Hoot car insurance

Drivers best off breaking down in Donegal

2012-01-30T01:02:00.000-08:00

The Irish are a friendly jovial bunch, right? Well yes, but it seems that these positive characteristics are more prevalent in some areas of the emerald isle than others.

According to the results of an AA survey, motorists in Donegal are particularly likely to pull over and offer a helping hand to the drivers of broken down vehicles.

However, anybody who suffers the misfortune of an engine blow-out or tyre puncture while driving through Kildare might have quite a wait for roadside assistance.

Some 40% of people from this Eastern Irish town said that they would drive on by, rather than offer a helping hand.

The proportion of male Irish drivers willing to stop for a car-owning damsel in distress was also fairly low. This is thought to be down to the perception of men being a threat in such circumstances.

And there could be any number of reasons why Irish female drivers also have a reluctance to come to the aid of men in their time of motoring need.

Still, there you have it! Donegal’s the place to be if your car decides to give up.

Photo © dingbat2005 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Formula One legend says talent should be rewarded

2012-01-27T01:08:00.000-08:00

Money can't buy you love but it may help to secure a place in Formula One, according to famous racer John Surtees.

Apparently it is becoming increasingly difficult for youngsters to achieve their big break in motorsport, without substantial financial backing.

The ex Ferrari and Mclaren star said, “It's a shame that there is no scholarship system or ladder in place. The only alternative for getting drives is a big bag of gold.”

It had been hoped that with the financial injection provided by Bernie Ecclestone the teams wouldn't have to rely so heavily upon the support of their drivers.

However, questions have been raised about whether Bruno Senna or Vitaly Petrov would have been given their chances in F1 had they not been such marketable names.

The youngsters who have shown promise in the karting world but can barely afford young drivers car insurance must doubt whether they'll ever see their names in the bright lights.

Mr Surtees said, “It would be nice if teams were allowed or persuaded to run a third car, and that car was for someone who had succeeded in the lower ranks.

“Then there is always a space for this ability to feed itself into Formula One without coming up with millions of pounds to sit in a seat.”

Photo © Whiz Kris via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Tourist information? …Sorry I’ve forgotten

2012-01-23T01:08:00.000-08:00

Are you proud to know your way around your area and happy to direct visitors to wherever it is they’ve just asked you directions for?

Well don’t keep relying on your sat-nav when on the road, because you might start to lose the ability to remember the layout of places.

According to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Germany, we remember our way around by creating a mental map.

Our mental map is created, in part, by looking at a real map of an area. However, our mental map is prone to being forgotten if our brain gets used to being guided around with no real knowledge of its location or surroundings.

If you want to avoid losing your mental map, and your ability to create new ones, then you might want to follow the advice given by one of the researchers.

“Look at maps before you start your trip, keep them at hand, but navigate yourself, and try to rely on your memory.

“It will work better than you expect.”

No more sat-navs for us – we’re building up our mental maps! (Although we might turn the sat-nav back on for confusing ring-roads…)

Photo © @boetter via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

High-tech glasses and road safety

2012-01-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

We’ve all seen people driving while chatting on their mobiles and been thoroughly disgusted at their reckless behaviour, but some new technology might give us yet another hazard on the road.

A company called Lumus has developed a pair of glasses which can project images onto its own lenses, making email, film, TV and games available to the wearer, centimetres from their eyeballs.

It’s a very clever piece of tech but imagine how many reckless drivers might choose to watch a film while on the motorway. They’d probably have some popcorn on their lap too, knowing the ridiculous things they get up to on the road to the detriment of car insurance prices and motorist safety nationwide.

The company’s website tag-line is “Seeing through. Seeing beyond. A vision ahead,” but the problem is that although the images are transparent to allow people to get on with their day while being entertained, if you focus on them the real world behind will probably just become a blur.

Fingers crossed that no-one wears these glasses behind the wheel and that pedestrians don’t get too swept up in the film they’re watching to pay attention to traffic.

Photo © runekrem via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

IAM fight for hard-up youths

2012-01-16T00:43:00.000-08:00

I can remember the thrill of being told that I'd passed my driving test. The stress-inducing lessons were over and I could look forward to cruising the open roads in my Nissan Micra.

It wasn't long until reality set in and motoring became a drain on my limited finances. After paying for the young persons car insurance and filling the fuel tank I was left with barely enough for a cheap meal or game of pool with my similarly hard-up friends.

This scenario has become well known amongst the UK's community of young motorists. Indeed, the average cost of insurance for male motorists aged between 17 and 22 has soared to £2,977, far beyond many people's reach.

This issue has become of such concern that the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have made demands for the government to look into ways of reducing premiums. They claim that youngsters who successfully complete advanced driver training courses should be offered discounts.

The IAM Chief Executive said, “The simplest way to reduce premiums is to prevent accidents. This is especially true for young male drivers who are at most risk of being involved in an accident. We need to start rewarding good drivers by encouraging further training through cheaper insurance”

It will be interesting to see how the government responds to these demands.

Photo © Magnus D via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Special motoring treatment for Olympic VIPs

2012-01-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

It seems like only yesterday that Britain was awarded the Olympic games and yet here we are in 2012, the big year.

Usain Bolt is preparing to give us a special show on the track, Becky Adlington is readying herself for a showdown in the pool, and the environmentalists are getting hot under the collar over the announcement that Olympic VIPs will be ferried bout in BMW's.

Less might have been made about this final point had the event organisers not claimed that these would be the greenest games ever.

However, the London Organising Committee has opened itself up for criticism by subsequently declaring that the luxury, gas guzzling vehicles are to be used as taxis for the elite.

A key member of the London Assembly Transport Committee said, “As we were promised that the 2012 Games would be the greenest Olympics ever to take place, only electric vehicles should have been considered.

“The 2012 Games should have been a big boost to the growth of electric vehicles in the UK, but instead we have vehicles which merely add to London’s serious air pollution.”

The question of whether Olympic dignitaries would happily be driven about in electric cars such as the Toyota Prius or Nissan Leaf is open to debate.

Image © Roebot via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Colds can cause crashes

2012-01-09T01:02:00.000-08:00

A recent study undertaken by a young driver car insurance company in partnership with Halfords, and backed by research from Cardiff University’s Common Cold Unit, has revealed that having a cold may be more dangerous than previously thought.

By using telematics technology to monitor driving behaviour in motorists suffering from the sniffles, it was found that driving skills reduced by more than 50%.

Reportedly, that’s the same as having four double whiskies!

As well as having reduced reaction times, and as a result having to brake sharply much more often, the drivers tested were less aware of the road around them and cornered poorly, making them 33% more likely to hit a kerb.

The co-founder of the insurance firm stated, “This small-scale trial provides a warning for motorists. A heavy cold can impair a driver's mood, concentration and judgement.”

Well, that’s a good reason to ask to be chauffeured everywhere when you’re feeling poorly, isn’t it!

Photo © William Brawley via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Is there an end in sight for sat-nav misdirection?

2012-01-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

It’s not unusual to hear about outrageous sat-nav blunders, and although I don’t use mine too often, there have been a couple of times where I have had to use my common sense and follow road signs rather than the little arrow on the screen.

However, it has been reported that the Government has plans to tackle those misguided drivers who end up in compromising situations due to a technological error. It will be discussing the out-of-date directions at a summit.

According to the Department for Transport, it can sometimes take months for road updates to be delivered to sat-navs from local authorities, and misdirection has been known to land lorries in side streets and cars into swamps.

At last, this may mean the sat-nav problems are finally addressed and sorted out! Mind you, it’s important that drivers are always careful to think about where they are steering rather than blindly relying on advice from their navigation system.

Photo © Tim Green aka atoach via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

A holiday with a difference

2012-01-03T00:56:00.000-08:00

Fancy a holiday in the new year? How about a trip round the M25, the motorway which has been voted in various polls as the most hated place in Britain?

Well, one bus company from Brighton & Hove Bus will be happy to oblige. For only a small fee it is willing to take paying tourists on a 117-mile round-trip of the M25 for a spot of sightseeing.

It all sounds very post-modern – a trip round the London Orbital to satiate the leanings of "lovers of modern coach travel".

Although you could be forgiven for thinking that the tour sounds like a sure-fire commercial disaster, it is actually proven very successful in the past – hence the decision to take bookings once again.

Gaze out your window and enjoy the wonders of Heathrow Airport's Terminal Five, Lakeside Shopping Centre and row upon row of angst-ridden car insurance customers trapped behind the wheels of their vehicles.

Wow, forget Paris, I’ve got a real surprise in store for my girlfriend this coming Valentine’s Day.

Image © timo_w2s via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

When the motorway becomes a 30-hour maze

2011-12-30T01:49:00.000-08:00

We all know what it’s like to get lost on the motorway – the way one wrong turn can lead us inexorably into a darkening vortex of frustration and disorientation.

So spare a thought for one 82-year-old man who was recently found by police after 30 hours lost on the motorway.

The retired carpenter said that he had at first been “a little lost”, but that little wormhole of lostness had eventually led him to an abysmal blackhole of deepening displacement.

The police commented, “He had been driving around the south of the country, predominately on the M25 motorway but had also gone onto some A roads in the area.

“He had stopped to catch up on some much needed sleep – we think in a motorway service area, before setting off again.

“He is after all 82-years-old. Presumably he put fuel in the car during the service stops over the two days.”

The lost man had initially set off on a short and familiar trip to see family.

After his family reported him missing, his car was spotted by police using an automatic number plate recognition camera, the same as the kind used to identify those driving without car insurance.

We think he might have received a sat-nav from relieved family members this Christmas.

Image © Gene Hunt via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Christmas shopping in style

2011-12-23T00:53:00.000-08:00

When I finally bite the bullet and attempt to do my Christmas shopping, I usually decide that taking my car is definitely the way to go. Hours of shopping can make my feet very weary, and being able to pile my shopping into the boot without the need to wait half an hour for a bus tends to make my life a lot easier!

However, it seems that for a couple of shoppers in Knightsbridge a standard-size car simply wasn’t big enough for all to their Christmas shopping.

It has been reported that two men pulled up outside the prestigious department store Harrods in a stretch Ferrari.

The driver of the bright red vehicle struggled to find an appropriate parking space and seemed happy to settle for stopping on the double yellow lines outside the front of the shop.

Reportedly, the car is a one off and boasts the title of fastest stretch limousine in the world – also it’s worth an estimated £250,000.

According to the designer of the Ferrari, the vehicle can fit eight people inside, so I’m pretty sure that these two shoppers will have easily been able to find space for their purchases once they had finished their (probably very expensive) shopping spree.

Photo © MikeDixson via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Time travelling traffic warden

2011-12-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

Traffic wardens do tend to swoop in like vultures sometimes don’t they…

One innocent man fell victim to what must be the world’s fastest traffic warden ever know to human-kind recently.

A 53-year-old man had parked his car in Ludlow but was out of the parking bay for more than two hours when he went home, before he returned to park in the same space.

When he came back to his car later that day he found that he’d been given a ticket, but, unlike many people, he thought that since he’d already been ticketed earlier in the week it was a bit excessive and warranted an investigation.

Looking at the official traffic warden logs he found that the warden had noted giving him a ticket at 2.40pm in Ludlow, but apparently managed to give another car a parking ticket 35 seconds later 28 miles away in Shrewsbury.

Impressive, huh?

Needless to say, this showed that the warden hadn’t bothered checking on the man’s car. If he had he’d have noticed that the car had been moved during the day before returning and therefore not been in the space for longer than allowed in one stretch.

Luckily, a tribunal ruled in the motorist’s favour and overturned the ticket.

Still, beware the lightning-fast traffic warden. He is estimated to travel at 3,013mph, so you might have an unfair ticket before you know it!

Photo © Instant Vantage via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

More than your five-a-day

2011-12-16T03:53:00.000-08:00

At a traffic junction in Coundon, Coventry this week something very strange occurred.

Motorists in the UK always have to be prepared for precipitation, but drivers in this area were witness to a very different sort of rain.

Out from the sky fell – not water – but apples.

Yes. Apples.

One road user stated, “The apples fell out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. Everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.”

There have been two theories presented since the fruity downpour. One involves a plane losing its cargo, and the other involves a mini tornado sucking apples from an orchard somewhere and then letting them go over Coventry.

Well, you’ve heard the stories about raining frogs and fish – now you’ve heard of apple-rain.

We’d quite like it to rain money next. We’re carrying buckets around with us just in case.

Photo © Grey World via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Indoor positioning system

2011-12-12T01:12:00.000-08:00

If you find sat-navs useful when you’re trying to make your way around the UK’s roads, a new gadget which technology companies have created could help you when you’re out of your car!

Such firms as Google and Nokia have developed an ‘indoor positioning system’ so that people walking around very large buildings, like shopping centres, can navigate the area easier.

However, some people are worried that individuals using this system could be tracked, or that companies could collect information about which shops they went into and spam them with targeted advertising.

Nevertheless I think this gadget could be useful. Many huge shopping centres have maps scattered about for customers to look at – but they’re not always that easy to find.

My experience is that I walk past the shop I was looking for in an attempt to find a map!

Photo © Jeppestown via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Getting onto the motorway

2011-12-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

When I was taking my driving lessons I found ‘A’ roads frightening enough to tackle with my instructor next to me, so I can well imagine that there is some merit in the new scheme coming into effect next year.

Apparently, road safety minister Mike Penning has stated that soon learner drivers will be allowed to go onto motorways as long as they have a qualified instructor with them.

