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February 22, 2006
Safer driving?
The latest announcement from the RAC, the AA and the government nannies responsible for the so-called "Motorist's Bible" - the Highway Code - should raise a number of concerns. It is suggested by these prize idiots - responsible for such idiocy as the dictat that states that if traffic in the lane to your right (the lane to your left in the US and EU) slows down for any reason, you must slow down as well to avoid "undertaking". It took them something like 40 years to realise that this was one of the many things responsible for the clogging of our motorways, as once some idiot got himself into the supposedly "fast lane" and then tried to change back and braked or slowed down, the entire damned motorway slowed down with him, trapping him there!
Now they are planning to make it "illegal" - the Highway Code is not "law" as such, but is given the credence and force of it by the Police and Courts - to use Satellite Navigation systems in private cars. So they deem it safer to have a map or a route planner print out in your lap so you can read it while you're driving? This has got to be the most stupid and ludicrous piece of moronic thinking since the law which still requires every self propelled vehicle to be preceded by a man on horseback with a red flag. What annoys me even more is the fact that the RAC and the AA support this idiocy!
Let's face it, there are some idiots out there who will fiddle with their SatNav as they drive - but then there are idiots out there who drive with their in car steroes on such a volume level you can hear them four cars away at 70 miles an hour on a motorway. Which is more dangerous, a motorist having his SatNav tell him an exit is coming up in 1.4 miles, and when to turn off the carriage way, or some clown bowling along and trying to read a map? I know which I prefer, and it isn't the map reader!
I bought my SatNav system precisely because I am not familiar with many of the places I have to go to and I cannot read a map and look for the street name signs (singularly absent in most towns I visit!) while driving my car. I need to keep my eyes on the road, the traffic and the moronic pedestrians that the law seems to think have a right to commit suicide by wandering into traffic as they wish. My SatNav allows me to concentrate on the driving and seeing the plethora of roadsigns and other hazards, while directing me clearly and without fuss to me destination.
Believe me I believe that SatNav, far from being the danger that the Whitehall wankers seem to weant to make out it is, is probably the best piece of safety equipment a car can be provided with! But, mark my words, these morons will write it into the Highway Code as a "distraction" and "hazardous item" alongside the clowns who still use mobile phones while hammering along motorways - and our ever willing police will haul every motorist they find with this "illegal" aid to safety into court.
I recommend that every person who agrees with me withdraws their support from the RAC and the AA immediately and tells them why.
Posted by The Gray Monk at February 22, 2006 09:09 AM
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Comments
Overtaking? I wish someone would tell the motorway morons that's what the middle and outside lanes are for. I get fed up with having to overtake them then go back into the nearside lane (to avoid 'undertaking'). Mind you, it is good fun watching their reaction if I do undertake! The fact is that the UK driving test does nothing to lessen the amount of brake-tapping, dithering, incompetent f*^%wits that make up the majority of road users. How about an automatic ban for every case of careless or dangerous driving, and only a pass in the advanced test to regain it?
Posted by: Slim Jim at February 22, 2006 02:10 PM