I stand to be corrected, but back when I took my road test, a vehicle was not supposed to enter a junction or roundabout unless the way was clear for them to traverse to it in full. Apparently this has changed, as one of Cayman’s finest sought to chastise me at the museum junction recently.
My crime? When the light went green for me, I went ahead and cut off another motorist who, due to her ignorance had entered the junction and was stuck there when her light went red.
But, rather than pull up to her and point out her error, it was my act of taking my right of way, which, granted, was not the courteous thing to do, that was wrong in the somewhat clouded eyes of this particular lawman.
(Apparently, it is better to do the courteous act of allowing an obviously ignorant party to continue in their law-busting, wayward ways, than to give them reason to consider their stupidity and perhaps not repeat it).
Perhaps if everyone drove a little more defensively, the seemingly alarming upward trend in downright ignorant, dangerous and selfish driving could be slowed, or even reversed to the bygone days where we all took our turns, waited with patience, and drove according to the rules of the road.
If everyone did this, believe it or not, many of the traffic problems would actually be curtailed.
Roundabouts, traffic lights, yields and merges are all there for a reason. And when they are used correctly and with the collective safety of all drivers in mind, as opposed to the selfishness of just getting one’s-self one car ahead in the line, they actually do work!!!
I will say, I do want to thank the same officer for his other advice thanks for looking out for my safety by suggesting, without offering an option not to, that I put on my seatbelt. Though not required for delivery vans (yup, it was a delivery van) during the course of business (for pleasure I drive my wife’s car), I did abide by the suggestion, lest I get into a serious accident doing the 5 mph that we were as he managed to chase me down on his bike!!!
While we are at it, kudos to the officer who felt it necessary to pull my 6-month pregnant wife over last week for inadvertently hitting a pothole while turning on Cardinal Avenue and splashing a tourist with the small amount of sitting water therein.
It was, apparently, better for the police to look good and pull her over than actually tackle some of the many other actually dangerous driving that I find hard to believe was not happening all around at the same time.
It would behoove those in charge to put this stickler for detail on Harquail Bypass Duty, where I was stuck in traffic at about the same time.
As I made my way southwards towards the Butterfield roundabout, low and behold a tour bus loaded with at least 30 tourists was weaving in and out of traffic on the shoulder of the road, weaving in only to avoid the light poles, and then overtaking on the shoulder again.
Apparently it is more dangerous to get a tourist slightly wet than speed recklessly along with a busload of them….Hmmm.
Tim Dailey
