P R 4 T

This evening, on my way to pick up Daisy, my last lesson of the day, I was in a steady flow of traffic on the A96 between Forres and Elgin. At 6pm it was as busy as the road gets, but traffic was steady at 60mph. In my mirrors I watched as a black Audi took every half-chance to overtake the cars behind me.
I know what it’s like; I used to have the same mentality. Other cars on the road were just obstructions on my route. What I couldn’t see then, and what the Audi driver could not see today, was that you really don’t get to your destination any sooner. What you do get, however, are potentially fatal overtaking situations. If you are overtaking a car, that is already doing 60mph, you want to complete the overtaking as soon as possible, so you will likely to be travelling at speeds over 70 - 80 mph. Now combine that with the 60 mph speed of the traffic heading towards you. Get it right and, congratulations, you have clipped maybe 15 - 20 seconds off your journey, at the expense of some extra fuel. Get it wrong and you are on a 140mph collision course.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying don’t overtake. I am asking you to consider whether it is really necessary.
Four miles (and four minutes) later, I arrive in Elgin and guess who is right in front of me? The black Audi. All his efforts, risks and extra fuel have put him two metres in front of me. I can see that it is a black Audi A4 estate. 2.0 Tdi and was supplied by Auto Station. I can also see (and this is what made the car especially noticeable) the registration plate: L1PPS. A cute, and to many people, desirable number plate (assuming it refers to facial lips).
The trouble is, personalised registration plates make cars very distinctive, and I guess that is the idea, but, if your car is so distinctive, you had better make sure your driving is faultless. It is not just number plates. Add wild spoilers to your car, flared wheel arches, throbbing exhausts or whatever you want to your car. Why not? It is your pride and joy. But don’t be surprised that the police seem to pull you over more than your friends get pulled over. And don’t be surprised when you find angry notes (or worse) on your windscreen.
Earlier this year, I was teaching Laura traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. We had stopped at a red light. Laura was prepared; she was in 1st gear, her right foot was over the accelerator and her left hand was on the handbrake. The lights changed to red and amber, she brought the clutch up to the biting-point, released the handbrake and stalled. She is not the 1st person in the world to do this and she certainly will not be the last. As she started the car and prepared to move away, the car behind gave a prolonged blast of their horn and Laura stalled again. The lights changed back to red. I told Laura not to worry about the car behind, just prepare the car and be a wee bit more careful with the clutch when the lights change to green. When the lights changed she moved away perfectly and the car behind roared past us. Not an Audi. This time it was a black BMW, with the registration N111KON (perhaps a photographer?).
A couple of weeks later I saw the same car approaching Inshes roundabout. Because of the registration the car was very easy to spot. It was hardly surprising to see the driver on his mobile (don’t let me get started on those). Strange that he could afford a big, new BMW, but he couldn’t afford a hands-free set.
A couple of months went by before, one night, on my way home, I saw N111KON parked by a football pitch, where a kids football tournament was taking place. I stopped and, with a thick black marker pen, wrote him a very visible note explaining that it was not very courteous to blast his horn at learner drivers and it was not very legal to use his mobile phone while driving (I may not have used those exact words). I then left the note face-up on his windscreen for all the world to see.
It probably did not achieve anything. He probably still uses his mobile when driving and he probably still has a low tolerance of other drivers (especially learners). But I felt a lot better.
So, a word of warning: As I said earlier; go ahead, make your car as distinctive as you like, but you had better make sure your driving (and attitude) is beyond reproach.
By the way, to the owner of L1PPS, your offside brake light is faulty.