Less driving please!

What could you do less of?

I used to really enjoy driving, also motor biking. Now? The less I can do, the better. The roads in Great Britain have become too crowded and everyone is in a hurry.

When I moved back to England in 2007, after around ten years living abroad, I was shocked at how busy the roads had become.

I had never seen the phenomenon of Road Rage, everyone seemed to completely disregard good manners, let alone the Highway Code. It was an unpleasant experience, which sadly has got no better.

I live in one of the most rural counties in England, Lincolnshire, the bread-basket of the UK. Traffic here is thankfully light—except in summer when alien species with no manners descend on the coastal resorts of Skegness and Mablethorpe. These alien creatures bring with them bad driving, litter and worst of all, terrible dress-sense.

Nine months of the year the roads are relatively quiet in my village, until the school holidays start. Mums in Chelsea Tractors are replaced with a howling mob of creatures, hell-bent on getting to the coast as quick as possible, and to hell with you, mate!

Where do they come from? Are they like this in their own towns?

I took a job for a while driving a breakdown truck for a well-known National Company. I discovered that west of the city of Lincoln is like a motoring Wild West. There are no rules except dog eat dog and how rude and aggressively people can drive. Yes, I’d discovered where these creatures hid for nine months of the year.

Yet, most of these maniacs behind a steering wheel are the nicest people you can meet. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde. The moment they get behind the wheel, all good manners and gentility are shoved in the door pocket or glove box.

So these days I drive as little as possible as these bad habits have permeated to even the sleepiest of Lincolnshire villages now, like a spreading disease. I used to enjoy cycling through the lanes here, not any more.

Perhaps it’s me getting less tolerant as I age? Is 40mph too slow for a country lane? Is my super-power of seeing round blind bends whilst texting starting to wane? Probably.

The Golden Age of the motor car has sadly passed. I’m lucky that I can choose not to drive now, except for shopping trips to the local town. I can enjoy car-free walks in the fields, on tracks where most cars can’t go—unless the Sat-Nav throws a wobbly.

Driving is definitely the thing I can do less of, thank you!