The aim of this initiative is to familiarise learners with the 70mph (perhaps eventually 80mph) speed limit and the motorway layouts, so that their risk of suffering an accident on these roads once they pass their practical test is reduced.

The head of road safety at the AA stated, “This is good news. It will end the ludicrous situation where people can live near a network of motorways and pass their test without ever having been on one.”

I have to say I agree. The first time I went onto the motorway I had to take my dad with me for support and almost missed my exit because I suddenly forgot how to change lanes through fear of the high speed I was traveling at.

Exactly when this scheme will begin hasn’t been reported, but I have a feeling learner drivers will really appreciate the experience. I know I would have.

Photo © Firing up the quattro… via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

A Marmity mess

2011-12-05T01:06:00.000-08:00

Whether you hate Marmite or you love it – no one likes having to take a detour because there’s been a Marmite spill all over the road.

However, recently some poor motorists who had been travelling along the M1 had to take alternative routes when a lorry crashed and spilled sticky goop all over the highway.

Ok – it wasn’t actually Marmite – it was waste brewers yeast – but it was first reported to be Marmite and as a Marmite hater I personally can’t see the difference between the disgusting brown spread and waste yeast encrusted with tarmac anyway.

The motorway had to be closed in both directions between junctions 32 and 33, the lorry driver was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and The Environment Agency was called to help clean up and check that waterways hadn’t been polluted.

What a mess! It proves how evil Marmite is once and for all!

Ok, yes, it wasn’t Marmite…

Photo © Jacob Rickard via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Disobeying disabled bay rules

2011-12-02T00:43:00.000-08:00

Here at Hoot we are often baffled by the arrogance of some of the motorists we read about in the news, and we’ve found a new driver to shake our heads and tut at today!

A man in his 40 in Essex decided to park his Bugatti Veyron, a sleek car worth around £839,000, in a disabled bay.

It is important at this moment to say that there was no disabled badge on display!

Passers by were taking photos of the fancy car on their mobile phones when a traffic warden spotted the offending vehicle and wrote the driver a well-deserved ticket.

When the owner returned to his vehicle, a witness states that he didn’t seem that bothered by the ticket, got into his car and sped away from the scene.

It is irritating that although the man didn’t escape without a ticket – the maximum fine is £1000 – it’s probably just loose change for someone who owns such an expensive vehicle!

We can only hope that this fine means he can’t buy as many cocktails when he goes on his yearly tropical holiday this Christmas…

Grrr!

Photo © Sudhanwa.. via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Oh, grandmother, what an empty fuel tank your car has!

2011-11-28T00:44:00.000-08:00

When you think of grandmothers you probably envision a kindly elderly woman sat on a plump sofa, with fluffy slippers, knitting something. Maybe with a cat or two next to her.

When you think of thieves you probably envision people sneaking about silently dressed in dark clothes.

Well this story is about two grandmothers, but un-stereotypically they are both thieves, and un-stereotypical thieves at that.

Stealing £400 of alcohol at an ASDA in Chadderton on the outskirts of Manchester, these women piled the loot from their trolley into their car but didn’t make a very swift getaway.

This is mainly due to the fact they’d forgotten that for a car to work, it needs petrol.

A fundamental mistake really.

Furthermore, they took so much alcohol that they struggled to close the vehicle’s boot, had to ask a passer by to help them push the car to ASDA’s own petrol station to fill up, were filmed committing their crime on several different CCTV cameras, and were stupid enough to try their stunt again at another supermarket in the area later that day.

You’ll be thankful to know that these two thieving grandmothers were caught.

Photo © Sean McEntee via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Karate V Sedan

2011-11-25T05:56:00.000-08:00

The twisted metal shells of old cars you see in scrap yards are usually the work of heavy machinery – but not in all cases it seems.

On man in America, dressed in karate gi, has been filmed destroying a red Sedan with his bare hands, and feet, and some fire at the end for added drama.

Reportedly inspired by the Super Street Fighter IV video game, the footage shows the old car reduced to burning wreckage.

We don’t know what he has against the Sedan, but any attempt to forgive and forget has quite clearly failed.

Still, if you’ve been trapped in a traffic jam for hours, or have just had to pay a lot of money after failing an MOT, this might be a good video to watch to relieve the stress before getting back on the roads once more in a calm frame of mind.

Hippocampus GPS

2011-11-21T01:09:00.000-08:00

Do you always get lost? Maybe you just need to update your brain with new maps.

Apparently, according to neuroscientists at the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London our mind works like a sat-nav when we’re making our way somewhere by foot.

One section analyses how far there is to go before we reach our final destination, and another part decided upon which route to take when we have several paths to choose from.

One of the scientists explained, "The posterior hippocampus cares about how long a route is going to be. It's like GPS. It knows how far you've got to go in the real world and it gets more excited the closer you are to your goal."

So, if you’re thinking about getting a sat-nav, maybe you don’t even need one!

On the other-hand, navigating your way through some of the UK’s more complicated roads, like the one-way systems which encircle whole towns or cities, might be a little easier with GPS technology on your side, and not just the posterior hippocampus.

Photo © dkwonsh via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Lollipop lady stops charging horses

2011-11-18T03:55:00.000-08:00

Lollipop men and women have to be quite brave, we think, what with some of the reckless drivers there are on the road.

So we definitely take our hats off to one 53-year-old lollipop lady who stopped a group of charging horses on her watch!

She stated, "I looked up the road and thought that's a lot of horses.

"I stood there and held my stick out as they ran towards me and they must have been startled by my jacket.

"It was lucky the horses didn't come running along 10 minutes earlier as they would have killed some children.

"It's not something you expect to see"

Guiding the horses into a garden, she kept them off the road until the police and RSPCA came to take over and the owners arrived to return the animals back to the field they had escaped from.

The headteacher of the school for which the lollipop lady works applauded her quick thinking, and we do too!

Photo © Joybot via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

A mini roundabout conundrum

2011-11-14T01:08:00.000-08:00

Have you ever approached a mini roundabout at exactly the same time as the motorists on the other available exits and found that everyone comes to a standstill?

The first time I experienced this oddity I was, thankfully, having a driving lesson, so my instructor could guide me through the conundrum which lay before me.

I was giving way to my right, and the car on my right was giving way to the car on their right who was giving way to me. And of course I wasn’t moving because I was busy being a good driver and giving way to my right.

“Someone’s got to go”, driving instructor explained, “otherwise we’ll all be sat here forever waiting for each other.”

Eventually the motorist to my right decided to make the first move and eventually everything was back to normal and traffic was flowing again.

But it made me realise how a lot of the things you learn about driving, you only really learn once you’ve passed your practical driving test and gained some more experience of the road.

That’s why it’s so important that some insurers make cheaper insurance quotes available to young drivers, because if they can’t afford the cover they might not get back onto the roads until much later on in their lives and by that point they’ll have missed out on years of useful motoring experience.

Photo © bravediggs via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Changing someone’s flat tyre could save your life

2011-11-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

The well-know sayings ‘one good deed deserves another’ and ‘what goes around comes around’, couldn’t be more fittingly used than as two morals of this true story.

A 61-year-old Canadian man in America was driving his pick-up truck down the Interstate 94 when he noticed that two women were stranded at the side of the road unable to change the flat tyre on their car, so he pulled over to help them.

One of the women states, “We were so grateful. Nowadays, nobody ever really stops to offer their help. It's kind of scary sometimes, because you really don't know what you're getting into.”

Having changed the tyre he went on his way – and usually that’s where the story would have finished.

However, a matter of minutes after setting off again the man began to have a heart attack and his wife, who was in the truck with him, stopped the vehicle and tried to flag down another motorist for help.

And who happened to stop but the two women her husband had helped a few miles down the road.

One of the women, a certified nursing assistant gave the man CPR until a state trooper and two Dunn County deputies took over and a helicopter ambulance arrived.

Thanks to the man’s good deed, the nursing assistant was able to give him the CPR which helped him survive until the emergency services turned up.

As the Patrol Sergeant stated, “It's an interesting turn of fate.”

Photo © Tiger Girl via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Do we not bleed?

2011-11-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

When I was an undergraduate at Manchester a few years ago I belatedly managed to find a room in a shared house – until that point I’d been staying in a youth hostel while combining flat hunting with university study.

On hearing that a friend of friends had dropped out of his anthropology course (it would turn out that he had unwittingly become a real trendsetter) I quickly seized the opportunity to take his room, arriving early in the morning and literally helping him out of bed as I moved my belongings in.

Things were great. Yes, the flat was a bit damp. No, we didn’t have a hoover. Yes, the fridge did begin to resemble something from a chemical warfare programme. But, all in all, things were great. At least until the winter…

Because, when winter arrived we found that the place was very, very cold. So cold, in fact, that even doubling on jumpers and wearing long johns wasn’t enough.

Then, after checking the radiators, we realised that they weren’t working properly.

Outraged, we called the landlord, who told us that maybe we ought to bleed the radiators. But what did he mean by “bleed”?

Did he mean that we fill them with our own blood then extract it so that it could be reintroduced to our bodies, creating a kind of intravenous home-heating system or was it simply an arcane and profane way of telling us to deal with it, to suffer?

Truth be told, we were completely baffled so after a great deal of consternation we simply shrugged our frozen shoulders, donned a third jumper and put the kettle on, all the time cursing the landlord for being so unhelpfully cryptic.

But it seems we weren’t alone. A new study has revealed that half of young people in Britain have no idea how to bleed a radiator.

Young drivers unable to change tyres, young people unable to get cheap car insurance because a minority don’t drive safely, young people unable to bleed radiators. What next?

Photo © hoill via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Reckless he is. Matters are worse… But the police force is with him.

2011-11-04T02:35:00.000-07:00

It’s being reported that police in Germany this week stopped a driver who’d been involved in a hit-and-run with a Halloween reveller.

Much to their shock, when they got the offending motorist to wind down his window, they realised that far from being the reckless young driver they might have expected, he was actually a 900-year-old green-faced Jedi alien.

But no, fear not, Master Yoda hasn’t been brought back from the dead only to cross over to the Dark Side – the offending motorist in question was himself just a Halloween reveller in Yoda mask, albeit a drunk and recklessly driving one.

A Berlin police spokesperson commented, "The officers were especially surprised to see Grand Master Yoda at the wheel.

"The hapless Jedi returned home on foot. In this case, the force was not with him."

Fortunately, the pedestrian sustained what have been described as only “minor injuries”.

Photo © Gonzavision via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Piling on the years

2011-10-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

Last week was my secondary school reunion. It’s odd to think that it is now more than ten years since my pals and I were still living at home dreaming about the freedom of becoming young drivers, fearing for our A-level results and complaining to our parents that they couldn’t possibly know how it feels.

Although many of us have been to university, most of us have jobs and some of us even have spouses and young children, we’re all still youthful and have a few years to go before we hit the 30 landmark.

However, I was surprised to see just how many of us have put on weight. I confess, now that I’m no longer running round the football pitch three times a week and now search for cheap car insurance quotes rather than frantically try to find my student bus pass, I do have something of a small paunch.

I promised my girlfriend and my personal trainer brother that I’d address it over the summer, but summer has now been and gone, and the paunch is still there.

Still, it’s not nearly as considerable as some of the girth on show at the reunion last Friday, so I take heart.

I also take encouragement from the fact that a personal trainer has gone public on his decision to put on weight in order to better understand his overweight clients.

In just six months he has put on a staggering five-stone, all through “no exercise and eating” and “the typical American diet: Chips, juice, cereal, soda, pizza etc.”

It’s going to be interesting to see how quickly he manages to shed his extra weight. The race is on – I certainly hope to shift my one spare tyre before he’s shifted his five.

Photo © Mike_fleming via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Wisdom of old

2011-10-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it’s all a myth that young driver car insurance is more expensive than the equivalent for older drivers.

Perhaps, instead of receiving cheaper quotes, older people are simply better at making decisions.

It’s long been the prejudice, that far from being less able to make smart decisions, older people are less able than us, as the wear and tear of years fogs their senses and slows their faculties.

However, a recent study by scientists at the University Geriatrics Institute of Montreal reveals that older people are less likely to be thrown off course by making a mistake and more likely to make sounder decisions.

One of the researchers comments, "The older brain has experience and knows that nothing is gained by jumping the gun. It was already known that aging is not necessarily associated with a significant loss in cognitive function.

"When it comes to certain tasks, the brains of older adults can achieve very close to the same performance as those of younger ones.

"We now have neurobiological evidence showing that with age comes wisdom and that as the brain gets older, it learns to better allocate its resources.”

So perhaps older people are simply more adept at comparing car insurance quotes and choosing the one that is cheapest – but seeing as you’re here and you’re choosing Hoot, we know that’s not always true, don’t we.

Photo © giopuo via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Sat-nav blindness

2011-10-24T01:12:00.000-07:00

Sat-navs can be really useful for people who haven’t taken a certain route before and feel more confident if they have some guidance.

The problems begin when motorists rely too heavily on their GPS system and begin following it blindly to the ends of the Earth.

The truth is, voice on the machine may sound authoritative, whether it’s Yoda or the basic man or woman’s voice, but it is still a machine and doesn’t have a brain.

No offence meant to sat-navs, they’re a great piece of technology, but if they hasn’t been updated for a while they could take you down a road that’s blocked off, or across a junction that doesn’t exist anymore, or tell you that through the new shopping centre is the best course of action.

