The first time you do something new it takes longer than it does subsequently; your brain registers what's going on, commits it to memory and usually it sticks with you. You don't remember the first time you walked, and you're unlikely to recall the first time you cycled a bike without stabilisers. But you probably do have the memory of your first time behind the wheel of a car, or indeed of your driving test - be it a good or bad memory. It's probable that the first time you drove a car it you were slower, it took your brain longer to register each process. Using the clutch, remembering the shift pattern and how quickly to let off the clutch pedal again. I know that's how it was for me as I navigated my way very gingerly around my dad's company car park aged twelve, which was when I was tall enough to reach the pedals.
Nowadays I get into a car and using the controls comes to me subconsciously. I've become used to the technical aspect of driving, meaning I only have to devote most of my brain power to the practical aspect of it. I actually love driving, which is a benefit given the career path I've chosen. But I do drive a lot whether for work-related reasons or not; I tend to drive every day and often in a variety of circumstances and locations.
During the course of this I tend to see a lot of different things, many of which honestly shock me, and these are becoming all the more common unfortunately. Hearing reports of deaths on our roads is sadly almost a daily item on the news and we become desensitised to it. I for one know of the personal loss and devastation that comes out of such a news item. Weeks, months, years go by where scores of friends and family won't ever quite be the same again. Despite this there is still a shockingly poor attitude towards safety on our roads by those who use them every day. And I'm not talking about a momentary lapse of concentration, although that's all it can take; what I'm concerned about is just how bad some drivers on Irish roads are and seemingly how little they seem to care.
Most drivers have the technical process of driving figured out once they've been on the road for a while, but there are other aspects of it that unfortunately leaves a quite a lot to be desired. Drive along any of our national motorways at or slightly below the posted speed limit for example and watch just how many other road users cruise by. Speed limits it seems are often just there as a rough guide in the eyes of Irish motorists. It's even worse in Dublin where busy dual carriageways might have a 60- or 80km/h limit posted. Drive according to the letter of the law and you find yourself tailgated and almost forced into breaking it in order to not be seen as a travelling road block. What's worse again is the approach taken by seemingly 'professional' drivers; haulage drivers and taxi drivers for example.
Is it that these people haven't been involved in some kind of accident yet and therefore don't realise the potential consequences of their actions? There's certainly a degree of apathy, given the number of times you see people not just holding their phones up to their ears (even in cars that I know are equipped with Bluetooth systems), but people eating, drinking and shaving while driving, right up to children standing on the back seats at three-figure speeds. Heck I've seen people reading broadsheet newspapers while driving on the M50, and even a man filling out his A4-sized ledger book against his steering wheel while driving on the motorway. For some, driverless cars can't come quickly enough.
What are more worrying are people's attitudes towards looking after their own cars. Check out the Twitter feed of An Garda Síochána almost any day and you will see their photos of stopped cars with tyres so bald that you could virtually see your reflection in them on a wet day. Just as prevalent is those caught driving with no motor tax or insurance. The years during the recession have clearly led to people bumping car maintenance down the priority list. To a degree I can understand this, but skimping on key safety items like tyres is lunacy, plain and simple.
It is perhaps just as much of general attitude in society as it is a failing of our motoring education system that these areas do not seem to bear any significance to those very motorists. Do these people simply not know or do they simply not care? In many cases it seems to be both, sadly. I stand by my opinion that at present driving standards in Ireland are some of the worst in Europe. If we really want to keep building on the significant reductions in road deaths and serious injuries in the last number of years we need a real shift change in attitude towards how we use the roads. Before it's too late.