Gosh, who would have believed the AA’s findings that 61% of drivers haven’t bothered to read the recent changes to the Highway Code?
Anyone who drives on the north-east roads is the answer to that one.
Let’s face it, I think we all know there are a fair few folk sitting behind the wheel of a car who haven’t bothered to read the Highway Code since they passed their test. For some it would have included the bit about a man with a red flag walking in front of your vehicle.
How can we expect some people to be up to speed on giving way to pedestrians at road junctions or allowing a wider berth for cyclists, when they haven’t managed get to grips with the basics like indicators and watching what speed they are driving at.
Take, for example, the cove who was in front of me on the long and winding Slug Road from Stonehaven to Banchory on Saturday.
For some reason, he thought 25mph was an appropriate rate of knots for a 60mph road and road markings – wee things like the centre line – were just a suggestion.
Even then, every bend was greeted with a blaze of brake lights and slowing to a virtual crawl. If you know the road, you know there are a lot of bends.
End result was some spectacularly ill-judged overtaking
As for being aware of other road users, our friend was completely oblivious to the long queue of drivers behind, just itching for a safe spot to try to get past.
When the road did open up, our chum decided to floor it up to almost, but never quite, 60, only to return to his best impersonation of a snail at the first hint of a curve ahead.
The end result of this was some spectacularly ill-judged overtaking by drivers thoroughly frustrated at a journey that should be 20 minutes top, stretching out longer than the ending of the Lord Of The Rings.
Of course, those drivers who decided to chance it when they couldn’t see oncoming traffic properly were daft… but so was the bloke who decided to be a dangerous one-man mobile lane closure for the day.
When our sluggish chum turned off in Banchory, I couldn’t help but notice he was a rather elderly and frail-looking chap, peering ahead like Mr Magoo, hanging on to his steering wheel for dear life.
People of a certain age should have to resit their test
I rather doubt he should have been on the road at all, for his own safety as much as anyone else’s.
So perhaps it is time for another change to not so much the Highway Code as the rules around driving licenses – as in people of a certain age having to re-sit their test to prove they are still fit to drive.
At the moment, you need to renew your licence when you hit 70 and every three years after that but there’s no requirement to sit a test – just tick a self-assessment box and off you trundle.
After you turn 70, you need to renew your licence every 3 years. It’s easy, quick and secure to do it online: https://t.co/8osXLOSxRV #DVLAonline pic.twitter.com/R8T1McyZyn
— DVLA (@DVLAgovuk) August 22, 2022
Wouldn’t it make sense, though, to have some form of compulsory independent assessment – even a full driving test – to ensure older people behind the wheel should be there?
I speak as someone whose next milestone birthday will put me in that ballpark – albeit the better part of a decade away. But I would happily show up at a test centre to prove I’m not a danger to anyone – including myself.
It’s not a pop at older people, or ageist. It’s just responsible common sense.
Scott Begbie is entertainment editor for The Press & Journal and Evening Express
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