It means that the Government's message about the dangers of using mobiles while driving is getting through.The survey showed that more women (60 per cent) than men (47 per cent) regard tailgating as highly dangerous. Likewise, more women than men see phoning and driving as highly dangerous (61 per cent versus 44 per cent).In contrast, drivers aged 17 to 29 are significantly less likely to regard other motorists' activities as dangerous. Only 30 per cent of young drivers regard using a phone while driving as highly dangerous, compared with more than 50 per cent for all other age groups. Similarly, 40 per cent of young drivers consider tailgating highly dangerous, compared with 55 per cent of other age groups.When the IAM survey was published, Steve Norris (the former road safety minister) commented that too many road users slip into bad habits, either through "ignorance, impatience or aggression".Tailgating and phoning while driving are activities that are clearly a threat to others. The other problem highlighted was that of motorists who insist on using a hand-held phone while at the wheel.More than half of all drivers regarded each of these two activities as "highly dangerous", according to our poll of almost 700 motorists.Drivers who overtake on single-carriage A-roads when there is oncoming traffic, and those who cut others up, forcing them to brake, were regarded as the next biggest threats.In some ways, the survey gives us encouragement. In the private sector, it would be cheaper and less wearing than a daily parking fine. And it might even begin to make local state schools truly local.motoring independent.co.uk.
Do you remember those old bumper stickers that said: "If you can read this, you're too close"? Do you remember those old bumper stickers that said: "If you can read this, you're too close"? Tailgating is not a new problem - but it's back in the headlines following an Institute of Advanced Motorists' survey on drivers' fears. My daughter knew her way to school from the age of five: it was a 10-minute walk, I crossed her over the biggest road and let her go "Aren't you frightened?" one outraged mum demanded. What of? Paedophiles behind the hedge? Drivers on the pavement? She didn't, probably couldn't, specify. But her bogey-ridden world is today's norm.So everyone feels they must accompany young children to school. And how else to do that but by car? "I can't get to school on time without the car," said one mother picking up her child near our house.What she means, of course, is it's easier She could get up earlier, and walk or take the bus. But cars change our perception of what is possible, and of what we are entitled to.
And it is this mindset that makes the reduction of transport emissions, vital if we are to stop global warming, so problematic.Meanwhile, here's an idea. Why not make the provision of school buses mandatory for all schools, state or private, that accept children outside a walkable catchment area? That would be safe, reliable, environmentally better than hundreds of individual cars, and less nerve-racking for all. If it had still been running, our daughter could have left home after 8am instead of 7.30, and still easily arrived at school on time. It was the last straw: the resulting extra cars meant that the whole place seized up, and no one got anywhere until mid-morning. A perfect demonstration of the virtues of rail travel.In this case the train company quailed before the onslaught from Bedford's combined head teachers, and reinstated the trains But this is not always possible.
