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.So instead of worrying about speed, we should concern ourselves with what causes people to lose concentration.It certainly isn’t speed.The faster you go, the more you have to think about what you’re doing, so I laughed at all those yellow-toothed members of the British Vegetarian Society who leaped about when Vauxhall introduced the 170-mph Lotus Carlton.They called it a cancerous menace with gangrene and leprosy and said it was the seven-headed beast from Revelations.Women with short hair began to leave Greenham Common and head for Luton.Never mind that in any other walk of life, speed is considered essential – faxes and modems for instance – the Carlton was a greater threat to man’s survival than Trident.Well, only a handful were ever sold and some straw-poll research has shown that so far, not one of them has been involved in any sort of fatal crash.So stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Mrs Weird Beard.The Vauxhall, and all the other fast saloons of its ilk, tend to be safer than the average car because they are usually bought by enthusiasts.These guys are not worried by how the car looks or what badge is nailed to the back: they simply want a car that’s good to drive.And when they’re out driving it, they’re not listening to the radio or talking on the phone or turning round to try to reason with an incontinent four-year-old in the back.When they are driving, they are driving.Anyone who is not enthusiastic about cars, but needs one to get from A to B, will not buy a Lotus Carlton or a Jaguar XJR or a BMW M5 because they’re too fast.He won’t feel safe in them.He doesn’t like the racy suspension and the sports seats and the gaudy wheels.He simply consults the Consumers’ Association which, like him, is unconcerned with speed or style; only with reliability and value for money.They like Nissans and Volvos and Toyotas.So he buys one of those which he drives around in.V-e-r-y S-l-o-w-l-y.Yes, he goes the wrong way round roundabouts and has heated arguments with colleagues while lurching about on the M40.Yes, he indicates right when he wants to go left.And yes, he occasionally drinks and drives.He never drives quickly though so as he ambles past those signs saying Speed Kills, he feels fine.He isn’t speeding.It’s the same story on the motorway.He’s in the middle lane with a truck two inches from his high-intensity rear lights, which come on the instant it’s dark, but he’s only doing 50 and that’s 20 mph below the speed limit, so he’s all right, Jack.And besides, he hasn’t noticed the truck because he’s listening to a particularly good play on Radio Four.Even though he is in control of a ton of metal which is storming along at 50 mph, he is absolutely miles away.It doesn’t matter what the weather does or how much traffic there is, he’s below the speed limit and he’s feeling smug.He may even have a little snooze.He is a menace but how do you legislate for guys like this? You can’t force him to buy a decent car because even if he did have a big Bee Em, he’d still be doing 50 and he’d still be sozzled.And he’d still jam his brakes on every time Tony Blair came on the radio to say something even more stupid than usual.You can’t ban phones and radios in cars and even if you could, people would still daydream.You could, I guess, force cars to be a lot noisier by banning exhaust silencers, but this wouldn’t go down too well in residential areas, early in the morning.You can, however, make people drive faster.A lot faster.I therefore propose a new minimum speed limit of 130 mph on motorways which will scare away the truly hopeless drivers and force those who could be good if they tried to concentrate.If you had a motorway network where every single driver was concentrating absolutely on the job in hand, you wouldn’t have any crashes at all.Clarkson on CarsNasty NissansMen in suits, be they government ministers, insurance company bosses or police people are convinced that it is young men in fast cars who constitute the biggest hazard on the road.This hazard is perceived to be so great that the punishment metered out is horrendous.Drive too fast, even for a moment, and they will remove your licence.As a result, your job disappears down the lavatory and you will come home one night to find that your wife has moved in with someone else.Someone who still has wheels.Steal a car and they’ll send you to the Red Sea for some scuba diving.But drive a car too quickly, and they’ll wreck your life.However, I have never been inconvenienced by a young man in a fast car [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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