Anarchy In The UK

Perhaps that might be stretching the point but we wanted to attract your attention. Recently, your correspondent, whilst motoring peacefully along an urban dual carriageway, was overtaken by a BMW and a Mini going at a heck of a lick. Once past, they cut me up with their lane-changing antics yet they appeared not to be associated with each other. That’s the point: I can’t put it down to racing – it was just coincidental bad driving. This, BTW, was in a forty mph limit. Now, even I think that the limit is daft on this stretch of road but that’s what the sign says.

It wasn’t that long ago that this particular carriageway was consistently monitored by the police using one of those sneaky plain vans with on-board cameras and backed up by patrolling police cars. Lately though, there is nothing. The police have been replaced by flashing signs that chastise erring motorists. The parish council have also installed devices which turn some of the traffic lights red to encourage bad speeding drivers to slow down. It doesn’t work. Signs never work – they just irritate. It is a case of authority being seen to be doing something about road safety without really doing anything at all.

The result on this road and, it seems, on pretty much all other roads, is that as speeds rise because the chance of being pinched by the peelers is slight so the general standard of driving is dropping. This is apparent at junctions and slip roads; anywhere in fact where drivers need to engage brain. Aggressive driving is also on the increase. It is as if it is enough to collect revenue from static cameras and motorway devices without enforcing rules from a safety first point of view.

There was a time when this writer would complain the general interference in our lives and I expect I will continue to do so but this doesn’t absolve the authorities from their basic purpose when it comes to Britain’s roads. It is my belief that most drivers are heartily sick of hearing all the bleating from councils and police services about the lack of money when these are the very people who blew it all in the first place. Road safety is not about money – it is about lives and our ability to go about our business in a trouble-free manner.

There are still plenty of courteous and careful drivers about who understand that driving can be enjoyed without acting like idiots. Nevertheless statistics show that the incidence of car accidents continues to rise as some motorists have become complacent and careless at best and totally irresponsible at worst. Sadly, society has always had its share of oafs and nitwits and this is why we need traffic police monitoring behaviour – but that seems to be a thing of the past. We have been fortunate lately that insurance premiums seem to be coming down. That’s good news. The trouble is – will they go up again if the rise in bad driving results in more accidents? It’s a thought.