Motoring today: for better and for worse?

[LotusOmega375D]

So what's changed since you started driving? What's good and what's bad?

Here's a few in my experience (25 years):

Good:

Vehicle safety: in my first car the only thing saving me from certain death in case of a heavy frontal impact was a tank-full of 4-star, rather than a bag of gas.

Brakes: far more effective than before

Fuel economy & pollution: much better these days and no lead in my kids' brains

Sat-Nav: no more being frustrated at how little local knowledge people have when you stop to ask them directions

8 lane motorway sections: bigger is better

Dartford QE2 bridge: if only they'd removed the tolls, when they promised

A50: quick and free dualled M1/M6 link road

Fewer Learners and milk floats to hold us up

Child seats / seat belts: keep them fastened in!

Corrosion resistance: 6+ year warranties!

Bad:

Fixed speed cameras: once a novelty, now a plague

Pot-holes: Britain's councils seem to have completely forgotten the art of laying road surfaces

A14 Cambridge/Huntingdon section only: the "Nightmare on Ermine Street"

The influx of Eastern European HGVs

M6 Toll: too expensive to pay with your own money, so underused and loss-making. Should be integrated into the public motorway network.

Mobile phones: keep them in the glovebox

Parking: nobody cares anymore

Personal Accident insurance companies: costing us all a fortune

Loss of Dover - Calais Hovercraft service

SUVs: big 4x4's were only for Farmers and Royalty

Chevrolet