Sometimes I wonder where the time has gone, I took my first driving test in March 1976 which means that it is almost fifty years since that momentous day, I had longed to learn to drive from being young and had my first lesson in my dad’s three wheeler van on my seventeenth birthday. I remember that day almost like it was yesterday, I stalled the car turning out of the test centre and was convinced that I had already failed so it didn’t matter what happened after that.
Nobody could have been more surprised than me when the examiner told me that I had passed first time. I had spent weeks revising the highway code which in those days was a fraction of the size of the twenty-first century tome. I can still remember spending hours memorising braking distances and returning to the Horsforth test centre on that March day I was asked the difference between triangular road signs and circular ones and I was asked to identify a couple of roadsigns which seemed to satisfy the examiner and he said those important words “may I be the first congratulate you” and I knew that I was now officially a driver.
Living in Dereham and frequently travelling to Norwich I regulalry commute along the A47 which is currently undergoing major road improvements thus being subject to lengthy manditory speed limits of 40mph with average speed cameras in place. By and large people are good and ahere to the limit, however I seem to be a frequent victim of a brand of motorist that I find both annoying and dangerous. You will see from the above diagram that if travelling at 40mph the safe stopping distance is roughly equal to nine cars, and three car lengths is what is referred to as “thinking distance” and consequently I feel vulnerable when somebody, often driving a van or a pickup is so close to the back of my car that I can’t even see the number plate on the front of their vehicle, let alone read it. This means that they are travelling way too close and should anything go wrong they couldn’t fail to pile straight into the back of my car, putting my wellbeing at risk as well as their own. I frequenly pull in and wave tailgaters past me, because I would sooner have them in front rather than behind.
In the usual way, I am writing this thought early in the week ready for being posted on Sunday and at the same time my thoughts are turning to the pearls of wisdom I hope to share with my unsuspecting congregations. In the Bible reading for today (Matthew 5: 13-20) Jesus is teaching his disciples about how to live as God would like them to and this is about respecting an valuing other people. In the previous understanding of religion, people have been expected to live by the law and a bit like the highway code the law gets bigger end more complex as laws increase to cover every eventuality. In his teaching Jesus is trying to help his disciples to understand that if people care for one another, there is no need for endless numbers of rules, elsewhere Jesus adds one solitary command “as I have loved you, so you must love one another”
I reflect on that often, if I care for other people, then I will strive to do my best to ensure that they are safe, not simply so that I comply with the rules. Maybe employers of people who drive trucks and vans should frequently remind them of important safety rules like braking distances. Most modern vehicles have much more advanced braking systems than cars in the seventies had but even so I frequently observe people travelling way too close and the results of their actions could be catastrophic. I doubt very much that I would pass my driving test if I were to take it again today, but I hope that I have sufficient care for other road users that I act responsibly.