One lorry driver recently got his vehicle wedged between two buildings at the end of a narrow lane that his sat-nav had told him to go down.

A car probably would have gone through – but this man must have forgotten that the GPS doesn’t know what vehicle you’re in.

A landlord near the narrow lane stated, “It was a very stupid thing to do and the locals thought he was a bit of an idiot for doing it.”

He caused damage to the properties on either side and the lorry was finally freed in a six hour operation the next day.

Next time he might try to judge the situation for himself before blindly doing as the sat-nav tells him…as should we all.

Photo © Mavroudis Kostas via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Road-kill cooking

2011-10-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

Usually the only thing people do when they see road-kill is think how horrible it looks and maybe feel sorry for the poor animal that met its end on the tarmac.

However, one man from Bournemouth has been eating road-kill for about 30 years instead of buying his meat at supermarkets.

The man explains, “I guess at the age of 14 I just wanted to be different. But even then I understood that what I was doing was better than eating meat in the shops because of how it was produced.”

He doesn’t keep his strange dining habits from his friends either, who are often treated to rat stir fries, owl curry and pan-fried crane-flies.

Anyone who is interested in following suit and abandoning the supermarket meat aisle should be wary though. The road-kill cook says, “It's not something everyone can do. I have grown up around nature and know just by looking how an animal has died and how long it has been there.

“I am careful, obviously, not to eat anything that I don't think is fresh and if I don't know how an animal has died I will perform an autopsy on it first.

“I found a raven recently that had been poisoned, probably with strychnine, and that is something that other people would probably not think to look out for.

“I do have to be careful, but I have never been sick from anything I have ever eaten.”

Hmmm, it seems like a good idea if you’ve got the know-how. Still, I’m not sure I’ll ever look at road-kill and feel hungry.

Photo © dadadreams via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Running on empty

2011-10-17T01:10:00.000-07:00

It’s a good thing that cars are so fuel efficient these days – back in our grandparents’ day, it was almost impossible to travel 100 miles without needing to stop at a petrol station, even on a full tank of fuel.

However, environmental considerations aside, fuel efficiency is becoming a practical necessity.

This is because petrol stations are beginning to disappear from our nation’s roads. Even in my short driving life, just six years, I’ve noticed that petrol stations are becoming increasingly scarce.

More than ever before, I need to plan my fuel stops when making a journey otherwise there’s a very real risk I could be left short and stranded.

Perhaps supermarkets, which offer cheap subsidised fuel are to blame – as other sellers struggle to compete with their prices they shut up shop and disappear.

There are now only 9,000 fuel forecourts in the UK, which is 12,000 fewer than in 1991, and this is despite a doubling in the number of vehicles on the road in the same period.

Cheap car insurance, easy access to fuel, low house prices – our parents and grandparents don’t know how lucky they were.

Image © Adrian Wallett via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

London landmark lands on MPs

2011-10-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

Could you imagine the car accidents and carnage which would occur if Big Ben (the clock tower, not the bell) actually fell over – well, apparently it could happen because Big Ben’s tower is beginning to lean.

But, if you’re a London young driver, you don’t need to worry about getting a special clause in your car insurance just yet, because it is likely to be somewhere in the region of between 4,000 and 10,000 years before there’s a risk the structure could topple over.

Apparently, the tower leans to the north-west by 0.26 degrees – which means it’s 0.5m out of line at the very top – and this is enough to make the lean visible to the naked eye.

Some pundits have suggested the listing may have been caused by the building of an extension to the Jubilee Line on the London Underground but experts who have been monitoring the tower since 1999 say there is no evidence to support this.

Other specialist civil engineers suggest that the clay on which the famous clock tower is built is drying out more rapidly on the north side and this has caused the structure to sink on one side. However, there is no concrete theory! Ha ha – concrete theory – get it!

And architectural historians worried about the demise of important, beautiful buildings need not be too concerned because if the tower eventually falls, its trajectory will see it landing on Portcullis House, the modern block just over the road from the Houses of Parliament, which is home to the offices of many MPs.

I’m not saying a word!

Image © J Venn

An alternative way to create a road trip soundtrack

2011-10-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Here at Hoot, we love to prepare a CD or tune into the radio to make our car journeys more enjoyable.

However, most drivers wouldn’t even dream of the method used by an ambitious trio of young men in Russia to ensure that they could rock out on a highway.

The three men have been filmed sitting astride a motorbike and sidecar while travelling along a busy road in Russia, but that’s not the strange part. While one of them drove the vehicle, another played a drum kit positioned on the sidecar whilst the final man, seated on the bike behind the driver, strummed a guitar

Although an unusual vision, the musicians appear to be having the jamming session of their lives as they all display bright grins.

The English translation of the video title reads ‘Town Musicians of Bremen’, which is a Brothers Grimm fairytale in which a donkey, a dog, a cat and rooster embark on a journey to Bremen in the hope of making it as musicians.

The animals’ strange musical sound scares some robbers out of a house on route, conveniently giving the mismatched four a place to live happily ever after.

Despite the main stars of the viral film having not yet been identified, the video has scored well over a million views. Impressive, but not a technique we’ll be trying out anytime soon!

Photo © treehouse1977 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Incredible reporting of young (?) driver’s race win

2011-10-07T01:20:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing how the definition of “young” has changed over the years.

Recently, an archived news piece from 1929 came to my attention which talked about a young driver who had won the Indianapolis 500 race.

The piece described Ray Keech as a daring young auto driver, but after researching the American racing driver, I found that he would have turned 29 years old just four weeks before the race took place.

Nowadays, we tend to think of motorists between the ages of 17 and 24 as being young drivers and someone aged 29 would be considered an experienced motorist, especially if they had been driving since their teens.

The article, which featured in the Calgary Herald and can be accessed here, reports the astonishing revelation that although another driver, who had crashed during the race, died at the track while the race was still being contested, the event was seen through to completion.

And, the three separate headlines to the piece further tell the story of how the driver’s death was valued by editors of the newspaper:

“Louis Meyer Finishes Second in Annual Indianapolis 500-Mile Grind”

“Only 13 Cars of 33 Complete Course”

“Bill Spence, Victim of Crash, Was Trailing Leaders – Car Rolls Over”

Quite incredible!

Image © momentcaptured1 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Hoot says drink driving should be zero tolerance

2011-10-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

So, Northern Ireland could be about to reduce its drink-driving limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to just 50mg/100ml, with a reduced limit for young drivers of 20mg/100ml.

Well, I for one young driver think it’s about time too. In fact I’d be up for zero tolerance in the UK.

Having seen the consequences of being involved in a drink-driving accident first hand, and having lost a good friend as a result, I can say that no alcohol for drivers should always be the way to go.

When you’re the designated driver it’s sometimes so tempting just to have one drink, but once you’ve had one you might feel like having another because you feel fine and before you know it you’re over the limit with all your mates relying on you for a lift home. It’s just too easy to get in your car saying, “I’ll be really, really careful.”

But sadly, a careful drink-driver is not the same as a sober driver.

Here at Hoot, we say don’t risk it – ever. Don’t even have one. A lifetime of pain and regret just isn’t worth the risk.

Image © K-tee Snape via Flickr, Under Creative Commons Licence

A beautiful ending to a rubbish summer

2011-09-30T01:54:00.000-07:00

The heat-wave spreading over the UK the past week brings a brilliant and unexpected close to our somewhat disappointing summer. Contrary to recent reports of early snow set for October, we can relax and bask in the sun.

It’s not just sun-worshippers who are enjoying the benefits either. Apparently supermarkets are stocking up on burger baps and rosé wine to keep up with eager shoppers who are jumping in their cars in the pursuit of items for the barbeque.

The supermarkets may be onto something as temperatures are predicted to rise as high as 28 degrees Celsius on Saturday, which will give workers with the weekend off the opportunity to dig out their summer clothes again.

Even flowers have been making the most of the sunshine by blooming for the second time in a year – experts believe that they have been fooled into thinking spring has already returned!

It is thought that thousands of Brits will be driving down to the beach over the weekend to make the most of the glorious rays, and I am definitely considering joining in. Now, if only my car was a convertible!

Photo © schreiblockade via flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Flying high in the sky with my beautiful balloon

2011-09-26T00:53:00.000-07:00

Here’s a novel way to save on your young driver car insurance costs – travel by helium balloon.

American pilot Jonathan Trappe has proved that it can be done and has carried out two epic journeys powered solely by wind and the lift of a multitude of colourful balloons.

Last year he crossed the English Channel and his most recent trip saw him crossing the Alps in a 12-hour journey which covered 94 miles.

For the mountain crossing he used 54 balloons which allowed him to have one of the best views imaginable of the sun rising over the Alps as he drifted in silence at 15,000ft.

Setting off from Gap in France and landing near to the Italian town of Andezeno, the daredevil flyer said, “I would have probably died had I come down while flying over the Alps in the dark.

“Not just because it was dark, but because the terrain is so rugged there would be no place to land.

Adding, “The experience was just amazing though and it goes to show you can accomplish your dreams.”

The video of his ballooning experience does look amazing and I guess he was lucky to have had such a perfect day, but I don’t think I’ll be swapping my nice warm car any time soon for a bunch of balloons and a harness, no matter what the savings would be on motoring costs.

Image © katerha via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Space debris warning – Antarctica is the only safe place to be

2011-09-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

There’s plenty of danger on the roads for Britain’s young drivers without the potential threat of redundant space hardware dropping onto the road in front of them, but it’s a distinct possibility say Nasa.

Apparently, the space bods have been tracking a six-tonne satellite which, they say, could fall to earth on Friday 23rd September, give or take a day or so.

Scientists reckon the UARS (upper atmosphere research satellite) could break up into around two dozen pieces as it closes in on earth and although there is a one in 3,200 chance that one of these chunks could hit someone on earth, Nasa officials believe that the risk to individuals is “extremely small”.

Gene Stansbery, Nasa’s orbital debris chief (cool job title), said, "Things have been re-entering ever since the dawn of the space age; to date nobody has been injured by anything that's re-entered."

If you want to be completely safe, the only continent on earth that isn’t at risk of a debris strike is Antarctica, but that’s a long way to take your car. Let’s just hope that should your vehicle be hit by the falling wreckage, you have full young driver car insurance and any damage caused will be repaired as soon as possible.

Image © Joe Hastings via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Crooks exploit pregnant roadside pause

2011-09-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

One young driver and mother-to-be got a huge shock last week after having her sapphire-blue Porsche 911 stolen by a couple of opportunistic and morally-deficient thieves on a motorway in Northamptonshire.

The 28-year-old driver had pulled over after realising that she had a flat tyre. Heavily pregnant and worried about having to wait around too long, she was delighted when a couple of men pulled over in a white van and offered their services.

However, after putting a fresh tyre on, they waited until the woman had her back turned then sped off – one in the white van, the other in the Porsche.

The woman was so distressed she worried she might go into premature labour. She said, “It’s absolutely disgusting – these men have no morals. They couldn’t have cared less about leaving me stranded, even when it was obvious I’m just weeks away from giving birth.”

She added, “The man who got out was a bit of a Jack the Lad, very chatty. There was nothing that alerted me to what was really going on until he got in the car. It all happened so quickly.”

Now it is possible that the young woman will not see her Porsche 911 again, in which case she’ll have to make a claim on her young driver car insurance.

Image © Ed Callow [ torquespeak ] via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

The world’s youngest driver?

2011-09-16T01:55:00.000-07:00

A YouTube clip of a 4-year-old Chinese girl driving a car has caused an internet sensation.

In the video, the girl, perhaps the youngest driver in the world, sits in the driver’s seat as she calmly drives along a motorway in Shandong Province – an area not noted for its safe and sedate driving.

Amazingly, she is seen overtaking other vehicles as she drives at speed, while her parents appear completely nonplussed, occasionally interacting with her from the backseat until her father says, “Jia Zeng, stop the car. Let daddy drive.”

As someone with young nephews and nieces, as much as I’m shocked to see a 4-year-old allowed behind the wheel, I’m equally astounded at how well-behaved she is. It’s usually at the point that you ask a young child to do something that it throws itself headlong into a tantrum – certainly not something you’d particularly want if it was piloting a car down the motorway.

Once she’s pulled over to let her daddy drive, he pops out of the back seat and removes some wooden blocks from the accelerator – meanwhile she returns to being a normal 4-year-old and pops a sweetie in her mouth.

I’m not familiar with motoring law in China, but I find it hard to imagine that it wouldn’t be an offence. I’m also certain that Chinese car insurance companies don’t offer car insurance to drivers as young as four.

Poor girl, it might look like fun, but it is impossible not to fear for her safety.

Curry and tea

2011-09-12T01:02:00.000-07:00

If your car was 100 years old and ran on ginger curry and tea – that would definitely be something wouldn’t it!

No, car manufacturers have not started making vehicles that run on Indian food and British beverages. Sorry.

But here’s something else just as impressive.

The worlds oldest marathon runner – 100 years of age – has stated that it is his 10-mile-a-day training regime and diet of ginger curry and tea which has given him his long and healthy life.

We must admit, despite our reservations about running ten miles a day ourselves, he does seem very happy.

He stated, “I am not a learned person in any shape or form. To me, the secret is being happy, doing charity work, staying healthy and being positive.

“If someone says I must stop running I ignore them – invariably they're younger than me. The secret to a long and healthy life is to be stress-free.

