When I passed my driving test as a 19 year old I was desperate to buy my own car and take to the roads. There is nothing unusual about this, of course, but since I drove my own car for the first time to the present day, there has been a huge shift in my whole driving experience. Let me explain.
In my early days of motoring, I used any excuse to drive somewhere, anywhere. There was no continual stress involved. The price of fuel and insurance was affordable, even for a young driver on low wages like I was. I drove sensibly, not always staying at 30mph in a 30mph zone but certainly never treated the roads like a race track. I don't want to appear some do gooding, preaching bore here, it's just that I had respect for my passengers, other road users and, perhaps above all, myself.
What has happened in the intervening 25 years then? Well, firstly, a whole new generation has arrived. Today's young drivers weren't even born when I passed my test. Don't misunderstand me, I have always seen occasional dangerous driving throughout my life but the biggest change now is the frequency with which this occurs. This may seem obvious as there are so many more vehicles on the road than 25 years ago but this still doesn't account for the sheer scale of the madness I see and have to avoid on a daily basis now.
During the last 12 months, I have found that even the shortest journey is not incident free anymore. Even this morning on a 15 minute journey into Manchester city centre I had to negotiate the following:
After turning the first corner from my house, a taxi pulled out in front of me without signalling causing me to brake sharply. He then dawdled in front of me on his hand held mobile for 30 seconds then turned right again without signalling. I reached a T junction with a main road where signalling left/right is important for drivers behind to position their vehicle. The 4x4 monstrosity in front of me at the junction didn't signal. Maybe he/she was on a magical mystery tour? Eventually, they turned right.
Half a mile further on a cyclist emerged at speed off the pavement in front of me causing me to brake sharply for the second time within a mile from home. The cyclist was wearing headphones and no protection whatsoever. Another mile further on and my speedometer is just over 30 mph (30mph zone). I keep it at this speed then suddenly a white Audi appeared from nowhere in my rear view mirror, virtually on my back bumper. I refused to be intimidated by his aggression then noticed his flustered body language as he tried to overtake. I lose the Audi moron at the next roundabout then the next mile or so is incident free (hurray!)
A mile from town another 4x4 buffoon displayed his idiocy by speeding past me at around 50mph (30mph) zone. As I pull up at the next set of lights I glance across at the driver next to me. It is a young female happily chatting on her hand held phone. As the lights change, she doesn't move then I notice in my rear view mirror that she hasn't noticed the lights had changed due to her life or death phone call. As I approached town I needed to pull in on a one way street. As I turned right into the one way (yes it was one way in my direction) yet another 4v4 driver is faced me head on coming in the opposite direction. As I broke sharply for the third time this morning there was just enough room for us to pass. As we passed I wound down my window to ask what he is playing at and he was chatting away on his hand-held phone apparently oblivious that he was heading down a one way street in the "wrong" direction.
All this had happened in the space of 15 minutes and is not untypical. Would this have happened 25 years ago? Of course not, firstly, as the hand held mobile was not an issue. Secondly, driving standards generally have plummeted, ironically, at a time when the driving test is supposed to be tougher than it has ever been. The "informed" tell me statistics say road deaths in this country have decreased in recent years, even though it still stands at 3 a day. My answer to this is that cars have never before had all the safety features they currently have. This is the only reason why the carnage is not much higher.
My conclusion is the penalties for dangerous driving in all it's now many forms must be significantly tougher. I am aware I have posted on this blog before about hand-held mobiles whilst driving but 3 points and £30 is not going to deter anyone. What are the people who set these penalties thinking ?
We need to toughen up on dangerous driving and reduce the daily death toll on our roads. More people die on our roads every year than are ever likely to die in terrorist attacks yet British politicians are still willing to spend millions of pounds on ill-advised armed conflict abroad whilst doing virtually nothing about these preventable deaths at home. Tests have shown that the distraction of the phone is just as dangerous as being over the drink drive limit, now there is some food for thought....
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