Mat Watson's column

	A road safety website allows motorists to publicly shame bad drivers. But who can be sure what they are claiming is actually true?

Forget bad drivers, often it’s self-righteous road safety campaigners who annoy me most. Today, I had a press release from www.betterdrivingplease.com bragging about how it was on a BBC1 TV show on road ragers. The website allows motorists to publicly shame others. All you have to do is register – which you can do using a free E-mail account – and you’re ready to start sending in the registrations of anyone you think has driven badly or behaved dangerously on the road. Apparently, the licence plates of 6,000 ‘offenders’ are listed on the site.

I logged on and found some ‘reports’ of people whose hideous crime was failing to indicate when leaving a traffic island. I also discovered quite a few serial reporters. One user posted nearly 400 separate incidents. Clearly, some sanctimonious people are getting a buzz from playing traffic cop, judge and jury. And who can be sure the claims are true? After all, it could be a great way to get back at someone. In fact, I’m certain I just saw my ex-girlfriend speeding past a school, on the wrong side of the road, chatting on her mobile and steering with her feet. Now, what was her registration again?

Submissions are moderated, but it’s possible normally good drivers could be listed for a minor lapse of concentration. You could be on the list. And so could I, because the other day my motoring Mr Hyde awoke briefly after years in hibernation. It happened on the M1 roadworks – a place which, to be fair, would cause even Gandhi to lose his cool.

I was using the single contra flow, as it moves a lot quicker than the other lanes. But on this particular occasion, the driver in front decided for no apparent reason to initiate a rolling road block. Even though there was clear tarmac ahead for as far as the eye could see, this bozo was doing only 25mph – half of what he was legally permitted to do.

Was he unsure what the 50 in the red roundel meant? Was he trying to find out what it feels like to be an F1 safety car driver? I tooted my horn to find out. But there was no response and, more annoyingly, he went even slower!

I became so enraged that if my vehicle had been equipped with napalm, the driver would have met with a very fiery end. Alas, I didn’t tick the ‘weapons banned by the Geneva Convention’ box on my car’s options list. So I had to make do with the main beam function on my headlamps.

This had no effect, either, and eventually I gave up, calmed down and dropped back. When we finally rejoined the main carriageway, the driver in front sped off into the distance, clearly very smug to have apparently won our little Mexican stand off. I wished there had been a policeman nearby. It would have been great to watch him pull over this driver and administer a withering tongue lashing the likes of which only a traffic cop can deliver.

Trouble is, I could have been in for it, too. After all, I hadn’t exactly been well behaved, either. And that brings me back to my original point. Mr 25mph and I could both report each other on www.betterdrivingplease.com – only I’m sure our stories would be very different.

Indeed, there are some reports on the website where it is very possible that the accuser could have aggravated, participated in or even caused the very situation they are moaning about. Yet their reg isn’t listed.

I don’t think it’s right that untrained people should be able to publicly shame other motorists they reckon are driving badly – even if it’s in the supposed interest of road safety.

That’s why I’m actually madder at the guy who founded www.betterdrivingplease.com than I am at that chap who needlessly added
10 minutes to my journey on the M1. Wouldn’t it be ironic if they were
exactly the same person?