Headlines to die for.

The driving habits of Israelis could fill up an entire blog by itself. I would have enough material for a daily blog if I just recounted the traffic-law violations I saw on a daily basis. Scratch that, forget traffic-law violations, just common-sense violations would suffice. Turn signals? Turning left from the left-hand turn lane and not three lanes over? Driving right, passing left? Driving at a constant speed without randomly throwing on the emergency brake and coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road? Forget it, such things do not exist here.

Apparently, the powers that be have apparently caught on to the erratic driving tendencies of Israeli drivers. Right now there is an advertising campaign urging people not to do anything but drive while they're behind the wheel. On the radio, you'll hear a "common" situation, and until a couple of weeks ago, this would be followed by the sound of a crash, followed by a very solemn voice urging the driver not to do such things. The worst one was a father calling home to say goodnight to his young daughter before she went to bed, only to have her hear an accident and cry futilely "Abba... Abba?!" into the phone. The crash sound has recently disappeared, probably because of the cringe-factor.

I'll admit, some of these situations aren't specific to Israel. Especially the whole texting/talking on the cell phone bit. And I'm sure elsewhere, people fiddle with their GPS systems, their kids' movies, the radio, turn around to calm a screaming child, look at a map, or read the newspaper.

Wait... rewind... what?!

Yes, one "common" situation here in Israel is for people to catch up on their daily news whilst driving. I have seen it, from bus drivers of PUBLIC buses (Egged, are you listening? I don't see "certain death or bodily harm" listed under that "services" menu). I mean, are red lights seriously that boring? This in a country where the news comes on every radio station every hour - and some every half-hour. NOTHING has happened that will change your life since you last hear the news. Shocking, I know, but it's true.

Now, we have to work on a campaign to explain the difference between the gas pedal and the brake pedal.