Green or Obscene? My latest mileage

Miles by car: -396
Miles driven: -4
Miles by train: +360
Miles by bus: 0
Miles by bike: 0
Miles by foot: +64
Total: +24 (running total: +338)

Judging by the number of stories of sadistic traffic wardens you hear, you would think they were the motoring public's enemy number one. From having to fulfil quotas of tickets issued to picking on old grannies who just stopped to post a letter, they get a bad press even worse than journalists.
But how come then you see so many badly parked cars and motorists using their "I'm so special I can park here" flashers? And what about all those drivers turning right or left when they're not supposed to, abusing bus lanes, cutting in at the last moment and other breaches of the Highway Code? Is it because they love dicing with points added to their licences or is it because they know the chances of them being spotted and pulled over are minuscule?
I'd put my money on the latter for, despite all the cameras around, there doesn't seem to be anyone keeping any eye on what is going on on our roads. When was the last time you saw a traffic warden or a traffic policeman? Not for a long while yet there are plenty of parking abuses and other crimes against other road users that they could tackle in the centre of Bradford alone every day.
The rules are there for safety reasons and to aid the smooth flow of traffic not to persecute drivers but a lot of people are so arrogant, they don't believe they apply to them. I'm sure I can sneak into that yellow box, they say. Result, someone stuck in the middle of the road holding everyone else up. Ditto those going through traffic lights on amber who are then in everyone's way coming from other directions.
And it would be interesting to know how many of the accidents on our roads and motorways were caused by bad driving, especially in adverse weather at busy times. People bemoan delays caused by roadworks but I bet time wasted (particularly now when the police seemingly close a road for hours for the smallest accident) by "deliberates" or "avoidables" is much greater.
Isn't it about time we educated everyone further about the rules of the road. After all, the last time most of us actually read the Highway Code was before we passed our test. And how long ago was that? 20 years, 30 years? It is about time refresher and advanced driver courses were made compulsory every 10 years or so and newly-qualified drivers had to complete pass-plus courses within six months.
Local councils could help, for example, by giving more advanced warning of what lane to be in at junctions and synchronising lights so that you don't have that stop-start experience. Manningham Lane and Keighley Road are typical and timing the lights so that by the time you got to the next set at 30mph they were green would be great and at the same time stopping that race to get there before they changed.
With more and more cars on the road, the frustrations of being behind the wheel grow and the more we can do to alleviate some of the ills the better.