Co-Operation, Not Competition

“Anyone who drives faster than me is going too fast, and anyone who drives slower than me is going too slowly.”

“Anyone who drives closer to other cars than I do is a tailgater, and anyone who drives further back is leaving too big a gap.”

Do these statements sound familiar? I certainly hear them often enough, and have to admit to making them myself on more than one occasion. And if you're completely honest with yourself, I feel that you would agree you've done it as well.

Which is a bit scary, because any driver who passes judgement on other drivers is possibly sewing the seeds of anger that can erupt into road rage in extreme circumstances. The phrase road rage is a comparatively recent one, dating back to the 1980s, and every time I hear it I break into a sweat. The last thing we need on our roads is a very angry man (it usually is a man) in charge of a tonne and a half of moving metal.

Though it would be nice if it was otherwise, driving in traffic is a fact of life to the nine out of ten Australians who live in metropolitan areas. So driving should be a co-operative activity, not a competitive one. Invariably in life things work best when everyone works together to reach a common goal. The goal of getting to our destination in a relaxed frame of mind having created the maximum of safety at all times.

An important factor in staying relaxed and safe is for us all to drive at the safest speed. Regular readers will be well aware that I believe a huge majority of drivers are sane, competent citizens who just want to get on with their lives when they are behind the wheel.

The trouble is that the troublemakers are the ones that stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. Obviously the idiots with the noisy exhausts and blaring stereos who chop in and out of the traffic are the first ones we notice. But those who travel too fast or too slow for the conditions certainly generate their fair share of animosity.

Courtesy and co-operation are the secrets to safe driving. Almost everyone practises both most of the time; by backing off to let others in when merging (though there's room for improvement in this...), giving that friendly wave when someone does the right thing, understanding that a person dithering along a back street may be lost and allowing for that. There are many ways of helping others.

Next time you're driving try to work out how many good drivers are around you. You may be surprised to notice they outnumber the fools by about a hundred to one.

And here's a real challenge if you're up to it: observe others in a fair and logical manner and try to see how many drivers out there are better than you.

If the answer to that challenge is that you can't find anyone who is more competent than you are, may I suggest you have a long think about yourself?

Any experienced driver – and see my previous comments about the huge majority of drivers doing the right thing – knows how to judge the correct speed for the conditions. Unfortunately the fixation on enforcing speed limits has meant there are times when the correct speed is technically illegal, so drivers who slow to the speed limit can cause hassles for everyone else, leading to tailgating. OK, no one should tailgate, but when tempers flare it can happen.

On the other hand are the people who believe that it's always safe to drive at the speed limit, so drive at that speed even if it's too fast for the circumstances. This is a dangerous side effect of the obsession of Australian authorities with speed limits.

By the way, have you noticed that politicians, particularly state government treasurers, are using the words ‘revenue’ more and more often when they talk about speed cameras? Hmm...

ewan@marque.com.au