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Where are all the traffic police that are supposed to be patrolling the motorways? Are they all on one long extended coffee break or something? During a journey into Manchester this week I realised just how bad our roads really are, as a passenger you tend to notice other drivers bad habits more. In a thirty minute journey the following is what I observed.
No less than 30 drivers tailgating at high speed causing the drivers in front to swerve out of the way in panic. Thank god for the quick reaction of the other drivers who moved to let them into the middle lane to get of the way of the dangerous drivers doing the tailgating!
A woman drifting across the lanes - when passing her she was on her phone totally unaware of her actions. One woman applying make-up at a speed of 80mph! 20 drivers were talking on their mobiles and 15 drivers changed lanes without indicating. I witnessed 2 drivers shoot across from the fast lane because they suddenly realised their junction was approaching, causing all the other drivers to take very quick evasive action. One man had a coffee in one hand (the hand on the steering wheel) and a mobile phone in the other hand.
I saw a woman TRYING to drive with a bunch of kids climbing all over the car. Then there was a man in a car flashing his lights and sounding the horn because he wanted us to move out of the way, we were doing 70mph in the fast lane ( i thought this was the speed limit?) Applying makeup at speed is one thing, but there was one woman applying make up and eating breakfast at the same time! Another woman obviously dropped something and was trying to reach for it whilst driving at 70mph. Doing stupid things whilst driving at speed is dangerous, but I saw one couple sitting in the middle lane doing about 50mph forcing other drivers to pass them on both sides which I think is just as dangerous. Last but not least, there was the idiot who cut up a woman driver causing her to swerve in front of another car missing it by inches! I am just amazed that I didnt actually witness an accident.
I would like to know though, where are all the traffic police? If they actually be there to stop the madness then cant they employ some volunteers to drive police like cars up and down the motorways to act as a deterrent? We all see the brake lights come on when a police car is spotted, so perhaps we should have a lot more of them out there or even a system where you can name and shame the bad drivers.
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I'm voting for the Labour Party, about time the UK stopped this car madness. If you want a big gas guzzler, you should pay through the nose.
Most people speed; most people do not have accidents.
Your driving along at the 'speed limit' and someone is desperately trying to get by you, you think what u said im going the speed limit, what you didnt know was the guy was a specialist doctor called in on an emergancy for whatever reason.
You didnt let him by and he never made it to the hospital in enough time to perfrom the op.
OR
That person just dropped off thir significant other to the airport (but you dont know that) but in their haste forgot their passport. The guy thunders home and heads back to the airport but you wont move OR let him past.
Thanks to you gbeing stubborn and not allowing him to pass she never made it and now wont get to see her mother who is about to pass away, however you didnt care as you thought what you were doing was more important.
My elaborate examples are meant to establish one thing: other people have busy lives to and when someone is desperately trying to get past they may have a valid and geniune reason so stop holding up traffic just because YOU feel they shouldnt be going faster.
Think about that the next time you decide to stop someone passing you.
PS. Im not attacking you merely making a point and I agree with most of what you said except my main point above just everyone always think of themselves. I always let faster cars by aswell as bikers and find driving is more relaxing when you let the less relaxing drivers past!
Its already to late. The lunatics are in charge of the asylum, and the police are toothless because of the do-gooders who make a living from advocating the answer is "Educating drivers". Angry aggressive drivers do not want to conform, they want to control others which in turn makes they feel superior, a very British trait.
On the point of the proposal to reduce the speed limit on some rural roads, surely this is counter-productive to the government's attempts to reduce emissions and increase car efficiency. If I'm driving at a steady 50mph-60mph on a rural road, I will get around 60mpg, but if I have to reduce my speed to 40mph, I then have to change down a gear, thus reducing my cars efficiency and costing me more money. Imagine if you've got a car with 6 forward gears and through this stupid proposal, can only use 4 of them. It's madness.
If revenue started going down speed limits would be lowered even further. This is now too big an industry to be stopped so easily. As more roads are given limits well below the 85th percentile then accidents will tend to increase. The result of this will be that the usual suspects; anti-car activists, local councillors who don't have a clue about road safety and the rather hysterical "road safety" charities who are financially supported by the camera industry; will drown out the voice of common sense from proper road safety experts and demand that limits are lowered even more.
Even now there are plans to put a 40mph limit on all rural roads, most currently unregulated (60mph). This is totally unnecessary and would impose a limit well below the 85th percentile on thousands of miles of roads.
The argument "even one death is too many" will be trotted out more frequently by those who are convinced that all accidents can somehow be prevented, and then goodness knows where it will end. Can you imagine driving along a motorway at 30 or 40mph? How much would your attention wander?
Unfortunately it isn't, and setting limits below the 85th percentile actually increases accidents. Enforcing them with speed cameras makes money at the cost of more accidents.
But who cares as long as they're making money out of us motorists!
Great.
Reality