I thought the title of today's blog might stir up some bad feeling, but stick with it.
Last week, I was driving past the wonderful Woolwich Barracks and noticed a white van tail-gating¹ me. 'White van²? Oh what a surprise', thought I. The van proceeded to overtake me on the wrong side of the road, but then I just chuckled to myself as I saw the side of the van.
It had a really long name, something like 'Church of the redeemed something or other blah blah rhubarb'.
Hmmm, driving like he was possessed. Not my idea of kind, loving human being finding his way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
As if that didn't ruffle my feathers, I was riding my bike yesterday and a car was so intent on not letting me join the road that the driver tried to push me into the wrong side of the road. This would be really bad news if I was in a car, but I was on a bike, so let's just quadruple how bad that is. So I just position behind this car and then chuckled to myself as I noticed the Christian fish proudly stuck above the left tail light and a holy message over the right tail light.
I checked my mirrors, signalled, did a lifesaver then overtook. Passing the driver, I said "Peace be with you" or something like that.
footnote
1 - Whilst drivers are being unnecessarily fleeced by speed cameras, little seems to be done about dangerous driving. Drivers tail-gating, people using mobile phones, eating, applying make-up, reading newspapers. I bet we've all had to slam on our brakes to avoid these drivers.
2 - For the record, dangerous drivers can also drive vehicles other than white vans, BMW's for instance.
4 comments:
I have never experienced such bad driving as I have since living in this little pocket of south east london. Some of it seriously worrying and I do wonder quite how many of the locals possess valid UK driving licences as there does seem to be a common theme..........
On my daily journey along the bottom road I see horrendous driving with drivers seemingly oblivious of other road users.I have often wondered if these drivers could possibly be licensed. I've heard scary stories of professional "Driving-Test-takers". But what is really scary is that IF these drivers are unlicensed they are also uninsured. I've seen Police operations on Woolwich road with literally half a mile of impounded cars! So for traffic police Woolwich Road is obviously shooting fish in a barrel! Would they were there more regularly. When I was a motor cyclist I developed a sixth sense of which kind of vehicles to be super cautious of. Do you hold a similar list in your head, Pangloss?
Sixth sense - definitely.
Since I took my bike riding lessons, I've actually been a much much better car driver. Even then, I was a pretty good driver as I never had an accident in 20years of driving.
I strongly believe that everyone should take the driving test every 10years. It'll refresh our road skills, understand signs and most importantly, jolt us from our complacency.
As for the illegal motorists, I'd crush their cars, put them in a chain gang and build more railways. I'm particularly tough on the illegal motorist because one nearly killed me once.
As for dangerous driving, I know a place that is more dangerous than London - the countryside.
Country folk who know every bend in their country lanes drive at super speed and I've had a few scares as they whip their cars around, hidden by hedgerows.
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