Inconsiderate, Arrogant & Dangerous (Road Rage)

Member Name: upton66

Product:	Road Rage
Date:	17/04/04 (261 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Venting Anger at your Peril

Disadvantages: Danger, Stupidity

Speed is responsible for all accidents – it’s obvious really, well you do have to be moving in order to collide with something!

What is this obsession with speed, objection to speed cameras, inconsideration of other road users, blatant disregard for the law and contempt for any criticism?

30mph – 40mph areas
Close to home I drive along a typical suburban road almost every day and at all times of day and night. Picture the road, open park with hedge on the left, houses with driveways on the right, a couple of side roads to the right. There is a gentle bend as you approach this stretch, dead straight for about one mile, then a gentle curve and slope down to a smallish but busy roundabout. There are bright yellow speed cameras just before the straight stretch at both ends. The speed limit used to be 40 but was reduced to 30 and the cameras installed. Outrage in the paper at lack of notice of speed change, it’s just to make money for the council, it’s a straight open road etc etc – well to all the moaners and maniacs who rocket down this road, cause near misses, accelerate and brake making life misery for the residents consider this:

There are breaks in the hedge onto to only a narrow verge before the road.
The park and pavements are popular with dog walkers; I’ve seen them from four in the morning to past midnight.
The verge and pavement is used regularly by joggers at all surprising hours.
They are decent size houses but with narrow entrances to driveways, by design some householders have to either back their cars in or out.
There are many young families, so children, prams and pushchairs always around.
It is a popular road for cyclists, who are around day and night, usually without lights and often with dark clothing.
The park is used for organised football at the weekends with many children and dogs around.
Popular activities are also kite flying, and general larkin
g around by all ages.
The side roads emerge without good visibility.
Children walk across the park every day from home to school.
At one end of the stretch the road dips, curves and you are on a roundabout.
At the other end it curves round, narrows, there are houses both sides of the road and you are on top of traffic lights

So what average driver considers all those potential hazards? Very few I guess.

So what right does a driver have to be so arrogant as to think he is so experienced that he can safely drive at 40, 50 or even 60 down this road, does he know the dozen or so hidden hazards on this stretch of road.

There are 30mph signs at either end of the road, there are huge 30 signs painted on the road, there are camera warning signs on the lamp posts, there are pedestrian, school and children crossing warning signs. There is a lollipop lady (still alive) at one section of the road every school day. It is reasonably well lit.

When the police condescend to put film in the two cameras they flash constantly for a couple of days and nights until it runs out and then no action is taken until a couple more months have passed.

Why are drivers so impatient they don’t have the common courtesy to allow residents out of their driveways? Why do they mount the verge to get passed as residents wait in the middle of the road trying to get into their driveways?

So you could drive at 30 down this road in about 2minutes, at 40 you’ll save half a minute, at 60 I suppose a whole minute of your valuable life will be saved.
It may be one minute of the driver’s hectic lifestyle but they could kill and maim an adult, child or cyclist in those few seconds. I don’t care if they wrap themselves round one of the lampposts and kill themselves but what right do they have to endanger others.

How many drivers are really so experienced they can spot the person about to emerge through the h
edge, the child tripping on the verge, the dog racing out, the pot hole, the cyclist with no lights, the car emerging from the side road, the oncoming car with full headlights, the car with one broken headlight mistaken for a motorbike, the jogger moving into the road, the sunlight suddenly blazing into the eyes from behind a tree, the cars parked on the road or half on the pavement or verge, the car moving off without lights, the children chattering and not looking.

I despise arrogant drivers who speed, they are selfish, inconsiderate, do not realise that familiarity with a road breads contempt, do not read the road or work at their driving – they are the road user, they got there first, they have the right to command the tarmac – heaven help the innocent victims.

Already some roads look like scalextric tracks, black tarmac interspersed with stupid unusable cycle tracks, red as you approach traffic lights or junctions, straight ahead, left and right arrows, endless signs for the obvious hazards – drivers are already being treated like idiots. The message is just follow the signs; any concept of reading the road and gaining experience from driving is being removed from the driving experience

Cars especially these days are lethal weapons. They are more comfortable, quieter, have better road holding, better breaks, decent sound systems, air conditioning, everything that removes contact with the real world outside the hugely overpowered tin box which is all they are. Cars more or less drive themselves these days but you still need a driver to steer it and adjust speed to approach potential hazards with due care and consideration

Roll on the speed cameras, if they generate income all the better whether for the local councils or central government. They are a tax on the driver –what utter cowbosh – get alive. If drivers are so dozy and irresponsible to be incapable of driving safely down a stretch of road
then lets penalise them to the hilt.

All drivers should consider being assessed by a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists to learn to appreciate hazard perception, anticipation and consideration. Only then might they appreciate the concept of: when driving there is what you can see, what you can’t see and what could happen.

Summary: