Road Wars: Part Time vs Full Time Drivers
I would like to formally welcome you, dear reader, to a new chapter in my Private Fleet journey. Since getting the opportunity to write for this wonderful little site, I have dipped my toes into a variety of subject areas. One might even say that I was making sure I had my fingers in many pies as it were. But then, everything changed. In a moment of mind bending realisation, I saw it. For no more will my posts be random shots at the motoring world from the barrels of different guns. Instead, I would like to introduce the opening salvo in a new blog series that deals with those everyday aspects of our automotive society. Well let’s be honest I will still continue with the randomness, this is me after all. Anyway! Ladies and gentlemen, this is Road Wars.
For my first instalment I would like to address an issue that rattles me to my very core. We all have different names for what I have described as ‘Part Time Drivers’. Some might call them, ‘Sunday Drivers’ or even ‘Holiday Drivers’. In fact, over my many encounters with these beings I have given them ever more colourful nicknames. In our modern world, driving has become a near necessity for most of us. And as such, most of us will have learnt to drive and have access to a car. However, it is my view that the term ‘driver’ is now an all encompassing term that spans two very different voids of existence. To place all drivers in one of only two categories may seem a little strange and most likely inaccurate. There are most likely to be numerous sub-categories involved in both of these, but the basic message remains. Either way, stick with me on this one.
Definitions
A Full Time Driver: A person who drives for the joy of driving itself. A full time driver will enjoy the thought of driving and will aspire to drive a large array of cars in their lifetime. This person will spend much of their time driving and feel at one with their machine.
A Part Time Driver: A person who only drives because they have to. Their driving experiences will focus around the necessity of driving, whether this will be the school run, taking the family away or doing the weekly food shop. A part time driver will not spend very much time behind the wheel and see the car as nothing but a method of getting from A to B.
Since the dawn of the ‘Driving Age’, there has been an unspoken, indirect and passive war waging between the ‘Full Time’ and ‘Part Time’ drivers. I am a self-confessed full time driver. Think of this as the part time driver from the viewpoint of the full time driver. Maybe you may share share some of my views. Maybe some of you may oppose them.
I have had many an experience with these part time drivers, and I must say my view of them is not entirely positive. Now usually, as a driver I am usually nothing but the epicentre of patience. A feeling of calm serenity grips me as me and my machine float through the labyrinth of London roads. I would love more than anything to be able to tell you that this driving mode never falters. But then… But then I come into contact with… them.
The only saving grace is that there are warning signs; these are both temporal and geographic in nature. Firstly, chances are that if you are in close proximity of a shopping centre, supermarket or school, the probability of running into a part time driver (literally in some sad cases) does increase quite rapidly. Secondly, the reason I often call these glorious human beings ‘Sunday Drivers’ is because here is a shock horror for you, it is on Sundays and Public Holidays that they most often come out to play with the rest of us.
Sunday Drivers Are A Special Bunch
No argument can be made without evidence. And well, to illustrate just why I am not a fan of the part time driver I would like to draw your attention to the example of my road at home. Part way down the road stands a nursery school. And like clockwork, every morning my road becomes infested with some of the worst driving I have ever seen in my life. When a road is not particularly wide, you would think it would make perfect sense that those parked on the side of it would leave room for other cars to still drive up without issue. However, I have lost count of the times that I have found myself trapped up my road because these part time drivers have decided to park on both sides of the road opposite one another, therefore not leaving any room for any cars in between. I thought it was common driving logic that you never park directly opposite another car on a small road. But then again the intelligence (or lack of) of some people does so baffle me.
One of the prime territories for the showdown between full and part time is the car park. Whether it is people driving the wrong way down one way lanes, backing into the side of my car, managing to take three (yes I am not joking, I do mean three) parking spaces to park their car. Most of the time no one will question the stupendous stupidity of these people. Although sometimes I just cannot help myself. It is at this point that I am brought to stunned silence at some of the verbal diarrhoea that comes forth from the faces of these people. Usually part time drivers are those with a family of their other half and children, and it would seem that this gives them an inflated sense of self worth. Apparently, they are the most important people on the planet and they are exempt from the rules of society. Words fail me.
One of the times I am most worried by coming into contact with part time drivers is on the motorway. They either charge from lane to lane, with some crazy thought that they can outsmart the other traffic on the road or drive so outrageously slowly in the fast lane that they cause massive tailbacks and in some cases, accidents. And do not even get me started on the people that seem to prioritise their mobile phone, the makeup or catching up with their friends over actually driving sensibly and safely.
The ‘Part Time Driver’ has every right to be on our roads, and I would never begrudge them that. I mean, I am just a man currently sitting at his laptop after all. However, I do really think that the plight of us full time drivers should be made more public. If our worries could be expressed, then maybe we could begin to work toward educating these people on how best to make the most of driving. Yes, some drivers only have their car to get from one place to another, but that does not mean that they can get away with driving like an absolute moron.
Let us work toward a better future.
Let us bring in a new age of driving.
And so concludes this issue of Road Wars, tune in again soon for more from the every day motoring mayhem that we face!
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Keep Driving People!
Peace and Love!
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