Yellow Line Driving

Travel much and you’ll look at your own culture and society differently. Cliché, perhaps, but worth remembering nevertheless. I find I’m more likely to gain such insights when consciously looking for them.

South Africa has a phenomenon called “yellow line driving”. To get this, the first thing you need to know that in South Africa, roads — or at least those that are tarred and line-painted — are marked differently than US roads. SA roads have a yellow line down outside of the outermost travel lane in each direction, along the shoulder. The double line down the middle of the road, separating northbound traffic from southbound (or whatever), is white.

The second thing you need to know is that the vast majority of South Africa’s roads, even of the long-haul limited-access highways, are two lanes wide. And SA has a lot of open space, so one an drive for a long, long, long time on a two-lane highway.

The third thing you need to know is that on highways, the speed limit depends on vehicle type. It’s generally 120 km/h for cars, 100 km/h for “combis” (minivans, typically overstuffed, serving as privately-owned mass transit), and 80 km/h for lorries (the big trucks). Not that everyone obeys the limit, of course, but SA’s traffic police have devilishly effective speed traps. They’ll sit under a tree by the side of the road with a combination radar gun/camera on a tripod. As you zip by faster than you should, they’ll clock you and take a picture that shows both your license plate number and your speed. Some time later, that picture, along with a citation and a fine to be paid, arrives at the mailing address of the car’s registered owner. And at present, local police get to keep the money they collect via traffic fines, so there’s a certain motivation for them to be, shall we say, zealous in their enforcement of the law.

This means that if you drive any distance here, you’re virtually certain to get stuck behind a slow truck on a two-lane highway. Frequently. Possibly for a very long time.

The solution that has evolved is called “yellow line driving”. Many truck drivers will cheat over onto the shoulder, spanning the yellow line, to make room for faster traffic to pass. Some trucks do this as needed; others just hang out on the yellow line for kilometer after kilometer. Take it from someone who’s always in somewhat of a hurry: yellow line driving is a very welcome thing indeed.

Yellow line driving isn’t just for trucks, either. The driver of vehicle is likely to slide over into the shoulder to give you passing room. When you start to pass, an oncoming vehicle will slide outward as well, temporarily redefining the two-lane road as a three-lane one. (It takes a certain amount of faith to drive down the middle of a two-lane highway on the assumption that the oncoming car will in fact notice you and adjust. And that when she does, nobody behind her will suddenly do exactly what you’re doing. I know enough physics to calculate how much kinetic energy is converted to heat, noise, and “internal degrees of freedom” — e.g., rearranging your anatomy — when two tons of metal collide at a relative speed of over 240 km/h…)

I have a photograph of a truck being passed by another truck being passed by a car being passed by another car, while a third truck comes the other way from over a hill. I took the picture through the windshield of a car that was directly behind the four-vehicle phalanx. Fortunately, this particular section of highway had four lanes, so the only casualty was my composure. (Sorry I can’t post that photo here; it’s a 35mm slide on the other side of the globe at the moment.)

The informal custom of sliding over to make room for a passer, whether from behind or oncoming, isn’t limited to South Africa. I’ve encountered it in other southern African countries, in Jamaica, in Costa Rica, in Argentina and Chile, and elsewhere. And that’s what taught me something about my home culture. Specifically, about American drivers.

Americans are hung up on their rights in many ways, and this is beautifully manifest in their driving habits. If I’m stuck behind a slower vehicle on a no-passing road in most countries I’ve visited, chances are good the driver will be helpful and try to let me by. In the US, it’s virtually certain he’ll ignore me, and I’ll be sucking exhaust until a passing zone appears. “It’s my right to drive in this lane at this speed. If you don’t like it, that’s your problem.”

And if I do (ahem) pass someone in the US by cheating into the oncoming lane, and a car comes towards me in that lane, that car won’t coolly slide over and give me room. Instead, the driver will freak, lean on the horn, flash the headlights, and generally communicate “Oh my God, you idiot, you’re trying to kill me!” (I know. I’ve tried it. Please don’t tell my mom.)

As a generalization, I’d suggest that American drivers are preoccupied with their rights. Foreign drivers, at least in the developing world, are just trying to make it work for everyone. With much less umbrage.

Not, mind you, that I’m objecting to the having or valuing of rights. Quite the contrary. But there’s a difference between having a right and aggressively, unnecessarily exercising it at the expense of kindness and consideration.

The most beautiful part of yellow line driving, as practiced in South Africa, is what I call the “South African salute”. As I pass someone who drove the line for me, I flash my hazard lights once or twice, which means “thank you”. The other driver flashes her headlights briefly, signifying “you’re welcome”. Civilized, no?

In the US, if I blazed by someone in a no-passing zone and then flashed my hazards like that, they’d probably think I was cussing them out. In Los Angeles, I’d probably get shot.

The sad part about this is that yellow line driving is dying out in SA. Many trucks now have signs something to the effect of “This vehicle is not allowed to travel in the yellow line”, though the drivers don’t always comply. (I’ve even seen “No, I won’t drive on the f***ing yellow line!”, though I failed to get my camera out in time.) It seems there have been several horrific accidents in which trucks hit bridge abutments, slipped off an eroded shoulder and overturned, or ran over children when they suddenly needed to get back into the travel lane and couldn’t, trapped by a passing car. I’d suggest that driving full-time down the line, over blind hills and around curves, is probably unwise. The backlash, however, seems to be inhibiting all yellow-line driving.

Also, I’ve noticed a general decline in the average courtesy level of SA fourteen years I’ve been visiting. During and shortly after apartheid, drivers were a small, elite, and congenial fraternity. Traffic congestion was rarely a problem. Since then, vehicle ownership has skyrocketed. The influx of new drivers alone would probably disrupt the propagation of any existing road culture, and nightmare stop-and-go commuting in the greater Jo’burg-Pretoria area could sour anyone’s sense of camaraderie.

Meanwhile, I’m doing my best to popularize the South African Salute in the US. If you happen to squeeze over so a green Subaru Outback can pass you, and the driver blinks his hazard lights a time or two, please don’t shoot.