[jambutty]

Thanks WillowTheWhisp.

Any driver worthy of the name should be able to judge his/her speed without constantly looking at the speedo, especially at 30 mph. Well they should if they are ‘in tune’ with the car. I don’t know about anyone else but I can ‘feel’ the speed at 30 mph. There is a car vibration ‘feel’ about travelling at 30 mph in top or next to top gear. There is a different ‘feel’ about my car at different speeds even with the radio/DVD player belting out my driving music.

It is all about concentration and being aware of the road, not just ahead in the road but the pavements too. If you see a child or children on the pavement, a driver should be ready for one of them to do something silly. Nowadays that also applies to adults especially near a pub or in town. If you see an animal ahead on the pavement not on a leash, expect it to dash across the road. I’m not suggesting that you should slow down and irate drivers behind you, just be ready for the unexpected and gain half a second before having to take action.

Unfortunately we drivers are not blessed with X-Ray vision so we will not see someone stepping into the road from behind a parked vehicle. Having said that if there are pedestrians on the pavement then you have to expect it to happen. If you are overtaking a bus that has stopped to disembark passengers you have to expect that some clown will to try and cross the road in front of it. Everyone seems to be in such a hurry to get to hospital or the morgue these days that many pedestrians seem to have lost the art of crossing the road safely, not just for them but also for the traffic. It’s amazing how many pedestrians will see a car approaching, look away and still step out onto the road.

My worst nightmare is approaching a blind bend on a country road where I am on the inside of the bend. Oncoming traffic will invariable cut their corner, leaving me with nowhere to go.