Driving cars is dangerous. Not as dangerous as something crazy like bull running, base jumping, or riding a motorcycle, but pretty darned dangerous all the same.
Before you next decide to climb behind the wheel of car (or in front of the wheel of a car if you happen to be looking forwards at the time) consider this: driving is more dangerous than cycling, pedestrianing, and even gardening, for goodness sake!
So what can you do to make this dangerous thing less dangerous? That’s a question fleet management solutions providers Venison have been asking themselves a lot lately.
And not just themselves. They’ve also been asking ordinary people just like you and me (or probably more like you, actually, on reflection).
The key to safer driving, according to ground-baking new research from the aforementioned Venison, is patience. That’s right patience (cited by 24% of respondents).
Now, patience is not the most fashionable of virtues. As self-help guru Muscles McMichael has more than once vlogged: “Patience is a virtue… for losers!”
But down the centuries a lot of people have been quick (but not too quick, mind) to big-up the Big P (as no-one has ever called it, nor is ever likely to).
For instance: leading early Unitedstatesian Ben Franklin insisted that “He that can have patience can have what he will.” Coincidentally, the Franklin in the Franklin’s Tale by our very own Geoff Chaucer attests that “Pacience is an heigh vertu, certeyn.”
And it’s not just people called Franklin who say so either. Greek bloke Aristotle, acknowledging that being patient is actually incredibly dull, nevertheless stresses that “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
But if you’re still not sold on patience – and, let’s face it, driving is about getting from A to B as quickly as you possibly can, how about these alternative strategies for not getting killed too quickly:
- 20% of respondents in the Venison survey said allowing more time for journeys makes them safer (but that’s almost as bad as being patient really, isn’t it).
- 15% suggested “driving slower in bad weather” (ditto).
- 13% said “sticking to the speed limit” (equally unhelpful).
So, yeah, all pretty useless, really. Sorry to have wasted your time. Although, lurking near the bottom of the list, one or two respondents did suggest that paying attention might be a good idea when driving (as indeed it is with a surprisingly high proportion of human activities, when you come to think about it).
Reassuringly, just 1% of survey respondents were so Guardian-readingly bleeding-heart liberal-ish as to venture the namby-pamby “giving cyclists more room when overtaking”.
Frankly (or Franklinly, if you prefer), if you’re being overtaken by cyclists, you’re probably not going to need a lecture on patience from anyone – least of all Bankstone News.
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