It's driving me mad!

You see before I actually moved to York, I had a 120-mile round trip every day from Sheffield, but then I actually took the plunge and bought York's smallest flat.

So then it used to be 6am starts and a 90-minute drive, usually 60 minutes driving up the motorway, then a 30-minute crawl up Fulford Road.

Now it's a different story. It's just a 20-minute crawl down Bootham to get to work, just enough time to listen to the "Old Woman" do her thing on Galaxy. Though if it's a 7am start at work, I can make it in three minutes, Bootham to Walmgate. It's great when there's nothing on the roads but me, makes me feel like the city is entirely mine.

What prompts this moan after such a long endurance of this great city and its roads? Well, it was this morning. Having sat at the top of Bootham Terrace, indicating to turn right onto Bootham, it took me ten minutes before someone relented and let me in.

And to the man in the rather nice Audi convertible, I thank you.

What amused me (no, not amused, maybe annoyed is more the correct word) is that people could see I was wanting to join the trudge down Bootham, and yet ignorantly carried on.

Now it's not like letting one car in is going to make you any more late for work, is it?

I think what my gripe is, is that people just don't have good manners any more. I'm not claiming to be the world's greatest driver, it's just that if you live in the city and have to drive in the city, then you know it's not an easy thing to do, almost like a camaraderie.

What I have observed over the years is how those self-righteous people on bikes seem to be able to go where they want, in what direction they want and without the need to tell you (i.e. indicate) where they want to go.

It's at this point that the people in the nasty, smelly, environmentally unfriendly, overpriced cars are supposed to become mind-readers!

Getting stuck at the bottom of Bootham, is like being in a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. From nowhere, you seem to be surrounded by a flock of people on two wheels, in a state of frenzy. And once you attempt to set off on green, it's almost like watching the Tour de France! bikes everywhere, some letting you know (albeit at the last minute) where they want to go, others throwing you glares and hand gestures for even having dared to passyour driving test, never mind being on the road.

My main fear is that should I ever have an accident involving a bike in this city, it would be a done deal, I would be guilty beyond belief, because it couldn't have been the person on the bike, could it!

Now I know what some of you are thinking: Don't drive! OK, you have a fair point, but my job doesn't work that way. A lot of the work is delivery and calling on businesses right in the city walls, so it's a constant clock-watch to ensure you're in and out before 11, and back after 4. There's just not me; everyone having to do the same thing is there as well.

I've lost track of the times I've tried to make a call to Stonegate, only to get stuck behind a White Van Man making a delivery, because its just been easier for the driver to dump his van in my way and walk the 100 yards instead. And don't get me started on trying to go to the station with a box of magazines to deliver.

If my life revolved around this wonderful city, then I would concede and not use the car as much. Having already paid a fortune to live here, to then have to pay for the privilege of being able to park your car outside your own property grates a little; more so when it's suggested at the permit office that it would be cheaper to go visit friends out of York than to have them come here and have to pay again for additional permits!

Unfortunately I have to make long journeys to Halifax and Leeds to care for elderly relatives. So I'm afraid I have become quite dependent on that environmentally unfriendly, nasty, smelly, overpriced car.

Updated: 14:28 Thursday, October 20, 2005