The title of my recent read can be translated as Everyone drives like this and is a major excuse of any Pole reproached over their misconduct behind the wheel. The core sin of Polish drivers is speeding, which since decades has been not just put up with, nearly everyone turns a blind eye on it. This pathology has become a normalcy in my homeland.
The book begins with recollections of the most notorious traffic accidents, which made the headlines in Poland in recent years, including that one. The author (Bartosz Józefiak) not only reminds excessive speed was the foremost cause of such accidents (had it not been for glaring speeding, those collisions would have ended up with minor injuries at worst), but also highlights the common denominator of the culprits’ mindsets.
A typical Polish road hog claims to have been out of luck to kill an innocent human on the road, with little remorse, blaming circumstances rather than their style of driving. Insane drivers are afflicted by illusion of control. They realise accidents happen, but tend to think they happen to someone else, not them (which statistically holds true, until a quite low probability of a mishap materialises). Traffic psychologists, who worked with a sufficiently large sample of road criminals are capable of painting a picture of a typical road hog. It is a male, aged 18 – 45, often frustrated by life, but not by involuntary celibate, yet self-confident, with large levels of testosterone and no reasonable idea how to give off it wisely. Instead of going to a gym, running, kick-boxing or another health-conducive activity, they decide to raise their adrenaline levels on public roads, putting at peril lives of each of us.
They wrongfully assert speed is not a problem. In their narrow minds public infrastructure is not adjusted to how they desire to make use of it. Besides, other traffic participants ought to be more prudent and get off their way, once they approach in ungodly haste. Law of the jungle prevails in their heads, especially when they invoke concepts of personal liberties, stifled by traffic restrictions. Has nobody told them freedom without responsibility is just a selfishness?
The author rightly points out a major part of the problem are those sitting behind the wheel to earn a livelihood and here I concur with the view the system, not the people, is to blame. Sales representatives chasing unrealistic sales targets drive like lunatics because their employers expect them to do so. Delivery couriers break traffic rules several times a day, since their targets are exorbitantly high and rates per parcel laughably low. Truck drivers need to meet deadlines theoretically out of reach, hence if devices assembled in their vehicles hinder speeding, they resort to other tricks to accelerate their journeys. Those pathologies are the price we as society pay for a having the fruits of our consumerist indulgence delivered quickly and cheaply at our doorsteps.
On top of that we have individuals living in constant haste, desperately trying to combine family and professional duties, perpetually short of time and trying to move around possibly quickly. For such reason, Poles get accustomed to being car-ridden and after a while cease to see alternatives. Such is the reason for short-distance (below 3 miles) journeys, which ought to be eliminated first.
If the car addiction has gone so far, how can it be reversed? Traffic experts remind a human being is defiant by nature and dislikes being told to change their habits abruptly. This should be done slowly, consistently, heedless of bleating car-ridden meatheads. Sticks should be complemented with carrots, i.e. cheap, convenient and reliable public transport. This especially is a problem in the Polish countryside, where in several villages you will not spot a single bus running at least once a day. Out there, in the sticks, you are trapped at home unless you have a car (usually an old, cheap, air-polluting one).
Speeding fines in Poland were substantially raised at the beginning of 2022, which led to a decline in fatalities. Still, the Polish fine schedule is quite lenient, as painful fines are charged for speeding above 30 kmph – in the range of 31 – 40 kmph above speed limit you pay PLN 800. But moderate speeding remains tolerable – for driving 9 kpmh faster than allowed you might pay mere PLN 50. The fine I received in Czech Republic for driving 59 kpmh, where 50 kmph was allowed, was over four times higher. And this is why all of a sudden most Poles morph into ultra-obedient drivers abroad.
Off to Wisła for the Corpus Christi weekend. Next posting in two weeks.
