Driving me mad

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The Freedom of Choice and….Our Attitudes to Driving

Whilst most of us have the choice between driving a car, walking or catching the bus (or other public transport) to get to where we need to be. I would hazard a guess that most of us (yes me included) would choose to take the car. Why?
Because it’s easy that’s why.
We seem to have forgotten how to walk, how to get from A to B without the map we have lodged in the car door. I bet most of us would not have a clue where our nearest bus stop was, and more importantly, where the buses went, should we ever need to catch one.

I have a feeling that if our own personal vehicle of choice was suddenly not available to us to use for an extended period of time, then we really would have a better appreciation of this wonderful piece of equipment that we have at our disposal. Instead, we choose to berate it when it breaks down, curse the fact that it costs more money to service and maintain it than ever did before, hate the fact that the price of fuel keeps going up, and we totally despise the fact that other people, seemingly ignorant people want to use the publicly funded roads that we have chosen to use on any particular occasion.

We get angry when they are in the exact place that we feel that we ought to be in, we get annoyed when these same people aren’t travelling at the speed you would prefer to travel, and how dare anyone park in “your” spot in the car park.

There is a lot of anger directed around this activity, yet we have the same freedom to choose how we drive, as we do with our reaction to those people who for some reason or other seem unable to keep their car in the same lane for more than a few seconds at a time. We can choose to be angry at the other road users, we can choose to speed up so that others can’t pass us, we can choose to get completely annoyed when someone fails to see us. Or we can assume that some people think the size of their engine is all that matters and let them get on with it. Chances are you'll catch them up at the next set of traffic lights anyway.

I am not immune to the road rage that seems ever present on our roads, it’s hard to ignore the horns blaring and the finger wagging. Why? Well I had a problem with my brake light - the switch that sits under the brake pedal decided to stay "stuck" in the on position, so the other drivers thought I was sitting on my brakes. It wasn't until my son told me my lights were on that I found out about it. And I got it fixed the next day. It also cured another problem that I had had, my car had struggled to start on a couple of mornings!! not surprising really. Now if someone had bothered to tell me....

I remember driving to work one morning, following a car that was leaking something clear...and not just a little, it was leaving a swathe of "wet" down the road, and looked like either the radiator or the petrol had given up. Which was OK, but the person driving the car was smoking....so we get to the first junction and I get out of my car and race to the driver.... she said thanks for that...but didn't bother to check what the problem was before driving off again. Obviously after the car finally stopped for want of important liquid, she may have decided I wasn't a nutter after all.

As we get closer to Christmas, there is going to be more "fun and games" on the roads than normal. So please be careful. If you are going out to party, please ensure that someone is designated driver for the evening, or even better catch the bus and remove the problem entirely.

But can you do me a second favour, if you are on the road and see something, then please tell the other driver (nicely of course) what is wrong, because they may not know they have a problem. Thank you and please have a safe journey home.

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