Chairman’s Notes

THE LINK

The Newsletter of Bristol Advanced Motorists

The largest organisation dedicated to road safety in the Southwest Affiliated to: IAM RoadSmart Registered Charity No 289807 Run entirely by volunteers Group no: 1009

Welcome Readers

From the Editor...

Welcome indeed to the high summer edition of The Link. As I write this temperatures are beginning to climb, no doubt by the time you read it they will have fallen again! Don’t forget though that air conditioning is only really cost effective above about 50 mph, otherwise open your windows and listen for hazards as well as look for them! Talking of which… A tale of the barely expected. I’m trundling through Longwell Green in the shop van, just ahead of me on the left is an adult with a child who has a dog on a lead. All well and good. I’ve already clocked that the road ahead is bending slightly to the right with parked cars on the nearside, so stay in position two and ease off a tad until I get a view that tells me it’s safe to go to position five, and why in my peripheral vision is there an unrestrained dog running at full speed towards me? The brakes on a Ford Transit Connect turn out to be excellent, nevertheless there is a disconcerting “thump” from somewhere to the rear… I get out, expecting to find bits of mangled mongrel splattered all over the van and carriageway, but no, said pooch is jumping up and down in front of his master on the pavement as if nothing had happened. “It’s all right,” says the bloke, “You didn’t hit him.” (Ididn’t hit him?! Ford have chosen to bless me with six forward gear ratios and one for reverse: none for sideways, sadly). “My stupid kid let him off the lead as you went past.” Well, obviously. But not, as I think my readers may agree, something at the top of the “what might reasonably be expected to happen” list. And the “thump”? Just the bricks we carry as ballast obeying a couple of Newton’s Laws. Then there was the one that wasexpected. It’s an example of what I don’t apologise for calling “Entitled B*tch Syndrome”, although it’s by no means gender exclusive. I’m at a set of lights on red, right-hand lane of two which is for straight ahead. The left-hand lane is exclusively marked for left turns and has only one vehicle in the queue. I, meanwhile, am third in a line of seven or eight, stopped just before a “Keep Clear” protecting the entrance to a petrol station on the nearside corner. Here she comes, in her nearly-new Volvo, sailing up the nearside lane to stop in the “Keep Clear” zone, well back from the car in front of her. Yep, you guessed it – the light turns green and in the second it takes me to check my mirrors and select first gear, she’s indicated right and pulled into my lane. I suppose 9/10 for progress, but minus several bazillion for lane discipline and manners.