Who is to blame?

Very often I find myself in a puzzle. I was driving one day with a friend of mine and a public transport bus stopped in the middle of the road. He cut off one of the lanes of the two-lane corniche road. He did not give a signal, no hazard lights...nothing - just stopped to pick up passengers. My friend reached across and punched the horn down to express our anger and frustration. The bus driver simply stuck out his left arm out the window and gestured with an open palm to go ahead and use the free lane he hadn't blocked. Call him cold-blooded, call him ignorant, call him what you will. I signaled left and overtook the bus. He shouted out the window. I couldn't hear what he said and I decided not to bark back.

Afterwards I started thinking...

Who was to blame? The bus stopped in the middle of the road because he couldn't really stop any closer to the pavement because there were hordes of people standing on the road struggling to get a chance to ride. Are the people to blame for standing on the road? The pavement as far as I remember was too narrow and the bus stop was unable to accommodate all those people. It was basically survival of the fittest. The fastest would get to ride first and take the place of the slower less fortunate. Who designed the bus stop? Was he to blame? I dont think anybody actually designed the bus stop. Who designed the road with no off-road area for the bus to pick up passengers? Who designed the road with no hard-shoulder? Was he to blame? What about the inefficient public transport system? Did anybody design anything? Was it designed a long time ago and cannot be enhanced or adapted?

I believe it is the whole system that has failed and fallen apart. Scalability is among key design features for any system. Learning from previous mistakes is also a virtue. Learning from entities with more experience is another way of learning. Still new cities are being built with nothing being learned. 6th October is becoming more and more like down town and Madinat Nasr (places of extreme traffic jams and crowded streets). The streets are still narrow and are usually taken up by a row of parked cars and in many cases a second parallel row. Is there any foresight? When you build something - shouldnt you think of the consequences of building it? Shouldnt you think of trying to accomodate as many people as possible? Are there places to park? ...etc...etc

There are just so many situations where you see people pointing fingers and barking at each other. Its a constant factor in big cities in developing nations. People are always frustrated at others.

Another incident happened to me as I was riding with a friend. The friend was over-speeding on a highway. Again this was on a two-lane road. There was a slower car driving along in the fast lane. I can't really remember if the right lane was occupied or free. My friend slowed down suddenly meters away from the car in front and flashed the lights and beeped the horn several times until the car swerved aside to allow us passage. My friend cursed the other driver and went on going. I find myself in both situations. I find myself the speeder who gets frustrated at the slower car in the fast lane even though the other car is driving within the speed limits and I'm over speeding. I also find myself in the fast lane confident that I'm driving exactly as fast as the speed limit and I find pleasure in keeping to the fast lane as a car behind me barks and barks :D.

Who is wrong here? Is it the speed limit :)? Is is the speeder? Is it the slower car keeping to the speed limit in the fast lane? Is it the highway designer? Is it the lack of awareness and driving ethics?

Again - Who is to blame?

PS: One thing I do know is that speeding kills