MONEY TO BURN

Cars once deemed speedy couldn’t keep up with a mod­ern elec­tric scooter. But back then there were still ab­solute nut­ters on the road. It may be a trick of the slammed-on brake lights, but they seem to be the ma­jor­ity now. Sane peo­ple get be­hind the con­trols of what­ever and morph into horned tyrants or just dis­con­nect with re­al­ity and re­spon­si­bil­ity. Not you, of course.

You know what chevron mark­ings spaced out along a road mean? Of course you do. (They are there to de­fine the safe space you should leave be­tween you and the ve­hi­cle in front). Ever no­ticed any­one com­ply­ing? Didn’t think so. You fol­low the rules and some­one or sev­eral will im­me­di­ately find the gap un­bear­able and so pres­sure you to go faster or over­take you.

Jour­neys are in­creas­ingly an or­deal of in­tim­i­da­tion. Some­one will al­most touch bumpers to bully an­other dri­ver out of the way or force them to put their foot down or take a risk. Enter a dual car­riage­way at the max­i­mum legal limit and who­ever is be­hind you will in­evitably over­take. The sling shot I call it.

And mo­tor­ways – wow. They are a mine­field of thought­less id­iots hurtling along in lumps of metal far above 120km an hour, de­void of an­tic­i­pa­tion, cour­tesy or a clue about safety. Weav­ing and un­der­tak­ing using a slow lane is in­san­ity, but it hap­pens all the time. I have vented be­fore about this. No apol­ogy.

Full dis­clo­sure – I am a po­lice grade one qual­i­fied dri­ver and used to teach dri­ving in­struc­tors (who must be con­stantly pulling their hair out as they wit­ness their im­parted wis­dom, warn­ings and dis­ci­pline being so abruptly for­got­ten).

And it seems the silly arses tak­ing their and your lives in their hands have money to burn. Ac­cel­er­ate hard, break hard. Throw the car into cor­ners, pay no at­ten­tion to the law or the sim­ple physics of the space and time it takes to break and avoid calamity. Push every­thing to the edge. Oh, and be sure to check your text mes­sages while you are at it. It is as in­sane as our break­neck at­ti­tude to ex­is­tence.

Maybe they might just lis­ten to money. It talks.

Cut costs not cor­ners, drive mind­fully, read the road ahead and an­tic­i­pate what oth­ers might do.

You can re­duce emis­sions too. Don’t floor the ac­cel­er­a­tor. Brake gen­tly and grad­u­ally. Check your tyres reg­u­larly. You will save and you and your fam­ily will be safer. Fuel con­sump­tion can, with care, drop by as much as 30 per cent. Brakes and tyres will last much longer. That all adds up, eco­nom­i­cally and en­vi­ron­men­tally. And for pity’s sake do not be in­tim­i­dated or im­pa­tient, don’t take risks and don’t ever use your mo­bile phone. Who in their right minds wants to live with the re­spon­si­bil­ity of what can and too often does hap­pen.

Tak­ing the wheel is one of the most re­spon­si­ble and dan­ger­ous things you will ever do.