About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

31 March 2008

SUVs - Reasoning behind the madness?

For the most part, I do not understand why people drive SUVs - they are big, consume a lot of fuel, and are generally not used for much other than an expensive shopping cart. And, for the most part, I thought it is particularly wasted in Gauteng, where the best use of the off road capabilities is to overcome potholes, park on the pavement and jump the dividing kerb, to make a u-turn when avoiding traffic.

This afternoon, while on my way to a meeting, I was stuck in yet another traffic jam. So after making a quick check in my map book, I decided to duck into a side street and take a slightly longer way around. After a few minutes, I realised why not many people seem to be taking this route - it was mostly a dirt road! And, there are actually quite a few dirt roads around Midrand - and together with the farms (saw a Rainbow chicken farm the other day), there are enough reminders of how recent this place has undergone urbanisation.

For the record, it was still a quicker route - it seems that there was an accident, opposite the entrance of my destination - and the traffic was backed up by quite a bit.