h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a user of public transport and a non-driver I can usually manage to breeze through a day of commuting with no issues. But then there are just those times when everything seems to run against the humble traveller on foot. I get up and troop out in the cold and stand at the pedestrian crossing while drivers stream past (one person to a car), I freeze and breathe in their fumes as they are warmed by the car's heater and serenaded by the radio. Then my tram swings through the junction and I'm left starnded and unable to reach it as the drivers happily pass on by. When I then get on the damn tram it's overcrowded.

Don't think that I hate drivers or resent their right to drive their nice shiney cars (that I'm sure cost a great deal of money and in their own circles mean they are much respected and praised), I know that drivers are taxed for the privaledge of using the roads. But does that mean that they should take priority in every situation that presents itself on the road?

The trams and buses in the city of my birth carry thousands of natives to work and home again every day of the week and every person on a form of public transport means on less car on the roads and about six mobile cubic metres less congestion as a result. One of the attempts that the local authority made to enhance the efficiency of the trams in particular was to designate certain roads (a huge total of two) to trams alone at rush hour times in the morning and afternoon. At these times it was made plain to drivers that the other myriad of routes into the city centre were open to them, but not these two. Of course the drivers have taken little or no notice of this rule and when the law is enforced by the police they seem incredulous that they should have to even be aware of the law let alone observe it.

I have a right to commute, the driver has a right to drive. But why does it seem that some drivers are unwilling to make any concessions for the mode of transport that I choose? Especially when the one I favour is quite green and theirs makes sure that we all get our daily dose of carbon monoxide poisoning?

I have to say that when the weather is rotton I'm the nicest driver in the world...I've been at that bus stop and I've tried to cross that road when the wind is whipping through your clothes and the rain is running down your neck and your shoes have started to leak So I will always give way and leave a huge gap to let them cross or stay a bit longer when they are running to catch the lights.

I always think - as you do - I'm sat in a warm(ish) dry car with my radio on...they're out in the cold and the wet and the wind, a few seconds lost on my journey could save so many minutes discomfort on theirs...and I'm dry for the extra seconds

God bless you ma'am.

Unfortunately, most people cossetted in their heated cars with radios blaring and going at a speed that suits them have no idea or concept of the world outside their windows. A pedestrian may not even register as a 'significant other' on the road, pavement, or crossing. Driving today sucks. It's about time the test made enough of simple public manners and decency. And a routine annual check wouldn't go amiss either. Use the money for better public transport. Keep the dreadful drivers off the roads that way. Good drivers happy to use an improved public service would also clear congestion, when faced with a viable alternative!

The highway code is explicit in states that a driver must be conscious and careful towards pedestrians, but few are.

I recall a recent add for a make of car that escapes me, where the driver was trundling down deserted streets to eerie music until he stopped and opened his door to see that the streets were in fact bustling with people on foot.

Is it such a good thing that we seek to isolate the driver from the outside world?