Home
Road Rage. Avoid it or fall for it?
The purpose of any trip into the abyss of the Peak Hour traffic is to in fact arrive, hopefully safely and with a little more to give over the next 12 hours of your day, than a sad regurgitation of your trip around the water cooler.
So why do so many of us arrive so angry?
Is it that we just can’t rise early enough to arrive on time? Are we so highly strung that we lose the plot when we are armed with a vicious 2.0ltr engine? (most general, nothing personal)
Since when do we get to our destination any earlier that we can’t give way to another vehicle trying to merge correctly; or when a person needs to merge off a side road into main road traffic (does anyone know it is actually illegal to stop in traffic across ANY intersection – not just those marked!!). Why do we have to speed up ‘just in case’ the little old lady might overtake you??
I do believe the problem is in the old saying “There is nothing common about Common Courtesy.” I have been watching the ways of traffic these past few days and have truly seen some remarkable states of self- induced rage. I am the first one to admitting my favourite car comment is, “the speed limit would be nice,” and my son’s favourite, “engage the traffic,” but to hang out the window screaming and honking the horn- please spare me!
The sad fact is, due to the uprise in all of this I have recently been overwhelmed by the lack of engagement of others when respectfully giving way or allowing traffic to merge. People are so used to NOT being able to merge – they don’t.
Take a day’s experiment and reap the rewards of your humanity.
Try making it to work by letting someone in (even if they are no ‘entitled’ to it), merge with the ‘side street lady’, and let those pushing the speed limit – do it. Then, here’s the kicker; wave with a smile, make a kind hand gesture (remember when we used to wave to say ‘thanks’), keep left, turn your favourite music up and arrive not only safely but happy in yourself, and in the knowledge that the ‘side street lady’s’ day has improved as well.
Don’t be the jerk that beeps and curses, runs up behind everyone and yells out the window. It is not your problem.
So, even when faced with the psycho ‘Gen Y’ racing up behind you in their P plated silver Corolla that Dad bought, tooting and swearing while you are slowing down to, God forbid, park, as they scream up to a red light only 10 meters in front of them– smile, laugh and think ‘have a nice day’. You’ll feel so much better!
The Laws Of Physics Are No Respecter Of Persons Or Pocketbooks
The theme song of the 1980s TV show Fame implied that fame would make you live forever. Unfortunately, some celebrities (but not all) seem to have taken that a bit too literally and seem to neglect a number of basic safety precautions when it comes to driving and motoring. The years of the motorcar have seen a number of high-profile fatalities courtesy of a motor vehicle. Here’s a selection, plus how they could have been prevented:
Isadora Duncan: This dancer shocked the stuffy Victorian and Edwardians with her innovative dance style that broke the classical ballet mould as well as corset strings, but died as flamboyantly as she lived when her long, trailing scarf wrapped itself around the back wheels of the Bugatti driven by her car salesman boyfriend and strangled her. This particular type of road fatality is not so likely today, but if you do drive in an open top car, just make sure you take off any really long scarves or at least tuck them in, even if they do look glamorous flowing behind you as speed.
Lawrence of Arabia: He was off his camel leading Arab revolutionaries against the Turks and on a motorbike in England. He courteously swerved to avoid two kids on bikes and lost control, pitching over the handlebars. He died nearly a week later from the head injuries he sustained. As a result of his death, one of the brain surgeons who tended this war hero started a campaign that saw the introduction of a very important safety device: the motorbike helmet.
James Dean: The “Rebel Without A Cause” liked fast cars. As well as acting, he also like to race cars, preferably Porsches. And he got himself one of the limited edition 550 Spyders, which he nicknamed the “Little Bastard”. Fellow actor Alec Guinness, on being shown the brand new toy by James Dean, took one look and said Dean would be seen dead within the week if he started driving that vehicle. Guinness probably didn’t have second sight, but he knew James Dean’s reputation for fast driving. A week later, Dean was dead, having gone into an intersection and being T-boned by another driver who didn’t see him. Dean had been given a speeding ticket a couple of hours before the crash, and it is possible that he was speeding during the crash. This sort of crash can be avoided by watching your speed and watching out for other drivers. The crash would probably not have been fatal with a modern car with side impact beams and airbags – Dean was killed by bashing his head on the dashboard. Legends have surfaced about the car being cursed and having caused a number of fatalities after Dean’s death (all unverified).
Diana, Princess of Wales: Unless you are into conspiracy theories, the official inquest found that she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and the driver of the Mercedes S280 was drunk in charge of a very powerful car and driving at high speed. Do we need to say any more?
Cash for Clunkers Scheme announced
I won’t write much here as we decided this was important enough to deserve a home page mention 🙂
Suffice to say, the announcement from Julia Gillard over the weekend could be good news for anyone looking to trade-in their old banger for a new fuel-efficient vehicle. Please read the details on our Cash for Clunkers intro page and look forward to more comment and analysis on the rebate on this blog .
Who owns who in a changing global environment?
Who loves the legends? Rover, Lamborghini, Jaguar and Aston Martin are all legends that have experienced a change of hands in recent times. But who belongs with whom these days? The more recent economic climate has forced a number of new automotive amalgamations and buy-outs due to rising costs that have become too great for a number of iconic car manufacturers to manage solo.
Established prestige British marques like Rover and Jaguar are now Indian or Chinese owned. Almost all car manufacturers have needed to look elsewhere for building the cars that they create. So setting up a manufacturing plant in another land where the costs of production are lower makes a lot of sense. The likes of China, Brazil, India, Holland, Spain, Hungary and Argentina are a few of the locations around the world that have witnessed well known brands from Europe and beyond setting up low cost car manufacturing plants at these new locations.
Many car manufacturers have, in fact, been bought over by their competitors because of the scary economic losses they’ve experienced in diminishing returns recently. Saab just about disappeared completely, but was saved by a few Saab enthusiasts – and Spyker in Netherlands, which now owns Saab. Lamborghini is now owned by Volkswagen. Rolls Royce is owned by BMW. And Jaguar, which was owned by Ford, is now owned by the Tata group in India. MG is Chinese owned, while the other once British owned Mini is now completely BMW’s work. Land Rover has also been taken over and owned by Tata of India. Volvo is owned by Geely in China.
Joint ventures or amalgamations has seen Aston Martin amalgamate with Toyota, Renault marry Nissan, Fiat joint venture with Chrysler, Suzuki – incredibly – unite with Volkswagen and… wait for it… BMW join with Brilliance in China. You are probably aware that Ford and Mazda have had something going for quite some time, but you may not have known that Peugeot and Citroen of France have amalgamated with Mitsubishi of Japan.
I think it is pretty obvious that the motor industry will continue to grow with plenty of vigour via a large level of Chinese and Indian investment. These two countries have a huge domestic market.
China is no bunny when it comes to copying a template and, without a doubt, if Chinese engineers are able to create a Chinese BMW, Lexus or Mercedes Benz equivalent for a fraction of the price, then the real BMW, Lexus or Mercedes Benz manufacturers have their work cut out. I guess this kind of competition has got to be good for the consumer. A new Audi or Mercedes Benz might be a great deal cheaper to buy in the future.
Level 2, 9 Help Street