“If there's something you can't change then why worry about it? Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”

Very wise words we think. Now if you will excuse us, we’re off to order a ginger curry and a cup of tea.

Photo by Nico* via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Twenty raccoons in the car boot

2011-09-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Do you sometimes find it difficulty to get your dog into the car boot for a trip to the V-E-T?

Well, spare a thought for a family in Portsmouth who choose to share their home with 20 raccoons!

They spend £3,000 a year on them, and don’t go on any holidays because, let’s face it, it’s not like asking someone to pop in and feed your goldfish every day or so is it.

“Raccoons are my life,” the mum of two human children and 20 raccoons stated.

“They are totally part of my family – my husband and kids love them to bits. But they are very clever and quite naughty when they put their minds to it.

“In the wild they are naturally inquisitive scavengers and they are very good with their hands.

“They can go anywhere in the home – but I do try to draw the line at the kitchen. Having said that I saw one trying to copy the way I cut melon for him. I caught him with a knife in his paws trying to help himself to a slice.”

Apparently the animals feel left out if they don’t get taken on the same days out as the rest of the family. If their so clever and inquisitive though, maybe they’ll be found trying to drive the car off one day!

Image © ingridtaylar via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

107 years old and still going strong

2011-09-01T04:11:00.000-07:00

In the course of your driving career, you’ll be lucky not to experience some mechanical failure with your car for one reason or another.

So, we can all appreciate how well one two-seater Wolseley Six has done, since it’s 107 years old (having been built in 1904), and has reportedly never suffered a breakdown.

Furthermore, it’s still being driven about by its proud owner, who bought it from the previous driver in 2004, and has just managed to pass its MOT.

Unsurprisingly, the 65-year-old owner speaks of his vehicle lovingly.

"She still runs like a dream. I'm very proud of her and love showing her off.

"She's quite a regular now in the town.”

We’re happy to hear that this resilient and well-built little motorcar can still be seen out and about.

Image © Southlands Farm Cottages via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

My other hand is a Mercedes

2011-08-24T00:47:00.000-07:00

Most young boys, and men – and come to think of it some girls and many women too – would enjoy owning a Mercedes car.

One 14-year-old boy, however, has a Mercedes hand.

We should probably explain…

The young boy in question was born without his left hand and part of his left forearm, and as a keen F1 fan he wrote to the boss of the F1 Mercedes (GP Petronas) asking if the company would pay around £30,000 for a state-of-the-art bionic hand for him if he agreed to have it branded with their logo, as you do.

Instead of a rejection letter from the powerful firm, the boy was told that, ‘yes’, Mercedes was happy to help.

It got together with Touch Bionics, a company which creates arguably the most advanced prosthetic limbs in the world, to make the lad an i-LIMB Pulse hand capable of gripping a pen, tying shoelaces and holding up a 14 stone weight!

Unsurprisingly the 14-year-old said, “It is just amazing. My old artificial hand had a pretty basic open-close mechanism similar to a clamp.

“But with this one I can do everything. It also looks really cool – the outer-shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working. They are even going to put a little Mercedes badge by the wrist.

“I am actually looking forward to getting back to school so I can test it out.”

We’re sure the other boys will be envious!

Photo © epekopurnomo via photobucket

Dad’s taxi, 80 years of service and counting

2011-08-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

We’re all living longer. If your parents were born in the 1950s, chances are that they will now reach, or get very close to reaching their 80s and many may even reach their 90s – a far cry from life expectancy in the early part of last century, where reaching a half-century was considered for some a sign of venerable old-age.

Yet here we are in 2011. How things have changed, for example a baby girl born this year has a one-in-three chance of living to 100. In fact, according to the Office of National Statistics by 2066 there will be more than half a million people in the UK over the age of 100.

But how many of them will be drivers?

Recent figures show that there has been a 19% drop in 17 to 22-year-olds taking their driving test since 2005. The figure looks even more startling when you realise that is a drop of 200,000 drivers.

And the chief reason for this fall?

Well, sadly its not improved public transport services but increases in the costs of motoring, particularly the price of young driver car insurance.

And this may not be a good thing for the drivers of the future. Not only is it harder to teach a new dog old tricks, but it’s also true that there is no substitute for experience. Simon Douglas, from the AA comments, "It doesn't matter what age you learn to drive, the longer you spend behind the wheel the better you'll be as a driver."

So perhaps we better hope that our parents live much longer than predicted, and for completely unsentimental reasons: without them we’ll be entirely reliant on the bus to get home, even when we’re using our OAP Freedom Pass.

Let’s keep our parents alive, we need the lift.

Photo © moonlightbulb via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Summer holiday motion sickness

2011-08-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Are you one of the estimated 20 million people in the UK who suffer from motion sickness?

If the answer is yes and you’re dreading the journey you have to take to reach your holiday destination, then fear not.

Firstly, if you’re the driver, you’re unlikely to be affected by motion sickness anyway. Because you’ll be focused on the road, you just won’t have the chance to feel sick.

However, if you are a passenger, there are still ways of counteracting travel sickness.

The first is simply not thinking about it and distracting yourself with music, or a safe in-car game like eye-spy.

If this doesn’t work, sitting at the front of the car and pretending that you’re driving could help. A car journey can sometimes be less bumpy at the front, and having a large window to look out of can help your body feel more stable.

Still feeling queasy? Well close your eyes. This can help because you only feel motion sickness when what your eyes are seeing and what your inner ear is telling your brain don’t match up. Close your eyes and this should eliminate the cause of motion sickness.

If you still don’t feel well you could always open a window for some fresh air, take a break from journeying and sit on some solid ground or have a walk about to get your inner ear and eyes back in order, or use some motion sickness drugs to prevent the symptoms.

We hope this all helps and that you enjoy your holiday, wherever it may be, and if you don’t have a holiday planned you can always use these methods in day to day travel to make any trip more pleasant.

Photo © Darkstream via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

I’m not going on holiday this year, make no mistake

2011-08-08T01:17:00.000-07:00

“We’ve gone on holiday by mistake,” is just one the many brilliant lines in cult classic Withnail & I. And although it might be a rather strange claim and statement of despair, it is, sadly, not an entirely unfamiliar situation for many young people.

With economic pressures such as low wages and high car insurance, we’re lucky if we arrive at any kind of holiday at all. Yes, Withnail and the authorial I might not have had heating, lighting, running water or any comforts of civilisation – and, yes, they had Withnail’s incorrigibly hot-breathed uncle to fight way, but at least they had a holiday, something increasing numbers of young people are finding it impossible to do.

And what is it we can afford when we do? The answer is usually a damp cottage in rural Wales that we arrive to find already inhabited by hundreds of arachnid guests, or a cut-price holiday package in Egypt that leaves us with gastro-intestinal fireworks display and a finer knowledge of the alphabet of food poisoning, from E coli to Salmonella.

Truth be told, most of the time it’s just not worth it. That’s why this year, I’ve decided to have a holiday at home. London’s lovely and warm, so I’m going to take some time off and be a tourist in my own city. I’m going to tour the parks and explore the museums and have barbecues with friends. What’s more, I’ll save a couple of hundred pounds and reduce my carbon footprint in the process.

Photo © scalvert1978 via photobucket

I think therefore I brake

2011-08-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

When taking your theory and practical driving tests, you’ll probably have learnt that allowing yourself enough braking response time is quite important in order not to be involved in an accident.

Well, a scientist at the Berlin Institute for Technology called, Stefan Haufe, has been developing technology which could cut out the time taken between your brain thinking, “I need to brake”, and your leg actually doing it.

He and his colleagues used 18 participants in their research, attaching electroencephalography (EEG) wires to each person’s head and sitting them in a driving simulator.

The people were told to keep driving at 100 kilometers an hour (62mph) while staying close to the computer controlled vehicle driving ahead of them. The car in front would brake without warning several times during the simulation, and the participants’ brain waves were measured as they reacted.

On average the EEG system successfully ‘predicted’ the person’s intention to brake 130 milliseconds before they physically did so.

Now Mr Haufe has stated that he and his fellow researchers are “considering to test the system online in a real car, however, if such a technology would ever enter a commercial product, it would certainly be used to complement other assistive technology to avoid the consequences of false alarms that could be both annoying and dangerous".

This sounds like a positive advance into reducing road traffic accidents, yet, if the automated vehicles Google has been testing become a reality first, then EEG braking will be obsolete before it ever became commercially available.

Let the technology race commence!

Photo © delta_avi_delta via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Look, no hands!

2011-08-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

You’d think that keeping both your hands on the steering wheel in order to stay in control of the car was just common sense.

No, apparently not.

One 34-year-old driver from Norwich, who was driving along a 70mph duel carriageway, was stopped by police after being spotted steering his vehicle with his knees!

He was having a conversation on his mobile with one hand, and texting someone with a second mobile in the other.

He even made the police officer who’d pulled him over wait for him to finish his obviously very important chat, he wasn’t insured, and he didn’t bother to show up in court.

You may be pleased to know that he was nevertheless found guilty and is due to be sentenced in mid August.

Photo © ShuttrKing|KT via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Young drivers, your country needs you!

2011-07-29T01:23:00.000-07:00

“Young drivers! Young British drivers! Young talented British drivers, your country needs you!”

With two recent F1 world champions, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, I thought that there must be an abundance of young British driving talent, but it turns out that I’m wrong – in a sense.

You see, just as it is with car insurance, it seems that the cost of motor racing is proving a real impediment to young drivers in this country – few, if any, sports are as expensive as motor racing, and it seems that the vast majority of hopefuls just can’t afford it. As a result, a whole generation of talent is slipping through the net.

For example, only recently Skoda UK looked to recruit a driver for its 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge but had to overlook all British candidates on the basis that they simply didn’t have the experience.

And why didn’t they have the experience? Well, because they don’t have the money. In today’s world or motor sport, unless you have the private funding to boost your career, you’re unlikely to get a place on the starting grid.

“Young drivers! Young British drivers! Young talented British drivers! Young talented rich British drivers, your country needs you!”

Photo by Dmitry Sumin via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

One-legged South African driver

2011-07-25T00:53:00.000-07:00

Some disabled people have their vehicle modified so that they can still get out and about on the highways.

Not so for one driver in South Africa.

He had to have his left leg amputated after suffering a gun shot wound in 1996, but, instead of having his vehicle adapted, he sat his 11-year-old son next to him and told him when to press the clutch peddle.

He was stopped by a chief traffic inspector – who naturally was horrified – and was even more perturbed when she found that the 39-year-old amputee only possessed an expired learner driver’s permit suitable for use in an automatic car.

The man was fined 1,000 rand, which is the equivalent of £90.

Let’s hope he doesn’t do it again.

Photo © arboresce via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Cat-nav research

2011-07-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

When confronted with the abbreviation ‘GPS’ (Global Positioning System), you probably think of your sat-nav.

However, one study undertaken by researchers at the University of Reading which began in 2009, uses GPS for an entirely different reason.

To track cats.

Why, you may ask? Well they want to find out how badly our domestic felines are affecting urban birds by monitoring how far a field they travel from home to hunt, amongst other factors.

At the beginning of the study they recruited 200 cats around the Reading, who all happily signed on with a paw print (probably), and attached a little camera and tracking devise to each of their collars.

Now, after several years of going about their mysterious business, the cats’ secrets have been revealed and the study has come to a close.

The team in Reading haven’t yet updated their website with the findings, but suffice to say the cats are likely to be interested to see just how much the humans have managed to deduce from their movements.

Image by eva101 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Wheelie embarrassing

2011-07-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

If you pulled out of your driveway or away from the roadside and one of your car’s wheels just fell off, it would be a bit embarrassing wouldn’t it?

We’d certainly look around and hope no-one saw.

Now imagine how embarrassed Jenson Button must have been at the British Grand Prix in front of a more than 120,000-strong crowd at Silverstone this year when, just a few metres out of the pit-stop, his front right wheel came loose.

As it happens, this was due to a simple human error by a member of the pit-stop crew, but it unfortunately meant that the Formula One driver was unable to finish the race and that McLaren was fined £4,433 from FIA for its unsafe pit-stop release.

Reportedly Button was initially irate at the slip-up, but after calming down he said, "We all make mistakes, and you always hope they won't happen, but this is even more disappointing as it's in front of my home crowd."

Well, if Jenson Button feels bad, we can’t imagine how the mechanic feels right now!

Photo by amika_san via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

The satellites which keep global order

2011-07-15T02:33:00.000-07:00

It takes an eight-man team and a further 5,000 civilian employees to keep these objects 12,500 miles above Earth on course, while they travel at 4.5 miles a second, and “on a bad day there isn’t even time to go to the bathroom”.

What are we talking about? The GPS satellites, run by 2d Space Operations Squadron in America, which stop planes colliding with one another, keep ships on course, save the world from chaos – oh, and keep your sat-nav on track.

We don’t give a second thought to the fantastically clever little box on our dashboard – which guides us through the UK roads only occasionally telling us that we’re actually ploughing through buildings or driving in the sea – but we should.

It’s almost a miracle that the system works at all, and some of us would be very lost without it.

Maybe from now on, instead of shouting at it when it goes wrong we should take a deep breath and wait until our hard working GPS take a moment to sort itself out, it’s the least it deserves.

Photo by Lee Jordan via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Vanilli comeback, you know it’s true. But did anyone miss you?

2011-07-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

Does the day on which you are born hold augurs for what your future will hold? I for one certainly hope not.

Which cataclysmic event did I soundtrack my first infant cries? With what peeling of bells from on high did the world celebrate my arrival?

