Driving me insane

Unsurprisingly not many people responded to my call for Guest Blogging Week! Managed to get a few people to agree to type a blog later on in the week so in the meantime you'll have to make do with me! So much for getting a rest. For those who have agreed to blog this week, instead of giving you my password, it's probably better if you email me your blog and I'll then publish it.

As a friend pointed out, the main problem is that it's only a few family and friends who read this blog and therefore I shouldn't expect much from it. However, I'm quite keen to develop this blog further and in order to do that, it probably needs a consistent theme or themes which I can type about. Probably more topical than personal. As interesting as the personal blogs are, (!) the topical blogs on a wide variety of issues provide more information and perhaps could be publicised more. That way I could develop a wider readership and then take it from there. Having others type on my blog from time to time would fit into that, broadening the range of topics covered by the blog. So, no more personal stuff and to be fair, it's been awhile since I typed anything personal anyway. The themes I hope to focus on are medical, current affairs, political and religious, but inevitably I'll still have the odd rant about the football or cricket.

Speaking of cricket, what a predictably poor conclusion to the first Ashes Test. For the first four days, England's performance was worse then what you would expect from Bangladesh! With the next Test a mere 4 days away there's little time to make improvements, so I guess we can only expect more of the same. Disappointing but not surprising.

My drive to work requires me to take the A413 from Aylesbury to Buckingham. It's a good country road with plenty of straights and bends, making the drive really enjoyable. I should further qualify the statement by stating that it's enjoyable as long as there isn't an idiot in front driving along at 40mph when the speed limit is 60mph leaving a long queue behind them. Having so many bends makes it difficult to overtake, but that doesn't stop people from trying. Therefore because of these idiots, people are spending most of the time driving on the wrong side of the road as they try to overtake.

Throughout the 18mile stretch of road there are signs peppered on either side stating the number of casualties in the past few years between certain sections of the road. I'm certain that many of them could be avoided if people stuck to the speed limit instead of driving well below it. I often wonder what type of person purposely sticks to driving below the speed limit? How sad must that person be? They obviously have nothing better to do then sit in their cars and hence drive slowly to cherish every moment. If the most exciting thing they do is to drive their slow car as slow as possible then I think it's self-explanatory how sad their lives must be. If they are scared to drive too fast, then they should stop over on occasions to let the traffic behind them pass, but they never do. I excuse tractor and lorry drivers, as they have no choice but to go slow and often do stopover to let the queuing traffic pass.

A longtime ago when I had to study the Highway Code for my theory test, I came across a road sign which I've never seen on the road. Similar to the speed limit sign, it had the speed but in the blue filled circle which means the minimum speed of the road was the number on the sign, i.e. you had to drive at that speed at least. They should put up these signs all over the A413; at least therefore attempting to highlight to people that they can drive faster on the road.

Driving is becoming more and more irritating thanks to the government. Ridiculous speed limits, ridiculous bus lanes, ridiculous taxes, the list goes on. The amount of money they receive from us purely from driving (i.e. road tax, insurance, petrol tax, speed cameras, congestion charge etc) is in the hundred of millions and yet public transport is still a disgrace, the congestion charge zone is due to increase next year and road tax continues to rise. I paid £190 for my road tax this year and where is that money going?

The Independent Transport Commission released a report this morning highlighting the need to charge drivers for using certain roads to help fund further road building. How on earth can the government justify adding yet another tax - that too to use roads which are mostly in poor condition - in order to improve and build more roads? It is an outrage. The government is making millions from us and is now considering charging a further tax to drive on certain roads. I can't describe how absolutely appalled I am.

We are constantly badgered about using public transport as much as possible, but for the majority it is simply impractical, a car is the only solution. It takes me 50mins to travel 40miles from home to work in my car. If I was to use public transport it would take over 2 hours to take three separate trains and then the bus. Until public transport becomes a usable commodity, there is no reason I would use it. The Sunday Times recently did a test comparing public transport to cars. Two journalists were given a budget of £400 to buy a car and travel to a Cornwall beach and back and then to sell the car to see if it could be done cheaper than public transport. The train ticket would've cost £80 and yet they both managed to purchase a car, get to Cornwall and back and then sold the cars at a loss of less than £80. It's a pretty extreme comparison but at the same time quite damning to know that the car option was cheaper!

We need to know what happens to the money that the government receives from us purely from taxes related to motoring. I've searched on Google and haven't been able to find a breakdown of the taxes and where the money is spent. There can be no justification for charging yet more money to improve the roads. The congestion charge was meant to ease the chaotic driving conditions of central London where the average driving speed during traffic hours was and still is 3mph. Top Gear did a piece on traffic in central London: Jeremy Clarkson raced the new Fiat Panda along the London Marathon route in peak rush hour against a marathon runner and the runner won, enough said!

It is so infuriating (thesaurus getting used today!) to constantly hear about new plans, initiatives, taxes all with the intention of hitting the motorist. I love driving and yet it is such a tiresome activity in this country. Even for those who are anti-motorists, public transport simply doesn't provide a better alternative for a vast number of people and they have no option but to use the car. If the government does go ahead and try to introduce charges then we have to do all that we can to make sure it doesn't happen. In the meantime, I'll attempt to enjoy what I can as I continue on my drives on the A413, stuck behind a Micra at 40mph!

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?