arts & ego blog
big yellow boxes

When I’m driving and someone is so close behind they’re up my arse, I usually slow down; if they’re going to be a complete w*nker, I ain’t co–operating with them. I drive crappy CXs (usually), my car’s worthless, I’ve got spare ones. Civilians with good reason to rush have green flashing lights on their cars; those, I let pass.

I’m not worried about speed, I’m concerned about spotting hazards, including off–road hazards. A speed camera is a hazard to the wallet; if you say the road was clear and you were flashed, you’re actually saying the road was *not* clear, you didn't see the hazard, you got caught.

I knew a woman whose toddler son escaped her house in the middle of the night and by good fortune was caught by a garage attendant before the boy got to the main road; that main road was the stretch of the A1 between Biggleswade and Sandy with all those speed cameras. At other times, from the top of a bus in London, I’ve seen a toddler escape his mother and run straight into a busy main road; luckily no driver was dozing, no harm was done.

Of course such incidents are rare, once in a lifetime to a driver, but, sod it, they could be life destroying for all involved. Keep you eyes open, spot the hazards, they come from everywhere. Go play some first person shoot–em–up computer games; they really are good at training you to spot problems coming from all directions.