The answer: none, and none.

You see, unlike my dad, who, as he likes to tell practically everyone he meets, was born into the exultant peace of 1945’s VE Day celebrations, I was born on an entirely inauspicious day, November 15, 1990.

Instead, I, beetroot-red and stunned by the light of the outside world, lip-synced to the indignant howls of the world’s music press at the news of the fraud of Milli Vanilli.

Yes, Milli Vanilli, the erstwhile Grammy-winning pop duo who, it emerged on the day of my birth, had never between them sung a note in earnest.

Outed as lip-syncing frauds, they want on to endure notoriety and eventually, in a tragic twist, the suicide of Milli.

But, in a new twist that must in some way be entwined with my fate it has been announced that Vanilli, now solo, has been working on a comeback album.

But what can it mean? What can it augur? My hope is that, with my car insurance due for renewal on the day of my birthday, I’m going to get a nice retro 1990-style quote.

Image © Alan Light via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

The summer of our discount tent

2011-07-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

As one of the thousands of young drivers who converged on Glastonbury for this summer’s music and mud-fest, like the rest, the first thing I did was unpack my tent from the boot of my car.

Unfortunately, I’m ashamed to say, I spent rather longer on the next stage: erecting the tent.

As someone who always tends to be flummoxed by this infuriating real-world, 3D IQ test, this was not unusual. However, this time I felt that I might be able to do it. After all, I’d received detailed advance instruction from my father, including a demonstration (which I videoed on my phone, naturally) and detailed diagrammatic instructions (perhaps a little too detailed, in fact).

Mercifully, on seeing my futile struggles with the said tent, a fellow festival-goer, a bare-chested and ultra capable Spaniard, decided to assist – hooray the Glastonbury spirit! Even if it was slightly emasculating for me to be shown up as manually ineffectual in front of my girlfriend.

At the end of my two-night stay, I then faced a second challenge: deconstructing and packing the tent.

After a good two hours of flailing, struggling and fruitless, desperate praying for the second coming of the bare-chested Spaniard, I gave up and stuffed the thing into the rear-seat of my Vauxhall.

Even so, I’m glad that I didn’t resort to doing what many other young festival-goers seemed to do: leave the tent onsite.

Organisers report that tens of thousands of tents were left behind by apparently unconcerned music lovers who considered them cheap enough to be disposable.

A whole wasteland of tents now destined for landfill – waste and profligacy: not two things I considered to be part of the Glastonbury spirit.

Image © FDWR via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Blueprints for the man with the Midas touch

2011-07-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

There are probably only a handful of cars which are so famous that they are almost globally recognised – but one of them surely must be the Aston Martin DB5 as driven by James Bond himself.

This sleek vehicle drove into the spotlight after being used in the film Goldfinger in 1964. Since then it’s been held dear in the nation’s heart, and now seven authorised blueprint copies of the legendary car have been sold at auction.

The sale took place this week – but no details of who purchased the technical drawings, including meticulous sketches of the car’s gadgets, have yet come to light.

We don’t even know if all of the copies were bought by one person, or if a number of individuals got a share of the James Bond riches.

While the original blueprints are kept under lock and key by the film producers EON Productions, any 007 or Aston Martin fanatic would be very pleased to acquire the copies.

Maybe the proud owners, or owner, will be in the media spotlight soon to express their happiness at having a piece of British history for their own. Then we’ll know who to be envious of.

Image by aldenjewell via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Village of the damned bollards

2011-06-28T03:41:00.000-07:00

Parents of children in Plymouth are up in arms about a planned traffic-calming scheme near their children’s school.

This may seem odd – after all, what parent wouldn’t want better road safety exercised near their children – however, they had their reasons.

Simply cast your eye over the photo and you may see eye to eye with adults who called these strange child-shaped bollards “pretty scary” - saying they were like “something out of Doctor Who”.

Another creeped-out parent said, "In the middle of the night you'll see these weird-looking things.”

However, we think that these little polyurethane pupils may be just the ticket for slowing down motorists.

The very fact that they are painted to look like children, and appear a little out of place along the pavement, is probably guaranteed to make drivers lighten their tread on the accelerator. Plus, as the bollard maker explained, “If you see a child next to the road there is a natural reaction to slow the vehicle down.”

Yes, they do cost £350 each and “they might frighten the children”, but really, we think they’re ideal.

The bollard makers remain rightfully “proud” of their creations and we secretly hope to see their eerie rows near schools all over UK very soon.

Image by SteveR- via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Spiteful dads go “topless” to embrace irony

2011-06-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

As representatives of conscientious and responsible young drivers it wouldn’t be like Hoot to forget to Father’s day.

So with the third weekend of June having just passed, we thought it fit to continue with our dad-related theme.

Yes, why is it that dads, just as they retire from being the free taxi service, so often decide that it’s the perfect time to, excuse the pun, convert to convertible driving?

Is it just to spite their offspring that they spend the whole of our childhood and adolescent years resisting any idea of buying a convertible that they then, just as we move out and have to start thinking about getting our own car and our own car insurance, suddenly decide that they’ll take a chunk out of our inheritance and splurge on a soft-top?

Ironically, more than one in ten dads who buy convertibles say that they do it to “recapture their lost youth” – to me it seems that all their doing is exposing their old age to the elements.

Another ironic twist is the desire cited by many to “feel the wind through their hair” – unfortunately for many the winds of time have already swept most of that hair away.

To complete our triptych of ironies, many dads say that they buy a convertible to “enjoy the good weather” – c’mon, we do live in Britain…

Image by culture.culte via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Muzza’s sporting the right car

2011-06-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here at Hoot, we love our sport (well some of us do) and there’s a feast of it going on at the moment. Golf, tennis, athletics, motor racing – there’s something for everyone (unless it’s football only for you). Still, for all those die-hard footy fans it’s only a few months till the start of the brand new season – and yes we’re polishing up our Fantasy Football League teams as we speak.

In fact, a little bird tells me that Europa League qualifying matches kick-off at the end of June – so there’s no chance of becoming completely starved of the beautiful game.

And meanwhile, there’s Wimbledon (thank goodness for the roof on centre court) to entertain us for two glorious weeks.

Apparently, the Great British tennis hope and young driver, Andy Murray, has recently got rid of his red Ferrari in favour of a slightly more conservative “gun-metal” Aston Martin because he said he felt like a “prat” when driving the Italian performance icon.

We feel he may have a point – Italian flash over British class – we know who wins every time.

We just hope Murray can be as prestigious as his choice of cars.

And guess what? He says he still drives his faithful little Volkswagen Polo, his first ever car, because it’s easier for city motoring.

A summer of sport and motoring – it’s Hoot heaven.

So, as we shout, “Come on Muzza” at our TV screens and watch forlornly as Vettel marches relentlessly on in the F1 season, there’s still some hope that our 2012 Olympic hopefuls will give us more to cheer about next summer. And yes, some of us were lucky enough to get tickets, but that’s a whole other blog.

Image © Marc Di Luzio via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Dad’s taxi, operating since you were born

2011-06-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

You may have been over the moon when you finally passed your practical driving test and got your own car – but your dad might secretly have been even happier than you.

A survey of fathers, undertaken by Halfords Autocentres, has discovered that dads drive their children a distance the equivalent of right around the world by the time they turn 18.

Not only do they spend a large amount of their time playing taxi, but according to the research they would have to charge their children around £3,893 for the petrol.

And here’s the worst bit for many of these long-suffering dads – only one third of the youths say “thank you”.

So if your dad seemed enthusiastic about you taking lessons and passing your test and getting your own car – now you know why!

You may want to give him a lift somewhere for Father’s Day.

Image by Leonid Mamchenkov via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Belt up!

2011-06-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Some young drivers might be shocked to hear that as many as one in every 20 drivers in the UK does not wear a seatbelt behind the wheel.

The research, undertaken in an AA Streetwatch Survey using data collected in April and May of this year, also reported that one in every ten cars approaching junctions seemed to be travelling too fast and almost one quarter of vehicles observed had broken brake-lights.

You might be concerned that these motorists are on the roads with you, but there’s apparently even more to be worried about.

Some drivers, despite the large amount of adverts and general warnings against it, were seen using hand-held mobile phones, and one third of motorists didn’t bother indicating at junctions or roundabouts.

Despite the very real risk of serious injury or death, and fines for people caught driving without belts on, the president of the AA stated, "In previous surveys that we've done, excuses came up - atrocious things like, 'Well, actually I might crease my shirt or my blouse; I'm only going down the road.’”

As the UK road safety minister said, "Those excuses just aren't good enough because even if you're pulling out of your driveway you can hit a van, hit another vehicle, and the consequences without wearing a seatbelt are actually quite dire.

"My message to [the drivers who don’t wear seatbelts] is simple - seatbelts save lives and not wearing one just isn't worth the risk"

Image by Criterion via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Clever cars

2011-06-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with the concept of our cars letting us know when there is a need for attention to the vehicle’s engine or electrical system, but what if cars could tell when something is wrong with the driver?

Ford Motors plans to give their cars “smarts”, which let the driver know if issues with allergies may be a problem, or if the car has detected the driver’s low glucose levels.

Ford recently announced plans to work with several health and medical companies to allow human health monitoring to take place within the car itself.

The technology used is the Sync in-car information system which is the same technology that allows motorists to be aware of any issues under the hood of their vehicle, as well as the entertainment system, by way of a dashboard light or beeping noise.

Ford’s research manager stated this new technology could be an extremely valuable tool, in particular, for those with chronic illnesses as an aid to manage their time behind the wheel by monitoring their heart rate and other stress indicators.

Being made aware of these factors could help motorists to stay safe while they’re driving as they would be alerted to any health issues as they arise. For example, if they are insulin dependent the car could warn them that stopping to administer an insulin injection would be a good idea.

Personally we’re waiting for the car that indulges your whims.

“Driver, you appear to be hungry – why not have a burger and chips? The next available fast food restaurant is in two miles. Would you like to make this your next destination?”

“Yes, car, I do indeed.”

Image by brykmantra via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Flash cars and art

2011-06-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

If you’re a young driver who likes flash cars you’re going to love the vehicle images created by Marc Cameron and photographer Mark Brown.

Titled the Light Graffiti Supercars Project, the duo’s work has created quite a stir in recent months with their images of iconic models created in refracted LED light.

London-based artist Cameron says in the Telegraph, "We previously photographed in areas of the Cotswolds, but for this series of the Light Graffiti Cars we decided to shoot at iconic locations in the Big Smoke, with the cars featured having to be the most visually-stimulating, stunning rides of recent times."

The photographs include images of a Lamborghini Sesto Elemento in front of “The Gherkin”, a Range Rover Evoque outside the Houses of Parliament and, my particular favourite, a Mastretta MXT precariously crossing Tower Bridge.

To see the Telegraph’s gallery click here, and if you’ve got a picture of your flash car, then send it to us here at Hoot and we might feature it on the blog.

Image © davidsonscott15 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

What do kids know about road safety anymore?

2011-06-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Do you know your Green Cross Code? I asked my little sister about it the other day (she’s 12) and she said she didn’t know what it was.

Yet, I remember being taught it at primary school (the same school as her – I was a pupil six years earlier) and was even part of a Green Cross Road quiz team which made it to the regional round of a national road safety competition.

The reason it came into my mind was because, as a young driver who’s constantly on the look out for road hazards, I recently came across a group of kids who just ran into the road without looking and I was forced to slam on my brakes so I wouldn’t hit them.

Luckily, I was driving well under the speed limit and, as I watched them running along the pavement a few metres ahead of me, I had a sneaky suspicion that they weren’t going to “stop, look and listen” before attempting to cross the road.

I was right!

As I screeched to a halt and let out a massive “phew” because no car accident had occurred and my young driver car insurance would not be compromised, I thought to myself, “Just what are they teaching the kids in schools these days?”

Then I realised I sounded like my mum and decided to drive on peacefully, vowing to always look and listen out for all road users.

And for anyone who’s interested you can find out about the Green Cross Code by clicking here.

Image © fiskfisk via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Sorry gaffer, computer says no

2011-05-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

GPS technology can do so much more than just help you find your way successfully from Land’s End to John o’ Groats – it’s now being used to sell car insurance to young drivers in the form of a telematics box and it may even help England win the European Championships in 2012.

Yes, I know this last statement sounds wildly spurious and optimistic but it’s true, if only you’ll read on.

Jack Wilshire, widely considered to be the greatest creative young midfield prospect we’ve produced since Paul Scholes – some even rate him as better – has said that he won’t go to the European Under-21 Championships after being warned off competing by the little GPS black box he has fitted to his body every time he plays.

It says that he’s getting tired, worn out and risks injury and exhaustion if he continues to play on through the summer’s under-21 tournament, having already clocked up more pitch minutes than any other Arsenal player this season.

As such, he’ll be free to rest, relax and have a summer holiday like any other person this summer. As a full international and Arsenal regular, he’s no longer a novice student of the game, so his decision to not compete will earn him a well-deserved break and be one that hopefully helps us come the 2012’s senior tournament.

Image © Ronnie Macdonald via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Watch out, watch out there’s windy weather about

2011-05-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been unusually windy recently in the UK and after two driver deaths caused by falling trees, experts are warning motorists to be careful when travelling in high winds.

The Highway Code gives its advice regarding driving in windy weather in points 232 and 233 and states that it is high-sided vehicles which are most affected by high wind speeds.

