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.

Wanted: Social consience. Alive please.

In fact thought I'd do another tonight in stead, as it's a way of avoiding tidying my room :)

This is kinda a ranty antidote to all the serious proper concepts related above. Fingers crossed for increased fun! It begins, as all things should, with a story.

Gather round lovely children and I shall tell you a tale.

Once upon a time there was a little boy, and his mummy who lived in Leeds.

Now the little boy, let’s call him Timmy, as going to his friend John’s birthday party, where there would be cake, three different colours of jelly because they weren’t gelatine racists, pass the parcel and all sorts of fun!

John’s mummy and daddy had *even* booked out Enrique the Accordion-Playing Squirrel, especially for the party! So everyone was very excited! Especially Enrique, but less so his parole officer, who had to be present at all times, disguised as a fez.

The party was fancy dress so Timmy and Mummy went into Leeds city centre to find him a costume. Timmy wanted to dress as Cher, but mummy was not very liberal and concerned about what this meant for his developing sexuality so they agreed on him being a cowboy covered in guns.

Whilst they were shopping Timmy started to need the toilet. But there was no toilet for at *least* 15 meters on this busy shopping street in the middle of the day! What to do!

So Mummy took Timmy over to a door next to Wilkinsons, pulled down his trousers and encouraged Timmy to wee against the door of this business whilst everyone else walked past him.

The wee made a stream and crawled across the tarmac that everyone was walking on, and Timmy felt better. So Mummy pulled up his pants and they went to find a cowboy costume.

Wait.

WHAT? 

Previous discussion on tolerance aside, I am frequently *DISGUSTED* by people! (tbh the rant above was about religious tolerance, so tis not as much hypocritical as comically placed.)

On a busy shopping street, in the day, or *wherever* you are, do NOT teach your child that is OK to urinate on someone’s door because you need the toilet. If you need the toilet, you find a toilet! If you are that desperate, find somewhere quiet at least! There is no justification for this shameful excuse for a mother because there were several cafes and a station around that area she could have gone into, and a few alleys too if the situation were that dire.

A little more social conscience would make the world a thousand times nicer to live in. A little bit of treating your neighbour like you’d like to be treated etc etc. Looking after your community and so on. This does *not* mean you have to volunteer to prune the roses in your local park, or teach challenged children to make potato stamps, it just means things like clearing up after yourself, sometimes picking up rubbish that isn’t yours, not playing your music too loud and smiling at people in the street.

We all know how infectious a smile and “good morning!” are between strangers, and you can start these good feelings moving around *so* easily.

By infectious smile I mean, like making people happy, not giving them facial herpes.

Also- if you listen to headphones or something, which can be heard at *all* by other people, there will be hate and anger. I guarantee it. Because hypocritically it will be me grinding my teeth and glaring at you whilst your ears radiate even a quiet tish tish tish tish or bm bm bm bm bm, which to me feels like a cheese-grater on my recently flayed skull.

Seriously.

Anyway that aside. God I hate people. TAKE YOUR RUBBISH WITH YOU!! Or Enrique will hunt you down. He has a history of anti-socially prompted GBH. He hate’s iPods. And not even his parole officer will be able to help. Esp if you were listening to Basshunter, after which it'd be surpising if you could tell what any part of your flesh or bone used to be. At least without a lot of forensic pathology experience, and an iron clad stomach.

Love and hugs!! :D

PS I did actually find a picture of a squirrel in a fez, but it a was very disturbing and horrible example of taxidermy being basically a sad frozen animal, dressed up for sick amusement by people and sold for cash. Ick.