As recently as the 1980s I could take Beattie (my beloved Bentley) for a long distance blast across the peaks with just the whine of the gears and the song of the blower for company. Miles melted away with little effort and in the event of coming across slower traffic or arriving at a township, a heavy boot on the binders would bring us back to a more common tempo in a jiffy, and dexterous use of the cogs would enable us to weave a pattern through the hesitant throng.

But alas, it is largely no longer possible to weave through the potterers and it is largely no longer safe to floor the loud pedal and whistle up to 100mph and beyond where a good car becomes alive and driving becomes a true test of concentration and skill. This is not because Beattie and I have been enfeebled by age, nor because I have taken on a more responsible attitude in my declining years. I have on many occasions seen at first hand the carnage caused by two tons of glass, metal and occupant careering off the highway at speed and I do not take risks which may endanger others or their property.

The immense increase in the number of vehicles on British roads in the last 20 years is clearly part of the problem. Recent legislation has hindered rather than helped the matter, but the ignorance and ineptitude endemic among the driving public is also a significant factor in preventing the more competent among us from getting a move on in safety.

There is already great deal of pointless pillar mumbling on the subject of abominable driving posted on the internet, and I have hitherto been reluctant to add my debatably sagacious voice to this impotent debate, but I no longer feel able to remain silent.

I am not not normally in favour of further increasing the burden of legislation under which the beleaguered British motorist is obliged to go about his ever more obstructed business on this island's depressingly constipated roads, but the situation we face is so desperate that firm legal action must be taken to improve driving standards in the UK or the nation will soon grind to an angry halt.

If we are to believe the nation's constabulary is at last getting tough on the criminal underclass that drives around uninsured, untaxed, unlicensed in unsafe or stolen motor cars, I believe that the reduction of this menace, together with the implementation of these considered suggestions, will win us all another decade of viable motoring before the roads seize up completely. Furthermore, the measures I am about to propose will have a positive effect on road safety.

Road pricing is not the solution and neither are speed cameras; they are part of the problem. In a nutshell, Britain's drivers must be trained to drive more expertly and with greater consideration for others so they may take and pass a series of specially devised advanced driving examinations. And as a reward for passing these strict and exacting new tests, motor insurance premiums would be reduced on a sliding scale, enabling successful students to recoup the cost of their training.

Conversely, those choosing not to continue their motoring education beyond the basic driving test, or who fail to heed instruction, would subsequently pay insurance charges commensurate with the risk and inconvenience they represent to other road users and their potential cost to the state. Draconian penalties for poor driving including the rescinding of licences, on the spot vehicle confiscation and, in extreme cases, destruction of same, should be put in place with these punishments vigorously enforced by the police. Offenders would inevitably pay greatly increased insurance premiums when returning to the roads after disqualification.

Pre war roads minister Leslie Hore-Belisha said: "Driving is an art in which those who are engaged should, in the interests of their own and the public's safety, take the greatest pains to make themselves proficient." My point exactly.

Motor cars are now easier to drive than ever before, but atrocious driving is currently more commonplace than at any time since the 1930s and the great number of vehicles now on the road means those who drive ineptly and inconsiderately almost inevitably inconvenience others.

So called speed cameras are not helping the issue. 'Speed kills', 'Speed Cameras Save Lives' What total twaddle! Going slower is not necessarily safer. Timid and slow witted drivers crawling along clear roads infuriate more competent drivers stuck behind them who are often thwarted in their attempts to overtake them by unnecessarily low speed limits, so called street furniture scattered in the middle of the road and illogical stretches of double white lines.

The point here is that since the Government started to wage its campaign to make it as socially unacceptable to break speed limits as to drink and drive, partly in order to legitimise its money gathering activities via speed cameras, many nervous drivers have gladly made the new and spreading anti speeding culture an excuse to drive slowly everywhere and at all times. These drivers not only adhere to absurd speed limits, they drive slower still. This is because they are incompetent.

Often seen piloting Nissan Micras, these terrified drivers also seem completely unable to judge the dimensions of their vehicles. Imagining their tiny cars to be as wide as pantechnicons, they brake if vehicles come towards them on the opposite carriageway, the road narrows slightly, or when passing parked cars. And, believing their vehicles to have the same ground clearance as Jackie Stewart's skirted Tyrrell Ford, they invariably stop completely at speed bumps before revving furiously while slipping the clutch to climb over them at 2mph.

Now I am not condoning immoderate driving in built up areas, nor am I suggesting it is acceptable to use open roads like race tracks. But appalling high speed accidents caused by reckless drivers, unlicensed drivers, joyriders, maniacs and fleeing criminals will continue unaffected by speed cameras, no matter how many are commissioned or where they are situated. And young Herberts in small gimmicked up cars with absurd noisy exhausts and tinnitus inducing music systems will still thrash about in housing estates and town centres.

Judicuious use of photography and video surveillance should only be a small part of the government's road safety strategy. The emphasis should be on safe driving at appropriate speeds. Constantly scanning the verge for cameras and checking the speedometer every few seconds to make sure the car has not gained an extra mph or two is not good driving. Better to drive at an adjudged safe speed for the road, traffic and pedestrian circumstances and for the weather conditions while adhering, more or less, to sensible and reasonable speed limits.

