Blogging With Dr P…

August 25th, 2010 | Posted by Paul |

Respect on the road. It’s not hard, is it? And yet with “road rage” becoming an all too often news item nowadays, you’d think that driving with respect to your fellow road users was something your great grandfather did whilst wearing his tall hat taking the horse and buggy to market?! Just say to yourself  “I respect the road”. It’s not hard.

The smart peeps over at AXA Car Insurance have created a campaign to try to bring courtesy and respect back to British roads. It’s over here: AXA Respect On The Road. Lets be honest – respecting other road users could cut down on the amount of stupid and dangerous incidents that happen on the roads – and ultimately save lives, right? Remember – “I respect the road”? You should be thinking this all the time you get behind the wheel of your car.

You’ve probably seen the TV ad campaign with all the people colliding with each other on the pavement, snarling and snapping at each other. And, of course, the TV ad says something like – “You wouldn’t behave like this on the pavement – so why do we do it on the road?”

AXA Respect On The Road TV Ad

To quote the folks at AXA:

All too often inexperienced drivers give themselves away behind the wheel of a car, they lose their manners and sometimes their marbles too. The vast majority wouldn’t behave this way as pedestrians so why do they do it as drivers?

If you think this type of behaviour is irresponsible and needs to change, we welcome your experience as drivers and invite you to share it on this site.

Respect On The Road - AXA Car Insurance Campaign

I know from personal experience from spending many unhappy hours tootling around the M25, that there people out there who definitely need “Respect Lessons”. Admittedly, most of them need a refresher on the Highway Code as well! But here’s a little video produced by the  AXA Car Insurance folks which is acted entirely by 5 year olds, in which they imitate driving behaviour copied from their parents. Remember – this is what the kids see mum and dad do in the car:

Okay – the video may be funny – but “out of the mouth of babes”, eh? These kiddies are reenacting what they’ve seen their parents do. Do you see yourself in that video? Have you shown that type of disrespectful behaviour to other road users – when you didn’t need to at all?

And if you think that “this doesn’t apply to me” – take a look at the Cabcam. This is where AXA Car insurance have taken to the streets of London in a black taxi for the opinions of the public…

The whole I respect the road campaign, (including the two videos above), have been produced by AXA Car Insurance to highlight the lack of respect on British roads today. Their web site also invites you to Have Your Say – where you can tell them of your experience of disrespectful drivers. Lord knows I could add to that list – I’d be typing all night with the amount of “disrespectful” driving activities I’ve seen on the roads!

If you want to know more about the Axa Car Insurance “Respect On The Road” campaign, please visit them here: AXA Car Insurance

They also have a Facebook Fanpage: I Respect The Road – get involved. Respect on the road is an issue people genuinely care about. Go to Facebook “like” the page – (you know what I’m talking about) – and get involved in the debate there.

With your help AXA want to highlight the state of disrespectful and sometimes dangerous driving practices in the UK through debate and discussion which will be largely hosted on Facebook.

The I respect the road campaign should make you sit up and say to yourself: “I respect the road”. With the help of Axa Car Insurance we can hopefully, bring a bit more respect to driving on Britain’s roads.

(Note: This is a Sponsored Post – not that it matters – as I wholeheartedly agree with having more respect on the roads and support fully the Axa Car Insurance campaign )

Share hosted by Wikio

Be Sociable, Share!

•