wish the driving schools would teach some common sense regarding driving and that the driving test was more stringent… All these laws, speed traps, etc etc are just trying to close the barn doors after the horses have bolted.

By: Bovril 24

Bovril 24 — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:07:03 +0000

Oh Marty,

You’re so wonderful! Obviously you were lucky enough not to meet another moron like yourself.

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:44:15 +0000

@ anopothole: Get a copy of your dictionary (assuming you have one) and do two things:
1. Look up the spelling of the word “write” and
2. Look up the meaning of the word “irony”

Thank you.

By: anopothole

anopothole — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:39:12 +0000

Most of the roads (if not all) in South Africa were build during the apartheid years … The new administartion have failed to maintain most of the roads … to a level that SOME ACCIDENTS HAVE TAKEN LIVES because of potholes … YOU HAVE THE NERVE to right about something thats is hazardous … Very dangerous …

TRUE we have a problem of speeding BUT thats no where close to a solution … CNT beleive you took time and wrote this BULL …

The only way to reduce speeding is HAVE A LAW that any car that comes in the country must tapped not to go over 120km/h … THAT’s the only way …

VERY DISAPPOINTING ARTICLE … especially coming from you …

By: marty

marty — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:51:30 +0000

I am 45 – usually drive around at about 140-150kmh sometimes 160kmh,sometimes even faster, have never had an accident and have become very experienced at negotiating my way around taxi drivers and persons that have just bought their driver’s licences – potholes are the least of our problems!

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:23:54 +0000

Advertising people are adept at making a virtue out of a necessity. But a new iPhone which costs two month’s wages. OK, it will go totally kaput on you in only two years hence, as per its design parameters, but — guess what? — then you can spend another two month’s wages buying a NEW one that can do even more of the stuff you didn’t bother doing with the first one because it conked out so quickly and you didn’t have the time to learn them because you were just too busy working in order to pay off your phone! And the blimming BMW whose routine authorised dealer service charges are obviously designed with the profiling of Donald Trump or Bill Gates in mind.

By: MLH

MLH — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:41:38 +0000

Lack of money means the potholes will get worse; as they always are after the rains. The reason we complain is because we perceive our roads to be perfect until we hit a pothole at speed. Accidents are caused when cars are driven too fast for safety (circumstances), except in the case of stationary vehicles, and then only one is (stationary). To my knowledge, only 14 800-odd people were killed on our roads last year. And yes, Easter and Christmas are safer because the cops are out there. None of us manages to obey the law without them. And those silly signs: cost R5 000 each in 1998, to produce and erect. They’ve been up 11 years. That’s under R500 per sign per year. The cheapest advertising you’ll ever see and tourists think they are simply wonderful, because each is situated at a dangerous spot. At least they pay attention! I know, because I helped put them there…drove the country ragged to identify the positions! Treat every other driver like a fool and yourself as a bigger one and you have the chance of living a long life, if cancer, AIDS or TB doesn’t get you first.

By: Andrew Slaughter

Andrew Slaughter — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:02:58 +0000

I have always been amazed at the road signs saying ‘pot holes for the next x km’. I thought the authorities were supposed to fix these things, not put up signs warning you of their incompetence.

By: Graham Johnson

Graham Johnson — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:27:47 +0000

Dear, sweet, Sarah,

As usaul, the cynic. Did your mother not tell you that cynicism is unhealthy wheras scepticism is healthy? Hence, alter your rhetoric to scepticism. What you are saying is that the powers that maintain roads would rather spend the money on cars than tar.

Or wives rather than health-care for women.

Or arms deals rather than barracks for soldiers.

Or…