I took my Mother in Law for her vaccination in Harrogate on Tuesday. She is 78 and disabled, so I had to wait in a disabled spot for her to come out, which gave me a prime spot for seeing all the arrivals and departures. Given the target audience for the vaccine, 90 out of every 100 drivers was probably elderly.
The proportion of Honda, and specifically Honda Jazz drivers was quite noticeable. Also a lot of brand new Mark 4 Jazzes too. This is a relatively affluent area and there was also a lot of what I would call posh cars.
The main thing I noticed about these older drivers was how poor their driving was, specifically...
- road positioning - gaps too small or too large
- ability to judge how to turn into a parking spot
- parking in general
- posture and level of comfort in the driving position
- overall impression of confidence on the road
- aggression - battle to get disabled spots
- amazingly, ability to come to a halt in the general vicinity of the volunteer directing them in
When my father in law died, for many reasons, we took my mother in law's car away and sold it. I can't imagine what might have happened had she attempted to remain driving. I have to say some of the individuals I saw on Tuesday should take a good long look at themselves, their need for a car and their safety behind the wheel.
North Yorkshire is a rural area and I can understand why people want to hang on to their cars. But North Yorkshire is also quite a tricky place to drive at the best of times, with narrow, steep, windy roads, hump back bridges, really fast sections and in normal times, tons of weekend drivers.
Also, I decided the new Jazz Mark 4 looks quite bland and the colours are uninspiring. I feel it really needs an early life refresh, something doing with the grille design, and some jolly colours.