DRLs, driving to disaster?

As we approach 2012 and the introduction of daytime running lights (DRLs) for all new cars it’s interesting to note that, unlike older Volvos, the latest models have lights at the front only. Of cars I’ve seen lately Citroens Audis and Toyotas all only have DRLs at the front.

The problem is that I’ve seen several drivers at dusk relying on DRLs only, thus leaving the back of the car completely unlit. The more I see of DRL use the more convinced I become that this is an ill-conceived scheme that’s going to lead to more accidents rather than fewer.

Let’s hope it falls by the wayside like other strange EU lighting ideas – dim-dip, anyone? Sign the petition at Lightmare to protest against DRLs.

GOM

Box not clever

Do not enter the box unless your exit is clear. What's difficult to understand about that?

So there I am this morning, sitting in my highly-trained Korean hatchback at the head of a red light queue waiting to turn right. When the lights change, traffic tailing back from temporary lights further down the road I want to turn into means that half a blue van is already in the box and my exit is blocked.

I sit tight. Someone behind sounds a horn, having nowhere to go I ignore it. A few seconds later it sounds again, then a young woman in a silver Clio - personalised reg of course - pulls out from about 3 cars back, overtakes the queue and drives into the middle of a blocked junction. Unbelievable.

What are some people thinking? Why do they believe they're more important than anyone else? And who did they get to take their driving test for them?

GOM

The first fatal car accident

At 4mph! How it happened.

More think tank idiocy

Here we go again. According to the Telegraph something called the Sustainable Development Commission thinks that all motorways should be monitored by average speed cameras to keep people to 70mph and save the planet.

There are so many wrong-headed things about this it's hard to know where to start, but lets just look at a few. First that 52% of drivers exceed the 70mph limit. Doesn't that tell you the limit is too low? Unsurprising when it was set in the 60s and your Ford Anglia or Austin Cambridge would have struggled to go much faster.

And notice the other spectre here, "pay-as-you-go road charging". Haven't we already said in no uncertain terms and en masse that we don't want this?

Isn't it time politicians started to listen to us, the people, instead of these half-baked, half-wit think tanks?

GOM

The iceman cometh

Having learned to drive in the 1970s, when winters were winters and cars were mainly rear-wheel drive, the last few weeks haven't presented too many motoring problems to me.

Not so many of the younger generation. Witness the young chap in the Fiesta attempting to drive past the Grumpy Motorist household this morning. Okay, so it's a mild uphill slope and a bit icy, but there's no excuse for coming to a halt with masses of wheelspin. He then backed off and tried again with even more revs.

Needless to say with a little deft footwork I drove away with no drama at all. gentleness is the key.

The youth of today, eh? I blame the parents.

GOM

Sigh...

Why can't anybody drive in bad weather any more? Watching people struggling to get up the slope out of our office car park was like watching the Keystone Cops. Far too many revs and bags of wheelspin, culminating in getting out to push each other's cars. Then they look astonished when I chug past in the highly trained Korean hatchback with no drama at all.

I blame global warming.

GOM

20mph and disjointed government

Another day another piece of government idiocy. Local authorities are to be encouraged to introduce 20mph zones in all residential areas. Quite apart from the dubious safety benefits, where's the joined-up government?

We're being told that cutting emissions to save the planet is the most important thing ever. Yet, on the very day that Gordon Brown flies to Copenhagen to take part in the climate change shindig, we get a policy announcement that will raise vehicle emissions at a stroke.

Is it too much to ask for someone to think these things through? Is there any wonder we've lost faith in politicians?

GOM