In my opinion, apart from this and proper instruction in the actual operation of a motor vehicle, advanced driver training should also cover the following points:

Those who drive their motor cars with their rear fog lights switched on in good weather conditions at night or in broad daylight are either careless or thoughtless. Motorists who deploy them deliberately when it is raining are obviously total nincompoops.

It's really not difficult to understand how to use fog lights appropriately. Rear fog lamps are designed to make cars more visible when water vapour is suspended in clouds near terra firma. This phenomenon is known as fog and in these conditions ordinary tail lights are no longer intense enough to be seen clearly by following traffic.

Fog lamps switched on or left on in clear conditions are dazzling to those behind, especially at night. Fog lights deployed in rain are more dazzling still and make it damned near impossible for following drivers to see when cars ahead are braking. It is a deuced dangerous practice. Young television presenter Peter Purves made a perfectly good public information film about it in the 1970s. Wasn't anybody watching?

While fog lights are often switched on erroneously, indicators sometimes barely get used at all, particularly in town. Quite apart from the bamboozlement it causes other road users, how on earth are pedestrians supposed to gauge when it's safe to cross the road if drivers do not signal their intentions?

Much has been written recently about the possibility of heavy fines for people who concentrate too much on their TomToms and not enough on their brmm brmms. We have all heard the tales about dimwits obeying their navigation systems and changing direction without even looking outside the car. This is indeed a worry, but using these devices judiciously whilst on the move is surely just a matter of common sense and I cannot see the need for specific legislation.

There have always been distractions - tuning the wireless, winding windows up and down, reaching to extend the aerial mast, adjusting heater controls, filling one's pipe, reading maps and so on. An intelligent driver will pick his moment to reprogramme his navigation aid (ie: when stopped or cruising on a straight and relatively hazard free road). Anyone doing otherwise deserves an endorsement and a fine. The worrying bit is we have to trust the police and courts to tell the difference.

Mobile telephones are quite another matter. As a motorcyclist I see many examples of these devices affecting drivers' ability to control their vehicles every time I venture out on two wheels. Whenever I come up behind a car being driven erratically, hugging the kerb (unless it's a Nissan Micra) or driving too slowly (again, Micras excepted) or a see a driver failing to take advantage of opportunities afforded by gaps in traffic or struggling to make a simple manoeuvre at a junction, the blighter is almost always on the damned telephone. People seem to find it impossible to control their vehicles adequately while using the blasted things. As well as being awkward to hold they sap concentration. Apart from ringing ahead while stuck in traffic jams I never use mine in a motor car.

A minor irritation I know but I really can't see the point of illegal number plates. Wrong script, wrong spacing, wrong size, wrong in the noggin. I am also baffled as to why the vain types who attach them to their vehicles seemingly remain immune from legal action when a successful prosecution by the police is surely assured.

Having said that, I greatly admire the ingenuity of a veteran motorcyclist and no doubt inveterate speeder I occasionally come across in the Dales who has taken careful measures to protect himself from detection by speed cameras. This crusty middle aged outlaw has made the registration plate of his Yamaha sporting motorcycle illegible by clever application of brown paint to give the appearance of splashed mud, and has attached a Suzuki mud flap underneath it to further throw the authorities off the scent. Furthermore, he wears a plain black crash hat and a drab brown Parka over his leathers.

The proper procedure for turning right at these rotary junctions is not to drive around the outside of them, trapping people on the inside. Nor is it acceptable to drive directly across them by travelling the shortest possible distance, ie: a straight line from inner entry kerb to centre circle to nearside exit kerb. It's all in the highway code!

Motorways are marvellous things but congestion and deplorable driving practices are ruining their effectiveness in the UK. That and the dashed speed cameras that have started to sprout on the verges and hang from the bridges. It is more than 50 years since the Preston Bypass, but as far as I am aware new drivers are still not being trained to use them properly and demonstrating motorway driving skills is still not part of the driving test. This should not be the case.

Our motorway system is woefully overcrowded but it is selfish and ignorant driving behaviour that is making it dangerous and causes many of the worst hold ups. Examples of irresponsible behaviour abound and I have written about them in detail elsewhere on this website. My beefs include droning on mile after mile in the middle lane, driving dangerously close to the car in front, undertaking, reckless and inconsiderate lane swapping and inappropriate and thoughtless use of indicators.

I am not expecting a return to the halcyon days when road conditions alone determined the speed I could travel. Golden days when, with a grin plastered from ear to ear, I regularly experienced the marvellous sensation of being in complete control of a mighty motor car being given the works for mile after mile. Sadly it is now rarely possible to make great haste in this tight little island, but, with a little help from the government, I might feel 250 bhp at work a little more frequently.

I realise assistance is unlikely to be forthcoming in order to facilitate the enjoyment of fast driving for its own sake, but it is to everyone's great misfortune the Government has already decided the solution to impending gridlock is to tax good and bad drivers alike and that speed cameras are not only here to stay but will continue to proliferate. It is also shameful the Government is too unimaginitive to build underground railways under Britain's provincial cities and too spineless to re-nationalise the national railway system.