Watching the Road

I've witnessed so many examples of bad driving over the past few days. I'm not that great a driver myself, but I hope most of the time I'm attentive and safety conscious. Most of the bad driving practice I've seen has been I think due to three particular recurring problems :-

Firstly - not being in proper control of the car. I really think this is more and more an issue. Cars are themselves safer, but sometimes I feel the car does so much that the driver becomes more prepared than he or she ever should to hand over responsibility - to what? - a computer, an advanced braking system, and a satnav. That last is quite significant - our one way system, too new to be on many satnavs, is just one area in which foolish drivers make wrong turns and dangerous manoeuvres because that's what their satnav has directed them to do, and clearly have become so dependant on that piece of kit that they no longer bother looking at road signs.

Secondly - not having proper thought for other road users. Excessive speed is of course one persistent failing, and that mad desire to get past the person in front, just because. I slowed down the other morning to make space for someone who had overtaken me foolishly and needed to get in so as to avoid a head-on collision, only to be overtaken by someone else as I did so. Which leads me to my third point, which is

- inattentiveness: not watching the road properly. Too many drivers do not drive analytically. You need to be constantly interpreting what is ahead of you and around you, and, frankly, if there is something ahead you can't interpret or understand, then the chances are you're approaching it too fast. It's always worth checking your speed (in both senses of the word).