Taking Offence

Taking Offence -Maintain Self-Control

There is one thing that almost all drivers seem to have in common, and that is the tendency to take offence from the actions of our fellow drivers. Men and women included, we appear to be ready to fly into a rage if the other driver does something to offend us. For some people they get upset if they simply find that there are other vehicles on the road competing for space.

Driving in the cities is an exercise in stress and rage where you are surrounded by arseholes who should have taken the bus or stayed at home. The least little thing can set a person off. The reason I’m writing about this is that I was waiting in my car at a red light when a couple of people wanted to cross just as the light changed to green. They simply looked at me and barged right in front of my car.

I flew into an incredible rage, which had to do with the effrontery of people who had the nerve to usurp my green light time. How dare they! I drove about a block or two swearing at them and upsetting myself. Finally I calmed down, and then I started to realise that was way over the top.

There are many examples of the person behind who loses his patience because the person in front is a slow poke. At the first opportunity he overtakes and cuts in sharply and goes like a bat out of hell.

Two people fighting over the same parking bay is a fight I would buy a ticket to see. I once saw a man and a woman in such a fight. Both of their cars were stopped in a wedge position where he had tried to drive in before she had backed in. They both were adamant they were right and the argument flew thick and fast. Luckily I was a pedestrian, but even I did not have the time to watch that struggle to its end. Presumably that was how they left their cars parked. They probably both got towed.

If you wake up one morning and decide to go on the road to be the worst nuisance that you can be, there would be no end to the things that you could do to upset drivers. I don’t recommend you do any of these things because you may not see the day through.

You could try passing someone at high speed, then apply your brakes to take the next exit, thereby making the car you just passed slow down
Drive at 60 kph in the centre of three lanes. You may well simply get run over.
Try driving along a two-way street while talking on the telephone at a slow speed.
Stop along a country lane opposite your mate’s car and have a conversation.
Don’t give way at a side street, thereby causing the driver on the main road to swerve.
Finally, only because I could probably go on and on with this; enter the main road with the courtesy of the driver who has moved over to allow it, then get in a race with him to make him stay in the outside lane.

As I said, these are approved suicide measures that are practically guaranteed to work.

As the year draws to an end I ask that we all drive carefully and limit or control our celebrations as we welcome the New Year. A really good thing to do would be to promise ourselves as we start each new day's driving that we won't allow ourselves to be offended by others. This is my usual mantra, and on those days that I forget to remind myself, I find that I can get upset.

I wish you all Happy Holidays, and all the best that life can offer you throughout 2011.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

City Driving Sucks

City Driving Sucks - Valencia, Spain

Around the world driving, and parking in cities pose challenges quite different to country driving. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that cities are not meant for driving in at all. I have been researching several cities to get a feel for what the experience is like in each. Today, I will start with my own city, Valencia, Spain.

Sensibly, we live in the outer suburbs of Valencia in the mountains that are a forest of orange trees. Here life is tranquil and idyllic. From time to time I have to make that dreaded trip into the heart of the city. To do so I usually leave the car parked on the outskirts and take public transport, such as the metro or bus to get to my destination.

On rare occasions I brave it and actually drive into the city. My reasoning on those occasions is that time is short and I don’t have the luxury of parking the car and waiting for public transport. Almost always that is a fallacy because if luck is against me I can get caught up in the crush of traffic for very extended periods of time. Even if things flow smoothly, just the stress alone is not worth it.

First, there are the road works. They are constantly tearing up the road to do something perhaps other than to admire the hole they made. It seems to me that they give motorists only a certain period of time to enjoy unimpeded driving, like two weeks, before starting all over again.

Then you get to somewhere in the area where you need to do business and you look for a parking space. There are several underground parking spaces that grow more expensive seemingly by the day. Most people really can’t afford to pay these rates on a daily basis, so they park on the street. If you are really lucky to find an on-street parking spot, as in winning-the-lottery kind of luck, you will find when you get back to your car that another line of cars have been parked alongside yours, effectively locking you in for the foreseeable future.

Supposedly, the drivers will leave their cars in neutral with the handbrake not engaged, but there is always at least one person who doesn’t do that, and everybody gets screwed. What you can do is call the authorities and ask them to come clear away the illegally parked second line. Just don’t let it get out that you were the one who dropped the dime.

For some strange reason, people who do park “in doble fila” thereby making a double line engage their hazard lights that draw attention. When the cars are being taken away hooked up to the tow truck, everybody knows that your car didn’t simply breakdown. They know what you did wrong.

Valencia’s city roads feature several points where there will be a line-up of about eight to ten lanes of traffic that needs to squeeze into two lanes as it crosses the street. Sometimes, to add excitement, interconnecting roads are added to a semi-circular turn; and to top it all off drivers on Spanish roads know absolutely nothing about lane discipline. It is not uncommon to have a driver completely cross all lanes honking and yelling as he goes.

At the time of the city’s greatest fiestas, Las Fiestas de la Fallas” about 600 of the city's roads get closed off. You have to imagine the chaos. I can’t possibly describe it.
Add to all that stress are the boy racers and the death wishers, and the buses and bloody taxi drivers who are convinced they own the road, and by the time you leave the city your nerves will be a wreck.

Here’s the really very curious thing: in travelling into the city in eleven years I have never come upon an accident scene except the one in which I was involved. That happened because I stopped behind a column of cars at a red light and a real prize winning, well-dressed businessman jerk, driving a BMW drove up the back of me because he was talking to his passenger while looking directly at her. This was a man who has excrement where his brain is supposed to be.

When visiting Valencia with the need to get around town, if you bring your car with you I think you should choose a hotel on the outskirts and take public transport always.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

DGT goes High Tech

DGT goes High Tech -Now speeding tickets on-line.

You and I are cordially invited to sign up to the Direcion General de Trafico on-line as a means of modernising the service. In the fullness of time they intend that this will be a means of reminding owners when the time is due for your ITV test; your insurance renewal, or that road taxes are due.

However, to begin with they will use the service as a means of notifying a driver that a traffic ticket is outstanding against the car. The method of doing this has been notification through the mail and on the Official Bulletin. For most foreigners we have not the slightest idea of where to find the bulletin, so we have to wait to receive notice through the post.

Most people have no clue that there may be a ticket outstanding, which could have arisen from any number of things, like passing a radar box a little too fast, or talking on the phone and being spotted by an officer.

My faith in the authorities to properly inform me of things I need to know is sadly lacking, especially given my last encounter.

We received a letter through our post box that stated that the authority tasked with bringing in taxes for trash collection has tried on several occasions to contact us, but evidently without success. They were trying one last time to notify us that the tax was due and would have to be paid with the penalty for late payment included. Failure to do so would lead to even higher penalties and would involve the tax authority, Hacienda.

Lying bastards!

All they had to do was address a letter to us at our post box and we got it. They simply waited until the time period when they could add a penalty, thereby boosting the council’s coffers. We all know that town councils are hard pressed for cash, but this is taking things too bloody far.

I have known people who found that they had a ticket that was outstanding for years, and it only came to light when they sold their car and tried to transfer ownership. That is when they discovered that a ticket written today can be like a bond. In many years from now it could be quite valuable, not for you, but for the government.

So, I think this might be a good thing, that if I do have a ticket outstanding then I need to know about it immediately so that I can deal with it.

For more information go to http://www.dgt.es/

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael