If I were to pick one downside of living where I do it would be the need to own a car and have to drive. I'm around 20 minutes away from the nearest town, and sadly in the time I've lived here the village has lost all it's amenities. We no longer have a shop, post office or pub, so even a hermit like me has to venture out into the wider world.
I've been driving for around twenty years and honestly I think the standard on the road now is appalling. I'm not just talking about the cheap, infrequent maintenance either. The way people drive is downright dangerous. Until two years ago when I got injured I used to run 10km on the roads three or four times a week. Being responsible I always wore HiVis and ran towards the traffic as there are no pavements. It was always blatantly obvious when oncoming drivers weren't paying attention and hadn't seen me. Many times I was forced to jump into the bank to avoid being run over, and they looked surprised when they did see me at the last minute. Considering I was decked out like a fluorescent Christmas tree I had to wonder where they were actually looking.
I don't know if it's just me but a lot of people now seem to have an attention span of virtually nothing, which is not good for road safety. They don't look at give way signs, roundabouts, it's like if they don't look then they can't see you so can just carry on.
A particular issue on rural roads is speed. I stopped taking Star on the roads because of people speeding, and just because a country road has an arbitrary limit of 60 it doesn't mean the actual road is safe for that speed. Where I am the roads over time tend to collapse towards the huge dykes and it's not uncommon here to see cars in the ditches or fields because they've been travelling much too fast for the road.
Apart from the issue of concentration another thing that really concerns me is impatience. This week I got stuck behind a tractor on a very winding piece of road, the person behind me wasn't prepared to wait to overtake, tried to go past coming up to a blind bend and was nearly hit by an oncoming car. That person, a woman, had a young child in the car. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth that kind of silly risk, but it's like these people think they're impervious.
Unfortunately there's several stretches of road near me where people regularly die in car crashes and sadly many children have lost their lives there too. In those circumstances it's not just the families who are deeply affected, it's the emergency services who have to clear up the mess, the mental health professionals who have to deal with the aftermath, and I can personally tell you there is nothing you can say to a person who's been in a car crash that will rationalise it or make it better, all you really can do is listen. That will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Impatience and aggression often go hand in hand, and it's not just males, females can be as bad. I'm not sure when we as a society became like this, it's not healthy though. I generally leave for all appointments early, so I can take the time it takes and I don't spend my day feeling anxious about not being on time. I'm a very easy going person who rarely loses my temper, and I will be honest when I've been on my own in the car and subject to aggression I've felt frightened. One example was a chap behind me one time when although the traffic lights were on green I couldn't go anywhere as the box junction was blocked. I honestly thought he was going to drag me out of the car and attack me, I think it's a sign of something deeply amiss that something as inconsequential can cause such rage in a person.
I don't think traffic offences are taken seriously enough by the law, I did come in contact with someone who thought being sent on speed awareness courses was something funny and to be proud of. It's about time people started to take driving seriously, rather than something to be taken for granted, it should be a privilege rather than a right to be on the roads.
I've been driving for around twenty years and honestly I think the standard on the road now is appalling. I'm not just talking about the cheap, infrequent maintenance either. The way people drive is downright dangerous. Until two years ago when I got injured I used to run 10km on the roads three or four times a week. Being responsible I always wore HiVis and ran towards the traffic as there are no pavements. It was always blatantly obvious when oncoming drivers weren't paying attention and hadn't seen me. Many times I was forced to jump into the bank to avoid being run over, and they looked surprised when they did see me at the last minute. Considering I was decked out like a fluorescent Christmas tree I had to wonder where they were actually looking.
I don't know if it's just me but a lot of people now seem to have an attention span of virtually nothing, which is not good for road safety. They don't look at give way signs, roundabouts, it's like if they don't look then they can't see you so can just carry on.
A particular issue on rural roads is speed. I stopped taking Star on the roads because of people speeding, and just because a country road has an arbitrary limit of 60 it doesn't mean the actual road is safe for that speed. Where I am the roads over time tend to collapse towards the huge dykes and it's not uncommon here to see cars in the ditches or fields because they've been travelling much too fast for the road.
Apart from the issue of concentration another thing that really concerns me is impatience. This week I got stuck behind a tractor on a very winding piece of road, the person behind me wasn't prepared to wait to overtake, tried to go past coming up to a blind bend and was nearly hit by an oncoming car. That person, a woman, had a young child in the car. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worth that kind of silly risk, but it's like these people think they're impervious.
Unfortunately there's several stretches of road near me where people regularly die in car crashes and sadly many children have lost their lives there too. In those circumstances it's not just the families who are deeply affected, it's the emergency services who have to clear up the mess, the mental health professionals who have to deal with the aftermath, and I can personally tell you there is nothing you can say to a person who's been in a car crash that will rationalise it or make it better, all you really can do is listen. That will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Impatience and aggression often go hand in hand, and it's not just males, females can be as bad. I'm not sure when we as a society became like this, it's not healthy though. I generally leave for all appointments early, so I can take the time it takes and I don't spend my day feeling anxious about not being on time. I'm a very easy going person who rarely loses my temper, and I will be honest when I've been on my own in the car and subject to aggression I've felt frightened. One example was a chap behind me one time when although the traffic lights were on green I couldn't go anywhere as the box junction was blocked. I honestly thought he was going to drag me out of the car and attack me, I think it's a sign of something deeply amiss that something as inconsequential can cause such rage in a person.
I don't think traffic offences are taken seriously enough by the law, I did come in contact with someone who thought being sent on speed awareness courses was something funny and to be proud of. It's about time people started to take driving seriously, rather than something to be taken for granted, it should be a privilege rather than a right to be on the roads.