Chelsea Tractors, People Carriers and Limos, oh my!

18:55.02 - Wednesday 11th July 2007   (Link to This Entry)

Over the last year or so there's been a dramatic rise in the number of 4x4s on our roads here in the UK, with a corresponding backlash from the non-4x4-owning population. A major part of the problem is that people are buying these so-called off-road cars to drive around town. The problem is so prevailant in the London borough of Chelsea that they've been nicknamed 'Chelsea Tractors'.

Why all the hate? Obviously 4x4s, by nature of their very design, are noticably higher than other vehicles. Many of them are much larger, too, creating a situation where normal road users feel threatened by these seemingly hulking machines. Add into the mix the 'school run' where.. well let's quote the great Al Murray:

Everybody's driving their kids to school so they don't get run over by the people driving their kids to school.

Anyway, bigger vehicles on the road causing obstruction, intimidation and inevitably damage when driven by someone who doesn't have a frickin' clue. Perhaps we should have a Basic Proficiency Test for such vehicles. If your car is over a certain length, width or height, then you should have to pass a proficiency test in it before you are allowed to take it out on the road.

Such a test would not have to be as in-depth as the current UK driving test, since everyone who passed their test (legitimately, but that's another story) has done it already. The problem is that driving instructors generally use smaller cars because they're cheaper, easier to run and less likely to get trashed.

Back to the point! Reversing, parallel parking, navigating around cones or through gaps are all everyday manouvers that cause hassle when the inexperienced try them out in a larger vehicle, and as such, users of said vehicles should be tested on them in those vehicles. You already have to pass an extra test for a lorry or a limo, but there's nothing to stop you, once you've passed a test, going out any buying one of those huge MitsuHondaNissan Warrior things. Besides money, anyway.

Let's have proficiency tests! £50 a time and covering the basics of driving around other people. It's a winner, you know.