Europe is Another One and I Do Keep Road Traffic Rules There
When a foreigner arrives in Georgia, he/she constantly asks me: “why is it that the drivers - let us drop the issue of Europe – but in adjacent countries give way to pedestrians but not in Georgia?” every time I shrug my shoulders and frankly speaking I can hardly to answer.
I would like to emphasize it from the beginning that this issue refers to everyone, regardless the age, social status or condition, nationality, sex; we all are involved in traffic in some form or other. According to data and observation carried out in September 2015 by Georgian alliance for safety roads 76 % of Georgian drivers do not give way on the “Zebra” crossing to pedestrians; three from ten have got cars in Georgia and seven go on foot or by bus or mini-bus every day.
Daily it turns out to be that our friend, family member, child or just acquaintance is in these seven people and is under great risk to get in traffic collisions /car accidents/ as averagely over 9 000 people get injured yearly on the road accidents and more than 600 die. Every third deceased one is a pedestrian in Georgia and averagely 7 pedestrians daily get different kinds of injuries, mostly very hard kind of injuries.
We can say straightforwardly that the rights of our citizens are violated daily in our country as well on the roads as in transport, as we are more or less in some way are pedestrians and most of our population go on foot.
The rights of those people are violated as well who wish to drive a car but cannot have enough nerves to drive it. I would like to say that we have got such kinds of people and their number is constantly rising, driving a car nowadays more and more associates with psychology stress, with serious conflicts, that often growing into a physical fight.
One of the main question relates to transport, traffic that could be heard frequently – Can I stop here/ or can I park a car here? / Yet, that person knows that it is prohibited here but there is no other way out. Frequently this unpleasant question turns into a dialogue.
When we are talking about the mentioned problems, we often can hear the saying-our mentality is different, this issue does not refer to me and Nihilistic attitude, Europe is another one and I keep the rules there, Georgian guy cannot be recovered, there are a lot of problems in Georgia and we have no time to improve it now; the mountainous landscape makes it difficult to settle this issue, our mentality is other and European is another one, why should we compare ourselves with other successful countries? Georgian mentality does not change and if you do not like here go to Europe and live in there…
The greatest problem is to realize that road is an object of public use and it belongs to everyone equally- everyone has a right to move safely and get maxim comfort.
The road is the public space and goodness, but unfortunately has turned into a field of self-affirmation, status and privileges. The culture of Jeep cars together with a sense of security on such roads, are somewhat the means of fixing a social status. A Georgian man who has scratched up some money, firstly what he is about to is buying a car, that together with means of transport is assertion of oneself and it is public appearance and desire of recognition as well.
Most part of drivers have no minutes or even seconds to wait and give way to another car, a child, an elderly one as they rush to such an urgent business that is about to ruin. We have special law in case of an urgent situation for certain categories of drivers- they are given privileges to move quickly proceeding from a business activity. Recently we have done a survey and found out an interesting thing-most drivers do break the rules due to their lateness somewhere.
Georgian roads are the mirror of Georgian society, tolerance, democracy and culture of cohabitation. As time goes by, pedestrians are being persecuted away from the streets.
Existing aggression on Georgian roads is everyday reality; actually war has been declared on the roads, drivers do not give way to each-other, drivers do not give way to pedestrians and vice versa. Moreover I saw a person a few days ago on the Rustaveli Avenue, who tried to cross the road and simultaneously crossing himself/herself/.
Such concepts as sharing the roads and giving it are omitted from the Georgian vocabulary. Yet, the roads are the property of ours whether we possess cars or not, and it is possible to share the roads to each-other so that not to insult or humiliate one-another on the roads. There is some kind of fear on the Georgian roads in order not to be oppressed or bulled or deprive your part of the road or space. When you are off to somewhere it does not matter whether you are a pedestrian or a driver you are preparing to keep and defend your space.
Since morning everyone is set up to protect their rights on the roads though this unequal battle, as one who is in a car is always surrounded by some kind of armor, while a pedestrian is unsafe/unprotected/.
There is 70 km/ph permitted in our city, though it has been stated that a car moving on 30 km/ph collides with pedestrian, who has got a chance of survival about 80 %, though in case of 70 km/ph the chance of ending collision fatally is 80%.
You might think that there is no law in your city and that’s why they do not give way; you should not say so-there is strictly written in law the rights of a driver and a pedestrian. One of the reasons might be that most citizens are unaware of the basic rules- such as-the driver of means of transport who does not give way to pedestrians on their “zebra” passage –breaks administrative code article 125 paragraph 6, which causes penalty to the amount of 20 GEL.
So briefly- in a nutshell- Europe is another one indeed and we do keep rules there, but if we do wish to be a part of Europe –let us keep the rules here and give space to each-other on the roads, as they (roads) are enough to everyone.
By Gela Kvashilava