It also says that strong gusts can blow cars, cyclists, motorcyclists and even horse riders off course and is most likely to happen on open stretches of road exposed to crosswinds or when a road user passes a bridge or gap in a hedge or fencing.

Advice contained within the code suggests that vehicles may be affected by turbulence created by large vehicles and that motorcyclists are particularly susceptible.

However, the road safety regulations document does not appear to offer warning to motorists about the risks of falling trees and the debris caused by high winds.

The recent gale-force winds experienced in the UK are not usually experienced in late May and trees heavy with leaves and buds have been particularly affected. Accidents have been caused by boughs and branches breaking and falling into the road and onto cars.

Young drivers and inexperienced motorists are therefore reminded to be extra careful during high winds in spring and summer as the risk of a car accident may be greatly increased in such conditions.

Image © Freddie boy via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Making the capital’s roads safer for cyclists

2011-05-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

Many young drivers have probably, at one time or another, been active cyclists on UK roads and, as such, may be all too familiar with the dangers that a large lorry can present.

So, it may come as good news to many that the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) has launched a petition calling for all London councils to commence cyclist-awareness training for lorry drivers based within their boundaries.

As the petition was handed to London Assembly members at City Hall, Caroline Pidgeon, Chair of the Transport Committee, commented, "Cycling in London needs to be made far safer. More than one cyclist a month dies on London's roads – that is a shocking figure and is unacceptable.

"The Mayor is always talking about promoting cycling but the harsh fact is that much more needs to be done to tackle the dangers facing cyclists."

According to statistics quoted by the LCC, lorries and their drivers have been implicated in 50 per cent of London road traffic accidents involving cyclists in “recent years”. Yet, lorries only account for five per cent of the capital’s traffic.

Perhaps it is the dangers of cycling on UK roads which causes so many young adults to want to get their driving licences as soon as possible and this could be seen as a contributory factor in the high number of young driver car accidents. If this is the case, local councils and the government should surely wish to do all they can to make the roads safer for cyclists.

Image © Salim Virji via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence

A buzzar problem

2011-05-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

If you think petrol prices, car maintenance, road tax and insurance premiums are a problem – one motorist forgot about them all for a while when she came outside to find that a large swarm of bees had landed on her car and the little creatures were making themselves comfortable.

The woman driver, from Somerset, explained, “My neighbour knocked on my door to tell me a swarm had landed. I could hardly believe it – it was an incredible sight.

“I have no idea why they picked my car. There was no food for them here, but they seemed to be attracted by the fuel cap at the back of the vehicle.”

Bees are occasionally seen clinging to vehicles and other strange objects, much to the surprise of passers-by and the owners, during their spring reproductive cycles. Sometimes they are looking for a sheltered place to make a hive.

The woman waited to see if they’d buzz off (sorry), but eventually after two hours she called a bee-keeper to move them on.

If you go to your car one day to find a swarm of bees attached to it – don’t try to move them yourself. Wait to see if they leave without help and then, if they don’t, call a bee-keeper who can safely remove them for you.

That way, you have your car back, and the bees can go on to find a safer place to settle.

Image by kaibara87 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

More bad press for young drivers

2011-05-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

Oh dear! Once again, young drivers do themselves no favours in the press by admitting some really stupid things in response to a survey.

The Belfast Telegraph reported statistics from an unnamed source which stated that two out of every five young drivers felt it was okay to travel ten miles an hour, or more, faster than a speed limit set at 30mph.

It also stated that almost a quarter of the motorists questioned believed drinking up to one and a half pints of beer, or corresponding amount of alcohol, and then taking control of a car is acceptable.

Apparently, 500 young drivers, 16 to 21 years of age, were questioned and the results were revealed to coincide with the launch of the United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety Campaign.

Sadly, 58% of those polled thought that young motorists drive more dangerously when they are transporting their peers and this statistic is almost certainly borne out by the numbers of young drivers, and their young passengers, who become victims of car accidents.

Julie Townsend, spokesperson for road safety charity, Brake commented, "We're calling for a commitment from Government for action to tackle young driver crashes, and the needless casualties that result. Young drivers and their behaviour hold the key to the future extent of carnage on roads."

Image by jepoirrier via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Surprised speed camera

2011-05-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

Getting caught speeding is nothing to be proud of – but one 28-year-old man was very pleased when he made a Hastings speed camera flash in East Sussex.

The reason for his jubilation was probably that one, he won’t be issued with a fine, and two his 40mph speed was something of an achievement – the man was on rollerblades.

The speeder, a professional in-line skater, cannot be issued with a fine because the speeding law only applies to motorists. It seems that the government hasn’t taken into account that some other modes of transport could also go over the speed limit in some 20 or 30mph areas and might be a danger to road users around them.

However, although this stunt might seem like a good laugh, it was, according to road safety organisations, a very irresponsible thing to do on a public highway.

“Having reviewed the footage, it is obvious that this stunt is nothing short of extremely foolish,” a Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) member stated.

"It is almost inconceivable anyone would attempt such a dangerous stunt at night, dressed mostly in black, on a road that's in use, just to prove a point.

"This sort of activity should always take place off the road under supervised conditions, ideally with protective clothing being used.

"Motorists also won't be expecting to see someone on roller skates in the road, and other road users would find it incredibly difficult to accurately judge speed."

It’s nice to read some amusing news every now and then, but, as the SSRP stated, had circumstances been different there could have been a serious accident.

View a video of the stunt here. However, be warned though, there is swearing in the last few moments of the footage.

Image by Kenny Hindgren via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

A royal flush of sentiment

2011-05-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Although it might have been a struggle to see them beneath the assorted pieces of riotous headgear, young people were out in force at the Royal Wedding.

From an insurance perspective having all those young and wealthy aristocrats in one place must have been an underwriters’ nightmare. Add to that the array of Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins and custom-made limousines and it becomes clear that it must have cost a fortune to insure the whole extravaganza.

Whatever your view on Royalty – time-honoured British institution or anachronism turned glorified celebrity circus? – it was hard not to be swept along by the sentiment and collective goodwill which the spectacle engendered – moving out concentrically from Westminster Abbey to streets and lounges across the nation. One friend of mine, a newly-qualified young woman driver and avowed monarchist, shocked everyone, including herself by breaking into empathic tears of happiness as Will finally managed to lock the ring onto Kate’s finger, which appeared to have swollen with nerves.

Perhaps all of us who’ve been reared on fairy tales, Disney movies and Jane Austen costume dramas are hardwired to be susceptible to the prince-meets-girl-makes-princess formula – no matter how cynical we may claim to be on the outside.

The only time I felt remotely cynical was when the newlyweds rolled out of Buckingham Palace in my dream car. My resistance to envy can only withstand so much taunting. I wouldn’t even be able to realistically afford the car insurance for the Aston Martin, let alone the vehicle itself.

Image by it’s a foot! via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Search and destroy – uninsured vehicles

2011-04-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

It would be nice to have a spare £5000 wouldn’t it? Yes it would – and that’s why the maximum fine for driving without insurance is £5000 and six to eight penalty points too.

The hope is that this will deter motorists from getting behind the wheel without insurance – but amazingly 242,000 uninsured drivers are caught and convicted every year in the UK.

In a bid to reduce this number and lower the cost of annual premiums on car insurance for honest drivers, ministers are giving power to the DVLA which will allow them to clamp, seize and potentially crush any uninsured vehicles they find – even if they’re not being driven at the time.

This scheme, which comes into effect in June this year, will not affect people with Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) for their car and is purely in place to make being uninsured a harder offence to get away with.

The road safety minister stated, “Uninsured drivers injure 23,000 people each year and add £30 to every responsible motorist’s premium so we need to do everything we can to keep them off the roads.”

So – as well as being able to look forward to the sun and warmth of the summer months – in June we could also look forward to a reduction in car insurance prices.

Fingers crossed everyone!

Image by John Picken via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Travelling in wheel comfort

2011-04-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

We’re all thankful for our cars when we have to undertake a long journey or cross harsh terrain, but one 37-year-old man has taken the comfort of four wheels to the extreme – by using just one wheel and travelling through some of the planet’s most difficult locations.

The Canadian unicycler, who has been riding since he was 12 years old, has an amazing talent for unicycling and is fearless when it comes to trekking across the world’s most impressive and dangerous regions.

His one-wheeled talents have won him the 1999 North American, 2002 World and 2005 European unicycle trials championships, as well as an extremely respectable third place in the seven-day mountain BC Bike Race in 2010 – against 500 two-wheeled cyclists!

This unicyclist likes to challenge himself and among the achievements he can boast about are riding through the jungles of Bolivia, travelling the length of the Great Wall of China, and cycling down the side of a 6000 metre volcano – all on his one wheel.

This man brings a new meaning to the word off-roading!

The unicyclist, who is also a professional geoscientist states, “I do get some odd looks sometimes on my travels.” We’d have never guessed.

Image by magician14 via photobucket

Driving me loopy!

2011-04-14T03:54:00.000-07:00

A UK car leasing company recently decided to launch a competition to find Britain’s most loved and most hated roundabout.

Nothing could have prepared them for the flood of roundabout hate-mail entries which flooded in – which far out-numbered the love-letters.

The firm, who was looking for entries representing both good and bad road layouts, stated, "We're delighted that we've had such a positive response from the public, it's just a shame they've not been so complimentary about their nominations."

Some in the roundabout black-list are The Queen's Garden's island in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the Culverhouse roundabout on the A48 in Cardiff, and the famous Magic Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead – but there are many more entries for this category.

A company spokesperson has said that "common complaints have been poor layouts, worn markings, traffic jams and general confusion, all of which I can understand will frustrate drivers on their regular commute".

Apparently they are “hoping to receive more nominations for the best roundabout category and are challenging the public to go out there and snap an island which has in some way improved their lives".

We’re not sure whether they’ll get many positive entries – most roundabouts drive us round the bend!

Image by s_pollard via photobucket

Crawlies for dinner. I find the thought creepy.

2011-04-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

As a generation I know that we’re extremely lucky to be able to eat all kinds of foods all the year round.

We want a pineapple? We go to the supermarket and buy one for a couple of quid – conveniently pre-prepared for us if we like. Fancy a coffee? Role on down to Starbucks and order a flat white. Need some milk? Will that be organic, full cream, skimmed, semi-skimmed, jersey, Goat’s, soy or rice?

The list could go on. But it’s worth remembering that we’re among the very first generations to have taken this wealth of choice for granted.

A pineapple doesn’t even seem exotic any more, yet only a couple of hundred years ago they were worth more than their weight in gold. Coffee, too, used to sell for a similar premium and milk, well, it was just milk.

The same goes for meat. Supermarket shelves are packed with meat from all over the world – from New Zealand to Iceland – but there is a concern that all this livestock and all these air miles could eventually take their toll on the planet.

As a response to this need for low mileage food, Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers has created a three-course Banquet of Insects for the restaurant at Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. It showcases such delicacies such as worm crisps, grasshopper salsa tacos and chocolate-coated locusts.

Apparently, just as we’re all being asked to become car insurance customers for electronic vehicles in preference to gas-guzzlers, we should all be considering insects as sustainable and locally sourced food.

Nice idea, but I’m going to take some convincing. What do other young drivers think?

Learner driver rage

2011-04-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

We have probably all had our bad days when learning to drive and might even have had a bad experience during the driving test too – going into the wrong lane at a roundabout, stalling at red lights – but one news report has exposed just how badly a driving test can go.

A driver, who was planning to take his test in his own car, was told by the instructor that the exam couldn’t go ahead because he had an electronically-operated handbrake, which is not allowed in a test vehicle.

Now, at this point the motorist could have sighed and felt a bit hard-done-by for the rest of the day – as most of us would have done after the test nerves reached an anticlimax.

However, instead of resigning himself to the situation, he flew into a rage and took the examiner on an anger-fueled drive from hell – breaking the speed limit and running red lights on a busy road – before the poor tester escaped from the vehicle on a side-road.

The road-rage candidate completed his unorthodox test route by accidentally hitting the examiner in the face with the car door as he sped away.

Could have gone better? Yes – yes it could.

Image by Chelsea(: via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Used cars – every little helps

2011-04-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

When you think “used cars“ your first thought is unlikely to be Tesco.

However, that may all change since the supermarket giant has just launched itself into the second-hand car market and aims to post 3,000 vehicles a week on its site “tescocars.com”.

Customers can search for a car by entering a make, model and specific price bracket, or they can choose to find a car which fits their “lifestyle”. This allows the prospective buyer to enter details such as what they need space in the boot for, how important car comfort or safety features are to them, and which fuel they would rather use.

The buyer also has the opportunity to view a vehicle report, made by the RAC, so they can be sure that the vehicle is in good working order. And, apparently, Clubcard holders will earn themselves 2,000 points if they purchase a car on the company’s site.

So, there you go, Tesco really is adhering to their “every little helps” motto.

Run out of toilet-paper – Tesco. Need sandwiches for lunch – Tesco. Want a used car which fits exactly to your specifications – Tesco.

Image by dorecommend via Photobucket

Helping your ambitions hit target

2011-04-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

A new study by insurance company AXA has found that young people in Britain are more ambitious than young people from any other nation in Europe.

At first this seems like a good news story, until you read further down the study and find that although they are more ambitious they also have the least faith that they will attain their ambitions.

I understand this, ambition can be crippling – it’s one thing to have the ambitious ideal but it’s altogether another thing to have the self-confidence to test the reality of that ambitious ideal.

