Uganda, Nov. 17 -- A few years ago, this newspaper started a 'stay in your lane' campaign to promote better driving on the roads. The idea was borne out of frustration. Across the city, whenever traffic slowed down, impatient drivers would wait for a break in on-coming traffic, then get into the overtaking lane to try and get ahead of everyone else.

Given how narrow most of our roads are, this advantage is always short-lived; before long, there's an on-coming car which requires the overtaking driver to get back into their lane.

Unfortunately, bad ideas are contagious. As soon as one driver gets out of lane, others follow. The result is that traffic, instead of being just slow, becomes paralysed. There are too many cars in the overtaking...