Editorial: Moans and ideas

You know what irritates me more than a silly slob bellowing out a stream of swear words at me for no justifiable reason… a sanctimonious pedestrian signalling that my lights are on (during the day). If you’re one of these, please stop that immediately.

Why do some drivers stay in the overtaking lane, creating an unsafe situation? Get out of there you morons!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with me having my lights on in broad daylight. Many cars today have daytime driving lights that stay switched on even during the day to make the car more visible. It is a safety feature.

I leave my car’s lights on to be more visible and I ensure they are always on when driving through tunnels. Incidentally, isn’t it a punishable offence to not switch on your lights in a tunnel?

I see absolutely no harm in keeping my lights on. I will not be courteous anymore and will not oblige by switching my lights off. Please don’t turn me into that silly slob I mentioned earlier. Mind your own business.

Another thing that irritates me is when it comes to windscreen washers. Please make sure they are pointing to your windscreen, not mine. Only yesterday, the windscreen washers of the car in front of me squirted all the water right over his car and onto my clean car. The same person then proceeded to flick his cigarette out of the window onto my bonnet. What cheek!

I know I might be over-sensitive sometimes but why do some drivers exit a side road in a hurry but then drive at ridiculously low speeds? And why am I tailgated with flashing lights and horn honking if I’m already driving above the speed limit. What am I expected to do?

On the other hand, why do some drivers stay in the overtaking lane, creating an unsafe situation? Get out of there, you morons!

Parking is another daily moan. Besides becoming an impossible task to find parking within 200 metres from my house in Swieqi, it has practically become impossible to park anywhere in Malta.

News that we are not going to have a car park at Sliema ferries does not augur well either. Can at least the Government look into subsidising or controlling in some way the ridiculous fees charged by some car parks around Malta? Seriously, sometimes it is cheaper to get a fine for parking illegally than to park legally in a car park.

Finally, as I was driving to work this morning, well, if you can call it driving – it was one whole traffic jam from Swieqi to Valletta, travelling at an average speed of five km/h – I thought to myself as I looked at all the other drivers around me ‘illegally’ using with their mobile phones… should it be illegal to use them in such circumstances?

What if we were to have iwindscreens which connect to our smartphone and display messages and social media posts for us to see and which would allow us to post messages through voice recognition technology?

The smart and crucial thing about the system would be that the system would switch off automatically as the car approaches a speed of 10 km/h or one that is deemed to be dangerous. I think this is a more sensible and safer way to approach the subject.

After all, in today’s day and age, you cannot deny me from using my smartphone for more than an hour when there is absolutely nothing else to do while in traffic.

Happy reading!

motoring@timesofmalta.com