7th 8th 9th January Driver's year 2011

Would you consider selective use of your car for three days if it didn't inconvenience you at all?

Now fuel is at a record high with 150% Tax Markup.

It is about time that our 30,million drivers demonstrated their power. Truth is if we all stopped doing it the economy would collapse and thousands more would die than are from any driving cause.

It's simple. We all don't do something that we don't do most days anyway, but all don't do it on the same three days!!

We are being mercilessly criminalised, over taxed, hampered and slowed by officialdom on the behest of profit and gain and to feed the public transport lobby too. We are also sustaining an aggressive multi billion pound Road Safety Industry which dreams up more and more ways to criminalise us or take more money from us too. Then there are the £120 parking fines as well. Why? Because the authorities pretend they are doing us a favour and to drive is a 'privilege'. It is not. It's the other way around. We employ most of them. We pay most of them; if we didn't drive, many of them would be out of work and we are a massive lobby.

Perhaps it is time we showed how vital we all are then!

This would not inconvenience you at all. Here's How:

Excluding all those who drive for their profession for obvious reasons, the rest can still make an impact by avoiding use of our cars and motor vehicles where it would impact most. Retail parks, or Hypermarkets or filling up and non urgent garage servicing during those three days. Re-arranging our routine around the three days and avoiding the theatre or cinema or favourite restaurants etc.

These all have massive car parks because.....they need drivers....!!

By shopping locally and avoiding out of town precincts, retail centres and city shopping centres, DIY, theatres, cinemas and malls, all of which rely on the car, during that three days. It would be dead easy for you but a powerful message to business and politicians alike to support the drivers of this country.

Show them there is no bus or train carriage that can carry us and all the goods we need to get in our cars and that public transport can never be an option without private transport.

Limited only by our imagination, we, as private drivers, could show what impact the driver can have without even using the professional wing of the driver army.

Let's do it. 7th 8th & 9th January 2011 make 2011 Driver's Year. Pass it on. 07722917074

Jail for an error?

Should drivers be jailed for doing what the Government, Society and the community allow them to do for the economy and their expediency?

Perhaps we need to look at this question again but from the perspective of the majority, instead of the shrill anti driver minority, usually from a green agenda, on whose behalf imprisonment is now regularly being meted out to beleaguered drivers.

Perhaps we should have spotted the way things were headed when the word 'accident' was removed from official vocabulary. Is this coincidence? After all, it is a bit harsh to bang someone up who simply made a mistake and had an accident isn't it? Then of course there is the mantra, a la Brunstrom, that road accidents must be treated as a murder scene with all its attendant forensic examination to boot!

But let's look at it this way. What does the Government expect when it allows humans to mingle with large pieces of moving machinery in a way that would offend any elf'n safety rules and be banned if it were a private concern? So it is expedient that, with meagre qualification, any Tom Dick & Harry is let loose with large pieces of metal kit with flesh and blood intermingled.

Now having done that, it allows inexpert but profitable agencies to have a major say on what should and should not happen and thus are accident scenarios set up for us too. For example the DfT and its Partnerships, in ignoring the self evident such as, 'Remove the need to overtake, reduces the attempts to overtake and thus reduces the head on crashes', or 'The more drivers can see the safer they are' actually sets up the accidents and the resulting casualties does it not? A classic example can be found on this site ( Our fault if we crash so that's ok then! ) where I argue the self evident that by restricting dual carriageways to 50 MPH means that one can only legally pass an HGV on a two way road with opposing traffic, where the DfT is setting up crashes, the response? 'It's all your fault if you crash'. And on that basis judges are imprisoning people?

Let's start off on the premise that, excluding drunk driving, no-one sets out to crash and kill anyone so we are imprisoning people for an accident where most of the ingredients for it were supplied and endorsed by the authorities in the first place. But how on earth can we send people to prison for an action where on one occasion there is only bent metal and no police interest at all and another, from exactly the same action, but for the tragic coincidence that human flesh got in the way as it is bound to do from time to time?

Any judges out there like to explain this one to us?

Skid control.

Someone wrote to me for information of the nearest skid pan for a daughter who had had a fright. My reply might help others so here it is:

Hi David,

If she goes out now she won't need a skid pan mate. But seriously I do not know of one but if you visit the IAM site, I am sure they include skid pan experience in their training.

In the meantime, I can help her now:

Don't go out unless it is essential.(*see note) Find a large flat area with no traffic, like a weekend quiet industrial estate, and try some simple remedies to get confidence as follows:

• Four wheel skid. Basically when the car is sliding straight. To create one, drive straight (not fast) and slam brakes on. This will cause a four wheel slide. Remove the cause by releasing brakes and it will bring back steering. I used to demonstrate this by slinging my hat out in the snow, driving at it, creating a 4 wheel slide and then my passengers tell me what side to pass the hat on. It works believe me and the only way to believe it is to do it. Start slowly and then build up with confidence. So to correct it, simply remove the cause, which is braking, and gently steer around object or, to stop, if the ABS hasn't kicked in for you, jab jab jab the brakes (cadence braking) until she stops in a straight line before the object (hat).
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• Two wheel or one axle skid: Take away the cause which is power (Foot off the accelerator peddle that is). This should then recover traction and steering. Add cadence braking to this too if the space is running out and there is no space for a direction change so stopping is essential.
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• A rear wheel skid, on rear wheel drive, can also be recovered by steering briefly, no brakes or throttle, towards the direction that the rear is going to straighten it out. But if space is too short use cadence braking to stop in a straight line.
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• Always get deceleration and slowing done on the straight and not in a bend or a turn and try to keep the engine as your slowing agent with minimum brakes.
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• In bad conditions, 2nd gear will get her around locally with the least braking required and best control using the engine.
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• To avoid skids or correct them on snow or ice and slippery roads, speed and space is the key as well as smooth and gentle steering and braking. Leave at least three times the normal safety distance from the nearest vehicle ahead and three times the normal stopping distance. This will give more time to react correctly to the skid.

It may well be that, if we are now to experience prolonged snow and ice regularly, Snow Chains will become the norm and a good investment.

Take her out and have some fun. Fun is also the key to confidence too.

*Note: Ideally private land with permission. Do not share the space with other users. (One at a time or move off.) Learning to control a car on ice is just as legitimate as any other driver learning and improvement, providing that it is genuine instruction and not just for 'fun' in my view. The police may disagree but on what legal grounds, I cannot visualise. If they ask you to stop, don't argue with them.