Every day in Britain, a young driver is faced with an example of this paradox. Yes, we want to take to the roads and yes, we want to get the cheap car insurance that makes it possible, but when we look for an affordable quote, we often find that none appears to exist. So faced with the choice of paying £30,000 to insure a one-litre Nissan Micra or not driving at all, we sigh with weary resignation and give up.

As much as it pains me to say, in this respect, just like with football, we could learn from the Germans and the Spanish – they are more likely to redouble their efforts and “try harder” when faced with such obstacles.

But then again, if you’re reading this then chances are that you’ve either got lucky early on and found Hoot – or you’ve already taken a leaf from the German and Spanish way and worked hard to find us, a young driver car insurance quote specialist.

So don’t give up, let us compare the market for you so that we can find you the really cheap young driver insurance that helps you reach your ambitions.

As Bill Bradley, the great American basketball player and former democratic presidential candidate, said, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”

Image by j9sk9s via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

We buy any car – for less than you thought

2011-04-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

A recent news report we’ve come across illustrates perfectly how important it is for drivers, who may be looking for young person’s car insurance, to shop around on the internet for all car-related offers in order to get the best deal.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has taken issue with Webuyanycar.com.

Here’s how the website works: after entering details of a car on the site, a motorist then receives a free valuation. Following this, one of the company’s inspectors comes to examine the vehicle to make sure that the details entered by the customer are correct.

However, during on-site inspections, customers have been shocked when the final offered buying price for their car is greatly reduced from the original appraisal.

The OFT think that the firm has been misleading people into thinking that if their car, upon inspection, matched the description entered online then they would receive the on-site valuation price.

Webuyanycar.com, known for its catchy, if slightly irritating, all-singing, all-dancing advert, has apparently been offering only 4% of its customers the price they were originally quoted for their vehicle online. Other customers have been receiving a significantly lower amount – up to 25% in some cases!

The company are now making changes to the website so that no one else is caught off guard.

Image by oshousecleaning via photobucket

Young people faced with difficult choices

2011-03-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Can it really have come to this? Must it be that for some young drivers the choice is between paying for car insurance cover or putting a deposit down on a house?

Well, I for one hope that young people aren’t faced with this dilemma. Although the obvious choice would be to own a house, you still need to be able to have some freedom of movement. What’s the point in owning a house if you’re stuck in it all day and can’t actually move anywhere?

You might think I’m being extreme, but I’m not – for some young drivers, the exorbitant cost of motor insurance cover means that they are actually faced with this dilemma.

Said one young driver who was quoted £24,000 to insure his 12-year-old Volvo, “It’s enough for a deposit on a nice house.”

And this wasn’t some young boy racer. This was a responsible young man who had taken the Pass Plus advanced driver certificate.

And, astonishingly, in the same week another young driver was actually quoted a full £12,000 more for a policy for his modest grey Vauxhall Corsa.

Perhaps these two hadn’t heard of telematics car insurance, which saves you money by rewarding you for safe driving, but I’ve got a feeling that if they had we probably never would have read any news stories of their outrageously expensive car insurance quotes.

Telematics: it doesn’t make you choose between being a driver and a mortgage holder. But let’s face it, with house prices as they are today, we’re not likely to be able to afford a house for a while yet.

I wonder if our parents’ generation, many of whom bought houses in their early twenties, has any idea of just how lucky they’ve been.

Image by cheetleys via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Bee in your bonnet about maintenance?

2011-03-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Many young motorists may be shocked to hear that a large number of road users are clueless when it comes to car maintenance – seven out of eight are unable to check tyre pressure, top-up water and oil or change head-light bulbs themselves.

An even more shocking statistic, perhaps, is that around 4 million UK drivers don’t even know how to open their car’s bonnet.

The research was undertaken by Castrol, an oil company, and findings suggest that modern motorists are much more concerned with how their car looks on the outside than how it works on the inside.

Apparently, the newest generation of road user knows more about in-car gadgets, like GPS, than the workings of their vehicle.

Some may find it a little worrying that these motorists are on the roads alongside them – some might recognise these characteristics as their own.

If you can count yourself amongst the un-mechanically minded masses, then maybe it’s time to have some maintenance lessons.

A motoring expert has said, “Those who ignore the basics, or don't even bother to get their car serviced, should realise that this is a false economy – both with their time and money.

“A new engine can be an expensive proposition but basic and easy maintenance tasks can ensure this does not happen.”

Image by Accretion Disc via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Google’s driverless car

2011-03-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

It has been an exciting week in the motor industry, with Google releasing new footage of road tests of its driverless car.

The adapted Toyota Prius was seen screeching and tearing its way round a track in San Francisco.

Warning: This video contains mild bad language.

It was a high-speed test. Round every inch of the track the vehicle looked like it had the Stig behind the wheel, but it didn’t, just a lot of technology and one very trusting human passenger.

Google has high hopes for the driverless technology. It believes that it could halve the 1.2 million road fatalities that occur on the world’s roads each year. And it’s already travelled 140,000 miles in real, unsimulated traffic – impressive.

But what would driverless technology mean for us? Sure, it would be nice to be chauffeured at our convenience, but would we still need to take driving tests and would we still need to obtain young driver insurance before we took to the roads.

My greatest fear is Wall-E style idleness: us humans become less and less capable as machines take over the most basic tasks until, ultimately, we’re left with no competence at all.

Sure, we might be behind the wheel to take over in the event that the technology malfunctions, but what would we actually be able to do if we’ve little to no experience of driving?

Tanks for the new car, Dad!

2011-03-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

“Attention all young driver insurance holders – car parking space too small – over.”

“Roger that, Hoot – giving up and finding wider space – over.”

If you have trouble squeezing into car parking spaces with the vehicle you have now, then buying some of the hardware the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is offering at the moment might not be wise.

Due to the budget cuts, the MoD is selling off many of its military vehicles – including around 600 tanks, some sturdy camo-adorned Land Rovers, and an amphibious 6x6 Supacat.

Witham Specialist Vehicles is the company in charge of selling and auctioning off these machines to the general public, and you’d be surprised how cheaply some of them are priced.

There are some provisos though, as the Witham sales director explained, “We don’t sell to just anybody. Anything that is armoured or militarised is subject to the strictest export licences.”

The other small catch of course is the probable lack of parking spaces wide enough to fit your new purchase into – plus the overwhelming urge to park on top of other vehicles when in a rush.

Image by ahisgett via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Don’t let your cheap policy go up in smoke

2011-03-11T02:01:00.000-08:00

It’s for a reason that even before there was scientific consensus on the harmfulness of tobacco, packs of cigarettes were often referred to as “coughin’ nails”.

And over the mid to late decades of the last century our parents and grandparents grew up with slogans such as Doctors Prefer Camel, Guard Against Throat Scratch or As Your Dentist I Would Recommend Viceroys and Just What the Doctor Ordered… the list could go on.

In fact, with hindsight it’s surprising that any of us have any parents or grandparents left at all.

Nowadays, fortunately, smoking is on the decline and although no-one is yet questioning an adult individual’s right to smoke, there is no longer any advertising, and health warnings are clear. Indeed, soon all tobacco companies could be forced to sell their products in plain and unglamorous packaging.

There are plenty of good reasons not to smoke. Not smoking is better for your health and your wallet and, although often overlooked, will help keep down the cost of any health or life insurance policy.

But what about car insurance? Do young drivers risk missing out on cheap quotes for policies if they smoke behind the wheel?

Well, before answering this question I should first say that it is illegal for a person to smoke in a car that is being used for public transport or the purposes of work.

It is also an offence for private drivers in Scotland, where transgressors are served a £60 fine.

And, although it is not an offence in the rest of the UK, smoking and driving can be classed as a “distraction” and may come with the loss of up to nine penalty points and, potentially a £2,500 fine and a driving ban.

In short, if you’re a smoker and want to protect your entitlement to cheap car insurance, it’s best not to light up while behind the wheel.

Will Jamie educate young drivers?

2011-03-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

I don’t know how many of you have been following Jamie’s Dream School, but if you haven’t you’re certainly missing out on some compelling viewing.

As young drivers it’s likely that, like me, you’re not long out of school so many of the scenes and much of the classroom banter will seem eerily familiar.

Like Jamie Oliver himself, my reaction at seeing classrooms full of unruly, distracted and persecuted-feeling teenagers was one of horrified self-revelation. Was I really like that – was I that bad, was I worse? Did I have that little empathy and respect for my teachers? Have I grown up so much in only five years?

It seems to matter little to the 20 students in Jamie’s dream school that their teachers are celebrities. They’re simply not as impressed by the assembled thespians, knights, lords, doctors and documentary presenters as I imagine they would have been at being taught acting by someone from the cast of Hollyoaks?

And poor David Starkey! The elevated, slightly fusty historian is so bewildered by the motley crew of secondary school dropouts that he gets in front of the class and instantly assumes the template of the teacher at school most likely to suffer a mid-lesson cardiac arrest.

“You’re here because you failed!” he says before going on to call a student fat, all without any provocation.

Perhaps something is missing from the programme and I’ll be interested to see if there’s any mention of this missing element over the coming episodes. What about some road safety education?

With young driver car insurance premiums being far too costly for many and more young people dying in road accidents than from any other cause, road safety education definitely deserves a place on Jamie’s curriculum.

And perhaps Starkey could learn a trick or two from Hoot! where we reward people for doing the right thing. It’s called using the carrot, not the stick and, you know what, it works.

Are lake-monster claims just silly ness?

2011-02-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone’s heard of the Lock Ness Monster (pictured), but any young drivers up for a road trip and an adventure might want to check out England’s newest unidentified creature – Bownessie.

Spotted by a 24-year-old IT employee, on a team-building exercise with work colleagues on Lake Windermere in the Lake District, the so-called “monster” caught on camera-phone (it’s never a powerful camera is it) is being hailed as the English Nessie – and the photo is the clearest yet…apparently.

The encounter sounds pretty scary, the young man describing an animal the length of three cars swimming past him “really quickly at about 10mph,” each hump “moving in a rippling motion”.

This is reportedly the eighth sighting in the past five years, but sceptics don’t believe that an animal so large could survive in a lake of only 11 miles in length.

“We run echo sounding surveys every month and have never found anything,” said a University of Lancaster lake ecologist.

Is there an undiscovered monster in the Lake District? The mystery deepens…

Cash for crashers ruin lives

2011-02-18T02:41:00.000-08:00

As if we don’t already have enough driving-related anxieties to contend with: the cost of car insurance – negative stereotypes of young drivers – spiralling fuel costs – and the sometimes hazardous driving conditions we all must face.

But, it seems there is, sadly, yet another concern car drivers must be wise to: the cash for crash scam and in recent years, police and motor insurance companies have reported a surge in such scams.

In the typical cash for crash scam, a fraudster will drive in front of the unsuspecting motorist before braking suddenly, causing a rear-end crash so that they can then claim compensation for whiplash.

My own grandmother, 79-years-old, telephoned me just yesterday to reveal that she had nearly become the victim of such a scam.

She’d been driving on a rural road close to her retiree’s accommodation when the vehicle ahead began engaging in sudden and erratic braking. After a few minutes it became clear to my gran than she was being unwittingly coaxed into a car accident.

Thankfully, she decided to pull over and wait, but also to gather her composure.

However, she is now fearful of taking to the road again and it may be that her motoring life has come to a premature end.

Cash for crash scammers: not only do they drive up the cost of car insurance cover, they also ruin lives.

Oh, yes, my Porsche! I thought you were asking me about soup

2011-01-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Something tells me that Stoke City and one-time potential England saviour Jermaine Pennant probably doesn’t bother comparing the market before he buys his young driver insurance.

If he did, I might feel sorry for him. After all, he is the man who on being contacted by former club Real Zaragoza who were enquiring if he was the owner of an abandoned £98,000 Porsche apparently told them, “Nope, never seen it in my life.”

The club said that although they were sorry to bother him, they had a hunch the sports car might be his. The number plate was a bit of a clue: “P33NNANT”.

“Oh yes, the £98,000 Porsche.,” Pennant might have said. “I though you said, the £98,000 Borscht, – I’ve got a real thing for unbelievably expensive soup, you see, so I’m sure you can understand the confusion.”

And considering that Pennant’s Spanish foray was short-lived – he was only there for three months, during which time he failed to endear himself to coach or fans, managing to be late for training three times in two weeks – I can only hope that he did the sensible thing and bought himself some low mileage car insurance.

Oh well, at least the call from Zaragoza has served some good. Pennant has now been reunited with his personalised number plates, which he now proudly bears on his brand new Ferrari. Let’s hope he remembers it’s his.

But, if by any chance he does forget, I’d be all too happy to help him remember that it’s actually mine and that the little Nissan Micra parked outside my house is in fact his.

Frontin' in the name of...

2011-01-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

In music, 2003 was a stand out year for high-pitched male vocals. Not falsetto, exactly – I’m not musical enough to throw such terms around, anyway – but the kind of music you and a dog could enjoy together.

Justin Timberlake released the undeniably brilliant “Señorita” that year, a song which features parts both for ladies and men (a true metrosexual, JT sings both). If you pay attention to the video, you’ll notice Pharrell Williams is playing drums; a nod to the fact that he and Chad Hugo produced the track together.

Pharrell is responsible for another high pitched masterpiece released in 2003, “Frontin’”. The song and accompanying video are notable for several things, among them the relatively unusual ratio of clothes-on-women to clothes-on-men (for a rap song) and the phrase ‘tear ya ass up’, which is presented here more as a kind of cutesy come-on than the violent threat it surely ought to be.

