RADA Inspired for March: Keep Calm and Taxi On

If we can change our perspective, Change our Mindsets, then we can change our Actions. 

As part of their overall vision to create a safe and peaceful environment for all, effecting change through compassion and understanding, RADA will be undertaking an unprecedented ten-month social campaign and needs your help to do so. From 1 March to 31 December 2018, the non-profit company, through the RADA Inspire initiative, will seek to address some of South Africa’s most overlooked societal grievances – starting with the mindset of the people.

For the month of March, RADA Inspire will focus on the highly controversial topic: our attitude towards taxi drivers and fellow road users. It is important to state that this campaign in no way endorses any illegal behavior on the road, either taxi- or general-vehicle-related, but simply intends to create awareness around our reaction to issues on the road and the effect thereof, i.e. a web of negativity that infiltrates our psyche.

The aim is to create a more positive environment for all road users, shifting our perspective and creating a sense of understanding about other people’s lives and hardships, including those behind the wheels of South Africa’s most economically significant transport system, the taxi.

In March, dubbed Taxi Month by RADA Inspire, the idea is to develop a better understanding of the daily lives and challenges facing many law-abiding taxi-drivers. To realize that, across the nation, taxis transport almost 14 million people to work every day, helping to sustain our economy. It is also important to recognize that many of these drivers (who are not owners) only begin to earn for themselves after they have collected their first 160 passengers of the day and paid the expected daily rental for the minibus.

Once again, these facts and opinions are not intended to either condone illegal behavior, or even generate sympathy, as we all have challenges to face while going about our day, but instead to kick-start and facilitate collective empathy (the idea of shared respect and understanding), the starting point of positive change. Our unwillingness to accommodate other drivers on the road (each going about their day with their own goals and motives) does not add light to the situation. Rather, it creates desperation and rage, putting all other road-users in danger, making the reaction itself futile and serves no purpose.

Over the course of Taxi Month, we aim to delve into and communicate to the masses the background stories of these drivers, create positive and eye-catching messaging and marketing material to help alleviate our sense of frustration or aggression and, encourage better road etiquette for taxi-drivers and general drivers alike.

RADA seeks to stimulate conversation through, you the media, and to reshape the ways in which we as a society behave in the company of those who share our roads

Ultimately, the crux of Taxi Month is one we can all get behind. Up until now, anger has accomplished nothing in terms of solving the problem. We believe that even the briefest moment of patience and goodwill can produce tangible, nation-wide results, and that a road without fear or frustration is a safer and more efficient road for all.

Top tips:

• Remain calm
• Don’t offend or use obscene gestures
• Don’t take things personally
• Practice wisdom and understanding for others
• Be tolerant and forgiving
• Spread positivity

Call to action: Share your positive road user moment with us on social media #RADAinspire