This newspaper recently published an article about young people (mostly men), who still drive at reckless speeds despite having had serious accidents. One of the young men was quoted as saying: “Why should they make such fast cars if they don’t want us to drive fast?"
He’s absolutely right. I mean, why make Krispy Kreme doughnuts if they don’t want us to get fat and why should they make cigarettes if they don’t want us to smoke? For that matter, why should they make guns if they don’t want us to shoot each other?
Can you imagine? It’s as if “they” (whomever they are) expect us to have, I don’t know, personal responsibility or some kind of inner voice that tells us to slow down, say no to the third doughnut, don’t light up, don’t shoot. That inner voice sure does know how to wreck a good time.
When my brother was a young man with a fast car, he played a game along Manhattan’s streets that he called “how fast can I go between traffic lights”. Once, when I had the white-knuckled misfortune of being a passenger in his car, I screamed something along the lines of “we’re going to die”, to which he replied with a grin, “no we won’t”.
Young people have a terrifying belief in their own immortality, and it may be that young men feel that way even more than young women. Maybe that sentiment is why, as of last May, more men than women in the UAE have been in traffic collisions (22 per cent to 16 per cent, according to statistics published in this newspaper) and/or have received speeding tickets (28 per cent to 20 per cent).
I wonder if, ironically, some of those collisions have been caused by the speed cameras posted along the roads. Have you noticed that as cars approach those cameras, they abruptly slow down, as if to wave and smile for the camera? Then they speed back up, only to repeat the slowing (and posing) at the next camera. It’s an updated version of my brother’s racing between traffic lights.
My brother now lives in Los Angeles and owns a very fast car, which he drives very slowly. What slowed him down? I wish I could say it was common sense, or the awareness of mortality that comes with age, but I fear it may just be the reality of LA’s infamously bad traffic.
Maybe that’s what the UAE needs as a solution for reckless drivers: more traffic jams. If the roads are clotted with cars, then no one can speed, right? For those of you who have ever been to New Delhi, for instance, you’ll remember that no one is speeding because there isn’t anywhere to go: everyone moves at about the pace of an ox-cart, one of which may be idling next to you at a traffic light.
Will traffic jams change the attitude of young men who think they’re immortal? I don’t know, but it might stop them from hurting themselves. That young man’s comment implies that somehow the car controls him, rather than vice versa. Yes, I know it’s thrilling to zoom along the Sheikh Zayed Road at top speed (don’t ask me how I know) but let’s weigh those Formula One aspirations against the lives of the people sharing the road, or sitting next to you in the passenger seat.
How do we change people’s attitudes so that the “cool kids” aren’t the ones slamming on the brakes before they pass a speed camera, but are the ones sailing by serenely at precisely the posted limit?
Maybe the lesson here is “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.
Even quasi-immortal young men can appreciate that principle, don’t you think? It’s a proposition that works equally well for firearms, nicotine, cars, and, yes, even doughnuts. Take it from me: the third Krispy Kreme is never as good as the first one. Just say no.
Deborah Lindsay Williams is a professor of literature at NYU Abu Dhabi
