A new traffic law, imposing harsher penalties on offenders, has inspired public ire. Until very recently, few people even knew it existed. The law was issued last January, and came into effect on 1 March. No change or improvement was felt on Egypt's streets, however. Then again, maybe this was because the media itself paid so little attention to the news.
High fines are the topic of the day, especially among taxi and microbus drivers.
The media has suddenly evinced great interest in the subject, and is having a field day reporting on drivers' complaints and tracking down loopholes in the new law. But, despite the Interior Ministry's all-out war on traffic offenders, very few motorists and pedestrians have noticed an improvement in the traffic flow or motorists' conduct. Perhaps harsher penalties are not the solution to traffic problems. Whatever the answers, many motorists as well as taxi and microbus drivers are already disenchanted. It seems only normal, then, that many drivers did not react well to the law.