Driven to the edge

This morning’s 125-mile motorway journey (M6, M42, M5, M4, M32) brought home to me just how poor the standard of driving is in this country.

So few motorists seem to be aware that the Highway Code has been updated.

So few motorists seem to be aware that driving standards have been improved (tightened).

Nobody seems to understand braking and stopping distances.

Nobody seems to comprehend that being too close to the vehicle in front puts themselves at risk.

And nobody seems to be aware of just what the definition of ‘being too close’ is.

Lane discipline, on the UK’s motorways, needs to be renamed to ‘lack of lane discipline’, to reflect the true state of affairs.

It seems that the vast majority of people who drive on British roads do not know that the law now says that you should use the left-hand lane at all times, except when overtaking.

If we had a government with its finger on the pulse of an everyday problem, it would change the law to allow motorists to pass lane-hoggers on any side (as is allowed in the US).

If we had a government with its finger on the pulse of an everyday problem, it would introduce a compulsory motorway test.

If we had a government with its finger on the pulse of an everyday problem, it would introduce compulsory retesting (to include motorway driving), every five years.

But instead of any of these remedial actions being put in place, we have an escalating problem; the majority of road users have not read the Highway Code in 30 years.

Or longer.

Instead of any of these – painfully obvious – remedial actions being put in place, we have people avoiding accidents by virtue of anticipating, and being aware of, the stupidity of other road users.

The standard of driving, as seen from the seat of my car this morning, was shocking.

I had to take avoiding action six times, to dodge the unbelievably dangerous actions of morons.

That’s six times, this morning, I could have been involved in an accident, had I been less attentive to the idiotic intentions of people who, quite clearly, should not have been behind the wheels of cars, vans, lorries.

Variable speed limits (the raising and lowering the speed limit as dictated from a central command centre) is not the answer to the question of how do we control the morons on the road.

Yet that seems to be our government’s only response to the problem.

Compulsory retesting is the answer.

Because without compulsory retesting, the problem will never go away.

The problem will only get worse.