Coast your way to no points, no fine and less road stress

BUSINESS — knockin’ about: IT was entirely my own fault so I’m not complaining, but being caught speeding by a camera is still annoying in the extreme.

I haven’t had a speeding ticket since 1994 — I remember it well; actually there were two in a week — so I reckon to have done okay, given the preponderance of yellow boxes that litter the highways these days. Hazards if you ask me.

I opted to attend a speed awareness course rather than have three points on my otherwise clean driving licence and so it was that I found myself at the Centre for Professional Development in Rosary Road, Fitton Hill, along with 16 other miscreants — one lady didn’t turn up, so I presume she will now get the points thrown at her.

There were 18 others that afternoon down the corridor and there had been sessions in the morning and others scheduled for the evening.

That’s an awful lot of speeding drivers and an awful lot of £60s for the government.

Our ‘tutors’ were Mark and Patricia, from the Institute of Advanced Motorists, who run these courses for Drivesafe, a private company contracted by the police to deliver awareness under the National Driver Improvement Scheme.

I went along with an open mind and was genuinely surprised at the friendliness of the occasion. It was a case of leading us towards the Holy Grail of slowing down rather than shoving us. A lot of carrot and certainly no stick.

During four hours (I know, I mean, how much can you talk about speeding?) me and my new mates learned all sorts of stuff about the Highway Code — did you know that some roads in Britain have minimum speeds?

And would you know the sign for such a mandatory instruction? Uhmmm...thought not.

Well, I do. Now.

Courtesy to others on the road, even when the most ignorant, obnoxious person ever to sit behind a wheel winds you up, was a recurring theme.

“Why get stressed?”, asked Mark and, thinking about it, he’s right.

He believes that society is slowly coming round to the idea that speeding will one day become as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving.

I suspect we are a way off that point, but it’s a laudable ambition.

We were all left with an acronym to influence our future driving habits — COAST.

Try it — Concentration Observation Anticipation Space and Time.

It may just save you £60, points on your licence and four hours of your precious time.