Letters

A simple solution to this would be for registered car owners to be automatically charged on their credit cards when their car is photographed entering the congestion zone. This could be done by bolting some software on to the present number-recognition system.

In the run-up to the last mayoral elections Ken Livingstone promised that such a scheme would be set up this year. Now that he is comfortably ensconced at City Hall for the next five years we are told by his transport arm, Transport for London, that there are now no plans to put it into operation for the foreseeable future due to “technical difficulties”.

Could it be that Transport for London is deliberately dragging its feet on this issue for fear of losing a large amount of its income?

Daniel Michelson
London N5

LET’S BE ANNOYING: If we add the annoying types listed in last week’s letters together, what we get is 100% of all drivers. All of us have at least one of the listed habits. There are two solutions on offer. One would be to use public transport — actually non-existent where I live. The other is to accept the fact that we are all annoying twits and stick with our favourite bad habit to take revenge on the others. I, for example, fight back by obeying speed limits. It has nothing to do with the rules of the road: the sole reason is to annoy other drivers.

Laszlo Kenderesi
Sligo, Ireland

UNFORGETTABLE: Personalised plates may be annoying but they have their advantages. As an OAP I never have to worry about forgetting my number.

Leila Dubow
Southgate, London

PERFECT PLATE? I have only ever seen one personalised plate I coveted. Some 30 years ago there was a Triumph in south London with the numberplate CYN 1C. Where is it now?

Brian Haswell
London

MERGING TRAFFIC: While driving in Canada some years ago I found the “Squeeze Right” or left signs (Roland White on annoyances, February 6) amusing. It also made for interesting T-shirts, usually worn by girls.

Bill Whittet
Edinburgh

FLASH OF INSPIRATION: I’m sure that indicators come as optional extras on most BMWs.

Claire West
Nailsea, North Somerset

WRONG TURN: One very annoying, and potentially dangerous, habit that was absent from last week’s list is the baffling tendency of many drivers to turn slightly left just before making a right turn. This can be frightening when the road is divided into narrow lanes.

Dr D Fisher
Cardiff

CATCH-22: Unfortunately, I fear that most of the inconsiderate motorists highlighted in your column last week do not have sufficient intelligence to purchase and read a quality newspaper like The Sunday Times.

Martyn Smith
Glastonbury

WOMEN DRIVERS: I thought this matter was settled long ago (Collision of the sexes: is the chief tester right about women drivers?, last week). Men have fewer accidents per mile (so are safer drivers); women have fewer accidents per year (so have lower annual insurance premiums). The average annual mileage for men exceeds that for women.

Rex Gooch
Letchworth Garden City

EACH TO HER OWN: The question of who are the better drivers, men or women, is a moot one. It’s like asking which is the best team, Manchester United or the Leicester Tigers rugby club, or who’s the best sailor, Steve Redgrave or Ellen MacArthur? The sexes have different standards, and each seems better to itself by its own standards.

Boy racers and Formula One drivers show that men are probably, generally, more capable of handling a machine at its extremes of performance, whereas crime and accident figures suggest that, generally, women use a vehicle more appropriately in its environment.

Dave Stevenson
Chesterfield

SOUNDS ROUGH: Why would anyone wish to “iDrive an iPod” (cover, Driving, last week) when listening to MP3 is like driving on cross-plys?

Richard Taylor
Norwich

CAMERA CRAZY: In “Speed cameras could double” (Up to speed, last week) you mention that under the existing rules fixed cameras can be installed only at sites where there have been at least four collisions per kilometre involving death or serious injury in the previous three years.

I have always wondered why when the A12 was extended a few years ago from Wanstead to Homerton in London to meet up with the Blackwall tunnel approach that it had fixed speed cameras all along its length. Surely a brand new road cannot meet the criterion of being an accident blackspot and therefore the government broke its own rules.

Philip Christian
via e-mail

CLARIFICATION: Last week’s report, Collision of the sexes, stated that women take an average of 15.3 hours’ tuition before passing their driving test while men take just 12.2 hours. These figures refer to study time for the theory part of the test. For the practical the gap between the sexes is wider still. Women require almost 50% more tuition time than men, taking on average 51.9 hours of tuition compared with 36.2 hours for men. The Driving Standards Agency recommends learner drivers take at least 40 hours of professional tuition, as well as plenty of private practice, before attempting the practical test.

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