Misnomers (3)

The congestion charge. Well, actually this is the first misnomer that arguably is correctly if literally named. The congestion charge is now a charge to allow you to drive from congested roads choked with traffic trying to avoid the charge to roads choked with the traffic that has either paid, is exempt or gets a special low rate. What it is not, of course, is a charge designed to discourage you from driving into London

In driving in town of course you now have to brave bendy buses, the odd cyclist who confuses you by actually stopping at a red traffic light and idiot pedestrians walking in the road or crossing in front of you, their noses in a magazine, ipod headphones in their ears oblivious to all and sundry. More than occasionally now, motor cyclists and motor scooter riders join in with the blithe law-breaking watched by our wonderful force of community support officers (police look-alikes with little training and few powers).

Road traffic law is rapidly and irredeemably falling into disrepute as people ignore it. Cyclists are jumping red lights, riding the wrong way up one way streets or the wrong way round roundabouts, ignoring cycle lanes and riding in the middle of the road, riding on the pavement, having no lights or high visibility clothing not even arm-bands at night. No care at all. Why have laws if the only people they are enforced against are the owners of cars because they are an easy target of cameras? 

Road rage nowadays is all too often some righteously angry cyclist banging his fist on your car without warning complaining about some trivial slight often imagined or the increasing number of people who assume they have the right to hoot and then scream abuse at you to stop you doing things they don't like, like reversing into a parking place when they want to drive past, like not letting them turn right in front of you rather than pass safely behind. I could go on and on but will finish here.

All of this is bound to lead to an increasingly angry, frustrated environment and I think it is only a matter of time before some uber-gridlock finally causes a car drivers' riot....