Everyday travel – nightmare or pleasure?

As this blog is all about travel I thought I’d look at an area of travel we haven’t covered yet. The kind of travel we all do every day, often without thinking. The journey to work. Ok, so it’s not as glamorous as travelling overseas on holiday but we all spend a significant period of our lives on the road on the way to work and back every day.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I see some quite frustrating things on the way to work. I’m even starting to understand some of the infamous road rage incidents. I’m sure in reality my journey isn’t all that bad and I expect getting a busy tube in London every day is worse but sometimes I get really annoyed at the other road users. My route to work takes me down a lot of small country lanes. It can be quite narrow and windy in sections, but if you know the road well you can zip through pretty quickly. However this is not often the case…

Does this look like a familiar sight?

Potholes

I’m sure you’ve all seen them, but they seem especially bad on the road I drive. Mostly you can dodge them but if there’s something on the other side of the road then get ready for a bang. I’m sure my suspension is going to be shot by the time I come to sell my car. No matter how much road tax I pay these things never seem to go away either.

I’ll give you a few images now, think for a minute before reading on and see if you can guess what my next gripe is going to be about.

Berlingo

Micra

Daewoo

Thats right, the bane of my existence when driving to work. The old person, or more accurately, the slow driver. These people seem to think that the speed limit doesn’t matter, it’s 35mph all the way. 35 in a 30mph limit, 35mph on a 60 limit road it’s all the same to them. What is especially annoying when driving to work is that once I’m stuck behind one of these people is that there won’t be anywhere to overtake for the next twenty minutes. I’m not asking them to drive too fast but really, braking going round a corner at 20mph is just crazy. If anything, it’s more dangerous than driving too fast as they cause a huge tailback to occur behind them. I’ve been stuck in trails of 6-7 cars before, and the road I drive is generally pretty quiet.

I actually find it quite an arrogant way to drive. I always try to make progress, but I obey speed limits and drive sensibly. However, by driving at 20mph below the speed limit you’re forcing everyone else to drive at your pace on your terms. If I want to progress at a speed I feel comfortable at I’m forced to overtake, which is hardly an ideal situation to be in. Furthermore, by braking erratically you’re more likely to have people drive into the back of you, and because you’re driving so slowly people will be closer to you.

However, this is not the worst thing I see when driving to work. The following sight is worse.

Tractor

Yep, a 15mph tractor with drivers behind that refuse to overtake. Rubbish. At least the saving grace here is that the tractors will pull over to let traffic through, or won’t stay on the road long.

My most hated thing when driving to work down the country lanes is this;

Lorry

This picture is actually of a Czech driver who followed his sat-nav a little too closely and got his lorry stuck. While this hasn’t happened on my route there are certainly too many lorries driving down tiny lanes due to satellite navigation. They generally don’t slow down for you or make any kind of allowances. I’ve actually had one force me off the road at one point. Maybe there should be an option on your sat-nav to say you’re driving such a large vehicle and it would only take you down A-roads and motorways?

In any case, rant over. This is my daily travel experience, what’s yours like?