Christmas craziness- it is not OK to go slow

My day job is in the freight industry and the period leading up to Christmas is the busiest time of the year, this year we had record volumes flowing through our facilities. For the last 25 years I have had operational roles and have more or less worked up to the twenty fourth and then been knackered over Christmas itself.

This year it is a little different and I had the week before Christmas off and arrived at Christmas Day refreshed and relaxed.

I am also enjoying my longest break in my entire adult working career and still have a week to go before I get back to the grindstone and what is likely to be another busy year and have been on the road a lot one way or another.

This is the time of the year when many of us are on the roads. The roads are full of local and overseas travelers. And this is also the time of the year that there is the most tension and frustration on the road driven by volume and congestion and the driving antics of people that clearly couldn't give a rat's arse about everyone else they are sharing the road.

Given improvements in the main roads, vehicles, and also cultural changes to our acceptance of drunk driving and speed, the biggest danger on our roads are the people that constantly travel well below the speed limit and impede the flow of traffic behind them. These are the kind of people that cautiously negotiate corners at ten kilometres and hour below the signed speed suggestions and then once they hit a straight piece of road or a passing lane speed up so that it makes it more difficult for people to pass them.

Speed is still an issue but I don't know what value there is in pulling someone over for speeding on a good two lane highway and ignoring the mobile road block that has a tail of traffic behind it getting more and more frustrated at the lack of courtesy shown by that driver.

Over the years campaigns focusing on speed and drunk driving have been very successful in changing our attitudes to speeding and drink driving. It is about time the same focus was put on changing the habits of those of us that think it is ok to drive on the main roads at speeds that impede traffic. Maybe we can have a new motto- it is not ok to go slow.