Now I am driving, I have come to realise that the roads are filled with people who seem to have a deathwish. From cyclists with no lights at night, through to van drivers who act as though the Devil himself is on their tail, I have been amazed at how little regard these people seem to have for both their own safety and that of others.
We bought our first car back in March this year – doing our bit to help the automotive business out of recession, some have suggested. Actually, we just finally felt there was enough need to warrant buying a car, after 15 years of married life without one. As a driver getting back out there it was a slow and steady start for me, admittedly nervous having only ever driven hire-cars for about 21 years. Yet, 8 months later, here we are merrily driving to work daily.
This morning, tootling along one of the main roads out of our town long before dawn, I observed yet another cyclist with a deathwish: a lady on a bike on the left of the road pulled across the traffic (a couple of cars ahead of me) and then turned right down the junction peddling blithley down the right hand side of the road. There were no hand signals, there was no warning of the maneouvre, she had no lights on the bike, and she was dressed in dark clothes.
The other day, driving home along the ring-road on the outskirts of our city, I witnessed a car essentially weaving through the fairly heavy traffic. This fellow was undertaking cars in the outside lane, then whipping across to that right-hand lane to overtake the next car, and so on. As the car didn’t sport any emergency service markings, I can only assume that this person had somewhere they needed to be dreadfully quickly. Enough, obviously, to risk life and limb.
Last week, again driving out of the city, we passed a small family car impaled on the wall of a residential garden. I do mean impaled: it was a good 2-3 feet off the ground, the underside torn and having caused the low wall to partially collapse. The front was mangled. Looking inside, we could see a child seat in the back dislodged slightly. We could see the air bag, limp in front of the driver’s seat. Broken glass and, no doubt, broken people involved. From the scene, it was clear that the driver had turned left at the junction too fast and had needed to avoid something in path… and then veered across to the right-hand side of the road, and up onto the wall. A sobering sight, especially assuming the child seat had been full.
This week, writing to help people who need to find new jobs, I have been reminded about our own personal responsibility. Translating Stephen Covey’s “First Habit” of Proactivity out onto the road, I realised that we all are responsible for the choices we make each second of the journey to and from work. The consequences of our poor choices, whether they lead to a near-miss or our own death, are entirely the consequences of our choices combined with the choices of the other road-users around us.
Even if everyone else is ignoring the rules and driving like insane devils, do we not bear the responsibility to slow down? Should we not remember and act upon the adage, “mirror, signal, maneuvre”? Do we really owe it to ourselves to ride out in the dark dressed in black and without a single light on our bikes? Should we not practice courtesy and respect for others while in our little warm boxes with wheels?
Imagine you are waiting in a queue and someone walked along the outside of that queue, ignoring everyone else, and then pushed in ahead of you. How would you feel? Probably pretty annoyed. Yet, night after night on the way home, I see people do just this very thing in their cars. All for the sake of a few seconds gain in the traffic jam.
I’m far from being a good driver. I make mistakes. I probably irratate the heck out of others when I let someone slip out of a side road by slowing down. I do, however, encourage myself to remain focused and calm. It’s the best way, I’ve discovered, to stay alive and get home safely – calm, focused, and patient.
Happy driving!
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