Your Voice
Your Voice: Ramadan and the rights of the road
By driving carefully and with more care for our community, we can bring a little bit of the peace into the world that we need.
Driving is an art, but it is also a time in which our morals are put to the test. Whenever we take a road trip, we can see how speed and haste prevail and how patience and deliberation are set aside.
Now that we are in the month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, prayer, reflection, and building the bonds of community, we have an opportunity to make dramatic changes in our lives, to create new habits, and to make small changes that can have a positive impact on the people around us.
As we search for ways to refine the soul and spirit, we can also commit ourselves to making the driving journey safe. After all, the vehicles we drive were made for transportation, not for killing.
Even if you respect and apply all traffic laws, driving a car on our streets these days has become truly an adventure. There is no longer an attitude of compromise, cooperation, and participation in making our streets and roads safe for every user.
Drivers regularly exceed the posted speed in crowded streets, overtake other cars in places where that is not allowed, and stubbornly refuse to give way to other drivers on the road.
One of the confusing scenes of traffic is seeing a driver not using the correct lane to exit from the road. And despite intensive awareness campaigns, the bad habit of using mobile phones while driving continues to be one of the main causes of fatal accidents.
When driving a vehicle, keep in mind that you are responsible for your live and the lives of others around you. The largest proportion of our society is young and educated, and this may be the greatest hope for changing negative aspects of our society such as unsafe driving.
I hope that the improved educational achievement of our youthful population will be reflected in our culture with greater traffic awareness and increased responsibility.
Even parking in an incorrect way can cause disruption and confusion for those around us. If you are in traffic, it is important to signal to indicate your intentions to park, slow down, and think of how to give others enough time to react. Blocking another car in by parking behind them can lead to disputes and problems, so please stop and think of how your actions affect others.
In this Holy Month, let’s do our part to bring more peace into the world, to create the world we want to live in. By driving carefully and with more care for our community, we can bring a little bit of the peace into the world that we need.
Drive safely, and stay healthy.