Until recently, frontin’ was a term I understood solely in the context presented here by Pharrell – referring to a person who puts up a façade of confidence or emotional availability (the ‘front’).

Not any more.

These days, it seems, the car insurance business is getting its claws into everything: meercats, Australians, etc – and now frontin’, or fronting, to give its insurer terminology. We are to understand the word in this context as referring to a low-risk ‘parent’ figure taking out car insurance in their own name on a car meant principally for a different, high-risk ‘child’ (who is included on the policy as a named driver).

The tactic is illegal and insurers are quick to see through it in the event of an accident, meaning that the effective level of cover provided is zero. But in these cash-strapped times, plenty of people are doing it – and this definition for frontin’ is rapidly gaining currency in the motoring press.

Let’s look at the evidence. Frontin’ = cool. Fronting = definitely not cool.

Cheap car insurance for superheroes

2011-01-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

Do superheroes have car insurance? This is, for me, a deeply troubling question.

After all, although I have nothing but respect, awe and admiration for the work of various caped crusaders, I can’t help wondering whether they have the requisite cover. And, if they don’t, should they just stay indoors?

I feel that now is a good time to ask, what with the government announcing a crackdown on uninsured vehicles and everything, and of course the release of the Green Hornet, which is a film in which the superhero’s car is every bit as important a character in the film as the superhero himself.

Over the years we’ve been exposed to all kinds of superhero vehicles. From the original Batmobile, from the 60s TV series, to the Tim Burton beast of the 90s, all the way to the demonic “Tumbler” of the Dark Knight. And we mustn’t forget the odd Robin motorbike along the way.

Then there’s all the others: the cat woman car; the Ghost Rider; the X-men Blackbird and the Fantastic Four Fantasicar.

Even Superman, despite being able to fly (perhaps it’s out of consideration to the comfort of passengers) had a Supermobile in a number of comics.

Then of course, there’s Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet. An invisible Jet? Good luck with the insurance cover for that.

And there’s the vexed question of whether these superheroes should be considered as young drivers. Yes, they’re all young, especially Robin, but many of them have been around for more than sixty years.

This is an area of the law that appears unclear. I demand clarity!

Breaking a good friend’s will with low mileage car insurance

2011-01-17T04:33:00.000-08:00

One of my closest friends has always been notorious for his strength of will. According to his mum, when he was but a six-year-old he held out going to the loo for a whole eight days, with almost disastrous, indeed, near-fatal results.

Another example occurred when we were at college together. Jack was so sure he was going to walk straight into the Rugby firsts and be made captain that he announced it on Facebook before it had even happened – it didn’t, but Jack persisted with such determination that by the end of our third year he was made captain, if only for the final three matches, a situation that was down, in no small part to a spate of unfortunate injuries.

But he gets some things right from the off. For example, it is some years ago now since he predicted the demise of MySpace. He described it as too anarchic, saying it was great if you were a band but not good for much else.

He also recently got engaged to his girlfriend of three years by, again, announcing the engagement on Facebook. The only trouble was that he had not asked permission, neither from her nor her father.

“You what?” she commented on his engagement status. “Should I be heartbroken?”

“No, delighted,” he replied. “You’re the luckiest woman in the world, and I’m the luckiest man. Just wait until your father finds out – he’ll be delighted.”

“Is that a proposal?”

“Yes.”

So when two years ago, ignoring my advice, he said he was ready to forsake his car because of increased running costs, I expected him to stick with it – he did, but only for 20 months.

Yes, two months ago, after tiring of taxis, trains and inconvenient walk, Jack allowed himself to be persuaded by a low mileage young driver insurance policy. And as much as I hate to see a man’s will broken, I can’t help but feeling a healthy glow of triumph.

Cheaper car insurance in 2011

2011-01-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

So, did you make any New Year resolutions for 2011 – drive slower, drive safer, find cheaper car insurance?

Or maybe they were more mundane – wash your car once a week, plan for the MOT rather than leaving it until the last moment, remove all fast food cartons before they change colour in the footwell?

New Year resolutions are all well and good, but the history behind them is extremely intriguing.

It is said that around 4,000 years ago the Babylonians were the first people to start doing good deeds at the beginning of the year. It was their tradition to return any borrowed farm equipment to neighbours because their New Year was also the beginning of the farming season.

Apparently, not long after, the Romans would begin their New Years by looking back at the previous year and resolving to accomplish more in the forthcoming year.

In ancient times Chinese people would begin their New Year with a thorough house clean, from top to bottom, as they saw this as the best way to begin a year.

So, it’s easy to see why for many in the modern world, our New Year resolutions are based around self-improvement or the achievement of certain positive goals, but for many of us they are merely a bit of fun which quickly gets forgotten about.

Of course, some goals are more achievable than others:

losing weight – difficult
saving money on your car insurance – easy…now you’ve found Hoot that is!

When no points mean prizes

2011-01-06T04:26:00.000-08:00

Perhaps politicians have been listening to Hoot, which has made itself an innovator in providing incentives for good, sensible driving.

It turns out that the Labour shadow transport secretary has proposed financially rewarding drivers for sticking to the speed limit. This would be in stark contrast with the Labour Party’s reputation when in government among some motorists for installing an allegedly punitive network of speed cameras.

Whatever the politics of speed cameras, one thing’s for certain: there can be no excuse for speeding – it kills.

But in what would be a great irony, those same speed cameras could be used to capture information about drivers’ journeys to calculate whether they had been travelling within speed limits.

The shadow transport secretary explains, "The speed cameras are capturing the data, the speed and number plates of the cars that go through,” she said.

"I have seen lately this idea actually if you were to use the information you get from them to have a lottery, have a draw of those who drive under the speed limit.”

Doesn’t sound like a bad idea does it? And perhaps winners could be entitled to cheaper car insurance as well?

Young driver to old driver, it’s a slippery slope

2011-01-04T02:09:00.000-08:00

It’s funny to think that all the prejudices and stereotypes that exist about “old fuddy duddies” will also one day apply to us.

My grandfather likes to berate me, saying things like, “You young drivers, with all your satnav gizmos and electric cars, your brains will go stale.”

When I ask him why, he tells me it’s because we don’t use them enough. He argues, perhaps more accurately than I care to admit to him, that “in his day” all young men used to read maps, whereas these young drivers “just let microchips do all the work, while their brain cells lose muscle mass”.

Speaking of muscle mass, he adds, do I really need to buy pre-chopped firewood – he’s 75-years-old and still chops his own. Perhaps it explains why I’m getting a bit flabby – thanks, granddad.

With his words still ringing in my mind, I wake the next day and go to the gym. I even drop round to his place the same evening and offer to help him chop firewood.

Granddad effortlessly slices his way through log after log – I’m still stuck on my first. Soon I complain that the axe is blunt. No it’s not, he says, you’ve been cutting against the grain. I wish he’d told me that five minutes ago, but, truth be told, I know he’s enjoyed it, watching me struggle as I learn the hard way.

Yes, one day, I’ll be old, however much I may struggle to comprehend it now. Pretty soon I won’t even need to find a young driver car insurance policy and from there it’s a slippery slope.

But when I am old, I only hope that I can manage to pull off being grumpy with half as much insight and humour as my dear old grandfather.

A clean conscience makes for a great job

2010-12-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

The difference between a good job and a great job is all about how it makes you feel.

For example, watching the television show The Apprentice the other week I was struck by how one of the contestants felt that she wanted to move on from her job to one with Lord Sugar because of a sense of stigma and shame she felt about running a cleaning company.

When this particular contestant was being put through the rigorous and, frankly, terrifying interview process, which sees the final five interrogated, vivisected and grilled by a number of Lord Sugar’s associates and henchmen, she explained her ambitions in terms of wanting to “move on” from cleaning to something “better”.

I was moved by the way one of the interviewers told her that she needn’t think of herself as “running a cleaning company”. Why not instead, he said, think of herself as a managing director?

I was talking about this with colleagues recently. We all agreed that our jobs are great because we’re committed to doing something that makes people happy: allowing them to save money on their car insurance for young drivers.

Yeah, some jobs seem great, they might make you a quick buck, but unless they make you feel good about what you’re doing, chances are they’ll have pretty low mileage.

James Bond dreams crushed. Just don’t go bananas, Herbie

2010-12-20T02:33:00.000-08:00

My nephew is one lucky boy. He’s just turned 18 and he’s been bought his first car.

Like many a lad of his age he’s spent much of the past five years dreaming of freedom and the open road. He’s also spent a great deal of time fantasising about the vehicle he’ll be road-tripping in.

Top of his list was a James Bond-style Aston Martin, or a Hummer H2. But, failing that, he admitted to my sister that he was prepared to settle for something cheaper.

“Like what?” she asked him.

“Oh, you know – something simple.” He replied. He then went on to compile a list of “budget” supercars such as the Nissan GT-R, Mitsubishi Evo or Subaru WRX.

The problem with this, I pointed out, like the most annoying of uncles, is that the vehicle may be “budget” but the insurance won’t be. In fact, as a young driver, even with low mileage cover, the cheapest car insurance he’d find for one of these vehicles is likely to easily reach a four-figure sum.

Actually, this bit of information proved to be irresistible to my sister. In the year leading up to his birthday, whenever my nephew misbehaved, my sister threatened to buy him the GT-R of his dreams, knowing full well that it would prove impossible to insure and just sit in the garage cruelly mocking him.

The car he got? A classic Herbie-style VW Beetle – the lucky lad.

Image © RUD66 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Taking to the skies, before your voice breaks

2010-12-17T04:17:00.000-08:00

If you think that young driver insurance is expensive, you should try getting a quote for young flyer insurance.

Every year here in Britain, a handful of young people will qualify for their pilot’s licenses before they’re even old enough to be eligible to drive.

Perhaps I’m being presumptuous, but with the cost of flying lessons, including the requisite 45 hours flying time, typically exceeding £15,000, my guess is that most young pilots will not typically come from a section of society that has to worry too much about finding the cheapest cover.

In a way, it’s baffling that aviator’s insurance should be so expensive. We’re always being told that it’s safer to fly than it is to cross the road, and the chances of suffering a rear-end, whiplash-inducing collision are very low.

But from another perspective it is easier to understand the cost. Any passengers a young pilot takes up for a flight are likely, by association, to come from the jet set. Furthermore, once you’re several thousand feet up in the air, chances are that if your plane falls out the sky and lands on something, you’re going to do a fair amount of costly damage.

Then you must also consider the kinds of people who are likely to be mulling around a private airport. Bump into a millionaire and you could easily find yourself liable for a multi-million pound payout. And that’s not to mention the probable vehicles. Can you imagine how painful it would feel taxiing into a Ferrari, Bentley or Aston Martin, knowing that you don’t have the liability insurance to cover the damage?

Popemobile car insurance for young drivers

2010-12-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

At 83-years-old, the present Pope, Benedict XVI, is unlikely to ever go on a Googling mission for “popemobile car insurance for young drivers”.

However, we must not count out the possibility of future pontiffs being in the market for this type of cover. After all, previous popes have been markedly younger. Take John VII, for example – he rose to the papacy at a mere 18-years-of-age.

Back to the present and, according to various reports, the current pontiff has expressed a wish to convert the famous popemobile to a more environmentally friendly, solar-powered electric engine.

Apparently, solar panels were installed on the roof of the Vatican's main auditorium in 2008, and a solar cooling unit has been installed in its main cafeteria. Both features have won awards.

Although the usual travelling speed of the popemobile is little more than a walking pace, concerns have been voiced about the acceleration capabilities of an electrically powered vehicle should a security scare ever be experienced by the Pope and his entourage.

However, the marketing chief of the solar power firm charged (pardon the pun) with researching the possibility of such a vehicle has refuted this claim.

"It's really no problem," he said, noting that electric cars can go from 0-100 kph in three seconds.

What to give your car this Christmas

2010-12-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

Hey, what's good for a car with cold feet this Christmas?

How about a pair of snow socks?

Well, there's a product on the market which is designed to help cars get a good grip on snow and ice, and (so the advertising blurb says) is an easy-to-fit alternative to snow chains.

The textile 'socks' slip over the drive wheels and the hi-tech fabric provides grip on icy roads. They can be used whenever they are needed and can easily be left in the car boot for quick-fitting whenever the weather turns icy.

I've checked on the internet and some sellers have a few pairs left, but it seems like they're selling out fast.

So, my dear little car, I hope you don't read this, because I will have spoiled the surprise - Yes, there's a pair of nice grippy socks under the Christmas tree, just for you.

Quick, to the Batmobile replica!

2010-11-26T01:50:00.000-08:00

I have just heard some news which has made me wish I had a spare £120,000 – not that I don’t always wish I had a spare £120,000.

An American company in Indiana, called Fibreglass Freaks, has made 14 replicas of the Batmobile from the 1960s TV series, Batman. One has already been bought by someone in the UK and shipped across the pond to British soil.

The replica is a fully functioning vehicle and even comes with some Batmobile gadgets such as roll-top dashboard doors and the famous flame-throwing exhaust, which unsurprisingly has had to be toned down for real-life road use.

The car has been modernised a little, with a sound system and DVD player, but this impressive motor vehicle is nearly six metres in length – so good luck finding a parking space.

Still, now that I know they’re available, I can’t help but want a Batmobile of my very own.