Home | Vehicles
Most people feel that there are far too many cars on Britain's roads today and indeed, if you look at the figures, there are. In a study carried out by the World Health Organization in 1996, we had 408 vehicles per 1000 of population, Spain had 488 and France had 524. America was very high at 787 per 1000 of population but then it is a country of 3.537 million square miles compared with the UK, which has 90,504 square miles. In general the countries that have a large number of vehicles per capita are much larger countries than Britain. Fortunately those figures are from across the world and when comparing serious accident in this country with other countries it shows that our roads are very safe indeed. As a contract hire company we see very few cars written off in serious accidents. Interestingly people tend to worry quite a lot about their children on the road but generally don't give much thought of risks to themselves; nevertheless the risks are there. In general people tend to worry about other dangers; passengers on an airline flight can be seen tightly gripping the armrest, as the plane lifts off, even though their drive to the airport would have been significantly more dangerous than their holiday flight. It appears that to be certain of being killed in an air crash you would need to fly continuously, 24 hours a day for 20 years. You would imagine that this figure would allow motorists to appreciate the relative risks. However many still continue to happily drive on country roads at 80 mph but walk up the steps to the aeroplane, as though they were going to the gallows. Motorists in Britain feel that congestion on the roads is particularly bad, there are however countries that suffer far more from traffic congestion Some US cities are particularly bad; The Texas Transportation Institute says that on average motorists in Los Angeles sit in traffic jams for 82 hours each year. Peak times for driving are naturally the times when people go to and from work and as the number of cars on the road increase so do the problems during peak times. However at off peak times for example on a Sunday, which always used to be a very quiet day on the roads, can now seem like a weekday. Some experts say that traffic congestion will never go past a certain point, because as journey times increase, people that can mange without their car stop using them. Fuel cost in the future is going to be a big factor in deciding how congested our roads become. Incorrect road signs are a source of considerable frustration; every year there is a report produced showing the number of hours poor road signs cost industry in wasted time but no one seems to do anything about it. Not here or it would seem in other countries either, where the problem is just as bad and sometimes worse. The main problem seems to be that road signs start and then just stop, leaving motorists to guess where to go next. Although theoretically there is a 50/50 chance of being correct when you guess, it doesn't seem to work out that way. In Wales road signs are written in both English and Welsh; one rather confusing road sign set up at road works between Penarth and Cardiff in 2006 told cyclists to dismount, in English. However it informed them that bladder disease had returned when read in Welsh. After years of under funding our roads are in very poor shape compared with many European countries, road closures and uncoordinated road repairs are a major cause of traffic delays. Although we are not alone, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 billion is required just to bring America's roads up to a reasonable standard. A massive sum of money indeed, although still rather less the US currently spends on occupation of Iraq each year. Britain doesn't lead the world in as many areas as it once did; however road rage is an area where we certainly appear to be world leaders. In a poll carried out by Gallup 80.4% of those questioned said they had been victim to road rage. Verbal abuse and gesticulating were deemed to be road rage, although one in seven said they had been verbally or physically abused. Of course in some of these cases the prior behaviour or driving of the victim would have presumably been a contributory factor. They said that 60% of the aggressors were the drivers of standard cars. Certainly in many countries violent road rage is almost non-existent, with road rage being no more that gesticulating and occasionally shouting abuse. The level of violence seen in the UK does seem to be quite unique. There was a case reported in the press a few years ago of a driver who one Sunday, having objected to another motorist's driving habits decided to stop him and drag him out of the car. It turned out that his victim was his new boss recently arrived from Switzerland, due to start his first day at work the following day. Not only was the driver prosecuted, he lost his job, his company car, which he was driving at the time, and all his other company benefits. The Gallup poll said only 14% of road rage aggressors regretted their actions; this may have been one of those cases. In general we pay more for our cars in the UK than in other countries, although we are fortunate in having some of the lowest contract hire and leasing rates in the world. Overall apart from the road rage, the congestion and the poor condition of our roads you are still far better off driving in the UK than most other parts of the world and certainly have less chance of being involved in a serious accident, particularly on our motorways, that are extremely safe. There are occasions when our motorways that are some of the safest in the world, become very dangerous; Martha Harwood, eighty one years old, drove for 15 miles down the overtaking lane of the M65. In itself not particularly dangerous except that she was going in the wrong direction. Cars crashed into each other as they swerved to avoid her. She later told police that she was aware she was going in the wrong direction but as it was difficult to turn around, she thought it best to press on.
Article Source: http://www.ezine-directory.info
For more information about contract hire, lease purchase, finance lease or vehicle hire purchase in the UK please contact Bowater Price plc www.bowaterprice.com Tel - 01494 536 536.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
