Car pride has given way to road rage

Of course you had the obligatory loud music, blasting out of your cassette player (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Break Machine, Prince, Grandmaster Flash, Duran Duran, etc etc), go faster stripes down the side of your MkII Ford Escort and one arm permanently stuck out of the window, in order to impress the ladies (not).

But mirror, signal, manoeuvre was imprinted on your mind and the Highway Code was something that was respected and understood by the majority of road users.

Mobile phones were still the size of a small dog kennel and nobody knew anybody who had one. Text, Google, Facebook and Twitter were words that had yet to be uttered and most people thought that the information super highway was something to do with the motorway network around Birmingham.

People drove their cars with a sense of pride and wonder, it was still an adventure, a path to freedom and independence, for which you were immensely thankful. Just going an hour up the road was a voyage of exploration.

You cherished and protected your vehicle, lest your new found automotive liberty was suddenly snatched away by a bump, a speeding ticket or a dodgy back tyre.

Contrast that picture, of the roads of `84, with Peterborough’s roads of today.

Nowadays every third driver is on their phone, risking their lives and other people’s in a desperate attempt to see what their mate had for breakfast this morning.

Now and again the police have a crackdown and catch a few people but the majority know they are going to get away with it because Cambridgeshire’s finest are so stretched. Let’s face it there is more chance of Darragh Macanthony selling his Peterborough United cash cow, than there is of seeing a traffic cop on the Fletton Parkway.

Every day you see cars weaving in and out of traffic, as if involved in some crazy game of high speed dodgems and then there are those that see no exits, those that believe the sticks on the side of the steering wheel are for decoration - These days navigating the Bourges Boulevard roundabouts requires the telepathic powers of Derren Brown.

The roads around this city are, by and large, very good, yet it seems every other a day a major artery is closed because of bad driving - Roads don’t 
kill and maim people, people do.

Courtesy has long since disappeared from our roads and been replaced by anger and a total disrespect for the law of the land. Being cut up, gesticulated and shouted at is now the norm when you are navigating the highways of Peterborough, it’s like the wild west out 
there.

It’s not really a question of enforcement it’s a question of attitude and ignorance and those people who are caught using their cars like weapons should be dealt with accordingly by our judicial system.

Let’s make our roads safer by removing those who have a total disregard for others – Mobile phone users, speeding and dangerous drivers - All 
of them need to be taught 
that driving is not a right, it’s 
a privilege that can be 
denied.

The loss of their licence or their car might remind them of that fact and in the process help save some lives.