Driving me insane!

Driving - this post shall be interspersed with angry noises. Do not be alarmed.

GRAAAAAAARRRHHH!!

I am generally a calm and reasonably tolerant person. At least to your face :D. But one thing that does make me angry is bad driving. And there are a lot of stimuli for this in Leeds. In the area I live, it is all students and taxis. This means that indicators are basically unheard of, people do not stop at the end of the road when they join a major road, and that they do not look into a road before they swoop into it quickly. All of these are major problems when you also know that there are cars parked along almost all streets, and therefore very little room in road for more than one car.

GRRRRrrrr!!!

I am frankly pretty surprised more people don't have horrific accidents. My housemate was driven into by someone from a junction, who just drove right into her as she went along a main road. It wrote off her car. It was basically a young driver who didn't know what she was doing. But I actually see surprisingly few accidents. Perhaps it's because others, like me, now expect other drivers to do the most stupid thing possible at all times. E.g. it is AMAZING how many people do not understand the right of way rules at roundabouts.

People have been speaking a lot about driving tests recently. Many of them have been complaining that they are changing, and that now they're a bit harder because it involves some independant driving- i.e. not being told where to go for a while. Not to test your navigation, but to test your ability to think in advance, pay attention to road signs etc, without your instructor giving you helpful instructions in good time.

People are worried this will make it harder to pass!

This is ridiculous. There are so many SHOCKING drivers in the world, and there is so much essential material that the UK driving test completely fails to cover! For example, motorway driving is *completely* omitted. This is completely inexplicable, as motorway driving is very dangerous and intimidating, due to the speeds and the confusion of having multiple lanes.

If we taught our new drivers the proper way to use lanes, we might have much smoother flowing traffic, as so many minor delays are caused by some idiot driving in the middle lane, or even the outside lane, with no cause. We may also avoid a lot more accidents.

I just want to say this to the world: BE IN THE LEFT LANE!! ALWAYS IN THE LEFT LANE *UNLESS* YOU ARE OVER-TAKING SOMEHTING. THEN GET BACK IN THE LEFT LANE. I HATE YOU!

People have also been discussing a ban on new drivers driving in the dark. How is this going to solve anything? At what point will they suddenly decide they *can* drive in the dark. And at the moment it get's dark at about 5pm! Most people aren't home from work by that time of day!

Don't *stop* them driving in the dark, or on motorways. TEACH them to do these things safely.

The problem with driving tuition is that it's primary purpose is to give you what you need to drive the test. Not to teach you to drive well and safely any more than the test minimally requires. And because people are encouraged to take the test so quickly, if they *do* pass first time, then someone who has only ever had 10 lessons, is unleashed on the roads with something as horribly dangerous as a car and no limitations.

My 17 year old sister is currently learning to drive, and has had something like 14 lessons, and her friends are already saying things like "Shouldn't you have done your test by now?" They expext her to learn to pass, not to learn to drive well for her own sake, and they are putting pressure on her to take her test.

I passed 3rd time round, which I think made me a much better driver. It gave me time to work on things, ideas to take away and improve. Being failed makes you realise there's lots of work still to be done, and helps you prevent dangerous confidence on the road.