Country Driving: (Pt.III)

Consideration, really is key. This is tested to the limit when trying to get by oncoming vehicles. Delivery vans don’t seem to have reverse! Other drivers can’t or won’t reverse. I was always told to note passing places as you went by them. Many drivers have no idea what to do and will sometimes drive past a passing space even though they have already seen you. This is particularly annoying when they do it coming down a hill towards you. On our recent travels in Somerset one four by four on the school run, seeing us coming up hill with a string of parked cars to our right, decided that it would pull out round the parked cars to its left and engage in a war of wills. I had nowhere to go except reverse 30 yards downhill to where the parked vehicles ceased. Needless to say I kept my revs up until the four by four decided to reverse three car lengths back up hill and observe two rules of the Highway Code at once. Well done, engaging the brain and leaving a bit earlier for your appointment at the school gates is so much better more civilised. I of course gave the usual polite countryside acknowledgements by means of a raised finger without taking my hand off the wheel

The fact is we need and welcome road users in the countryside. Without them we would not be a viable community that has valued schools, village halls, sports clubs, churches and chapels, and sometimes a few remaining and imperilled pubs. The countryside’s diversity and variety serves many functions of which leisure and agriculture are interdependent parts of a fascinating whole. We have met some holiday makers that have even complained at the narrowness of our lanes and the amount of agricultural traffic. Sadly this rarely now includes the movement of livestock along the roads because agriculture of the old style is in decline and rules and regulations of one kind or another can makes it a risky and for hill farmers an unrewarding business. Although I must report that lamb prices are currently improved.

After the awful plague of foot and mouth had passed it was a joy to look out of the window and see the lane filled with a flock of sheep being taken to new grazing. There were so many that the lane became a flowing stream of wool. No doubt some holiday makers would find all of this a terrible inconvenience but they forget that one of their reasons for a holiday should be relearning the art of slowing down.

For viable communities to remain, the countryside and what makes it work, has to be understood and appreciated by the majority who do not live here. That inevitably includes an understanding of the utility, variety and impact of traffic and that private cars are now an essential presence due to the demise of the country bus and a wide range of local facilities.

Dacier

Country Driving: (Pt.1)

The bank holiday over, things have calmed down on the traffic front. Not so long ago some joked about a passing vehicle being the rush hour, but it is much busier now, especially at holiday times. Some of our visitors get a bit nervous as they enter the network of narrow lanes to visit us. This is not unjustified as many drivers on country roads can make one dangerous assumption. That there wont be anyone about.

This might explain why some drivers on the wider roads drive in the middle, even round bends, or go too fast round blind bends. The second assumption is that normal urban speeds can apply. To do even 30 mph on our lane is very hazardous because someone else coming in the other direction might think that there will be no one else about and not even realise that they are doing 40mph or more. After all, the national limit of 60 mph applies! Perhaps current moves to lower speed limits might eventually filter through to us, but whether ‘twenty is plenty’ will be applied to country lanes generally, seems unlikely. A 30 mph limit might be good for starters as an improvement for the amenity of visitors and locals alike. A 50 mph limit on the B road in the valley would be a good idea for both safety and fuel saving reasons Unfortunately the bikers who have discovered the joys of cruising border roads won’t observe it nor the Hay Festival speedsters.

Dacier