Driving - Mobile Phones etc - It feels more Dangerous out there

I write after completing another journey across Glasgow and back where I again had to put up with crazy driving incidents from other drivers who are either too impatient or just plain unsafe in their driving or dont know the highway code.

Let me tell you of the incidents just in one journey of a total of around an hour and a half today.

OK so I set off and driving out of my town of Milngavie into the country on a road called Auchenhowie Road. I was following three cars ahead of me. In fact I had noticed someone was driving too close behind me two traffic lights back - you end up having to check this driver is not going to slam into the back of you instead of paying full attention to the road. Anyway we leave the 30mph zone and are travelling at the prevailing traffic speed which was roughly 40 to 50 mph and perfectly typical speed for that road when suddenly the driver from behind in his souped up car overtakes at a ridiculous speed and making a ridiculous noise. I put my radio off and lost track of what I had been listening to on what had up til then been quite a relaxed journey. He then overtakes the next person and then overtakes two cars in a row and this is on a bend. No way was he able to see if there definitely wasnt someone coming his way especially on the last of the two cars when he was very close to the bend. This is also past the exit to Rangers football training ground Murray Park and there were people gathered there at the exit. There is also at least one or two side roads to consider that come out onto that road. He appeared not to need to consider these things. I have his number and I will possibly contact the police tomorrow to report it and see if anyone else has reported the driver on this occasion.

Anyway onwards ... the number of people who appear to be driving without paying full attention has in the last two weeks become frighteningly high. I hate to say so as a woman but it does appear that almost every woman who stops behind my car appears to be on a mobile phone texting .... please its so dangerous. This included on my return journey a silver VW Beetle driver who was paying little attention  ... Now if you have ever given yourself a huge fright when you have maybe just had a fleeting moment of inattention then think again - why on earth would you do anything that is going to distract you ?

Now the next things I had to encounter were aggressive and fast driving that was quite pointless as there were just lanes and lanes of queued traffic on the M8 or M77 ... what is the point ? In fact yesterday I felt a guy in a large Volvo seriously nearly crashed his car into the one in front just due to aggressive driving.

Now my final driving fault I see all the time is that of people who signal AS they are doing the thing- and not BEFORE !  I got an awful fright when someone changed lanes right in front of me and only signalled really after the maneouvre had been made - that is not the point of a signal - its a signal of intention !  Mind you some people dont signal at all - but really the only useful one is a signal before the maneouvre.

Now then I encountered a Glasgow Taxi - a Skoda I think - he was driving a bit crazy through the Clyde Tunnel - he came out of the give way in front of me into the traffic through the tunnel - then moved into outside lane, then half way through the tunnel he crossed back over the double white lines (Highway Code = do not cross !!) and ended up in front of me again !  He then veered left up the exit road to Clydebank/Victoria Park South as he came out of the Tunnel - again no signal !! Now this is someone who is driving around with their taxi license plate number fully on display - he is a "professional driver" ! yet doesnt think rules apply to him.  I dont take taxis any more since I felt we had an extremely unsafe journey locally from a taxi driver who had never even driven the car he was in before - is that even legal ? I suspect not !! That wasnt a Glasgow Taxi though but an East Dunbartonshire one I think !

OK so that's my main quibbles - please folk - relax and stay safe when driving - no distractions - use your signals - and think of other road users.

Preventing Metal Thieves

The stories of metal thieving have gone on and on and nothing seems to be done about it.

Many involve safety issues such as when the copper wiring that provides the signalling for trains has been removed – this is unbelievable that anyone would do this.

And this latest one left firefighters in a tower block having to use buckets of water to tackle a blaze as essential dry riser pipes had been removed by metal thieves - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22179165

On other occassions significant inconvenience is caused – I have heard about a village where the cables for their broadband was removed seven times last year leaving people who were running businesses from their houses unable to communicate for days on end. This is unacceptable.  And locally where I live there have been churches targetted for lead, resulting in a congregation having to raise a further £7,000 which should be instead going to good causes. And every piece of public metal seems to be vulnerable – memorials, street signs, you name it. If you dont pin it down and guard it, then its gone !

However I can propose a reasonably simple solution.

The legitimate trade in metal, presumable comes from a variety of sources. From buildings being dismantled on either a small or large scale. From for example plumbers taking out pipes. Beyond that I cant quite think of further examples – comments please !
However all these people, if trading legitimately, can be issued with metal certificate booklets. These would be legal documents similar to MOT Certificates in their importance.

So, for example, take the example of a local builder who is working on a church. If the lead is to be removed and replaces with for example PVC, then the builder would obtain a signature from the Vicar, Minister or Priest, on that form with a brief description of the metal product. It could be signed and dated and the address of the property given.

It is then delivered to the metal scrap merchant, weighed and again signed for and recorded.

The original or a carbon copy of the original builder’s certificate with signature would have to be submitted at this stage and sent in to the government department overseeing this. (Again a similar process happens when you have to buy a new number plate – that information is all submitted via a computer to check that people are not fraudulently purchasing number plates.)

 End of story !

If people are illegitimately removing lead from a roof then in that case, firstly they would soon be caught using this method. Presumably they would firstly either have to completely fraudulently fill out a form, or they would work their way through their friends and neighbours and persuade them to complete the form to claim the lead was removed from their house or premises.  However in the end this would catch up with them by a simple cross examination of their accounts and where they are working etc etc.

It seems like a possible solution to me !
What do you think ?

A fraudulent scrap metal dealer who decided to accept metal without questioning the sources or who similarly falsified documents would again be quickly found out as the weights of metal etc that he traded onwards would not match up with the weights of metal that he had accepted from the legitimate sources. So once the metal is on his premises, the weights of each consignment along with its source should be identifiable. I presume they all have weighing methods on their premises otherwise how would they have traded so far !

Please forward to anyone you can think of who would be interested or able to do something about this.