INSISTENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 203, 28 August 1934, Page 14

INSISTENCE.

"SELFISH EGOISM."

HARRIED BY ' THRITSTERS.

Insistence is a kind of selfish egoism which turns an otherwise good motorist into a "thrus€er," one who takes advantage of every opening to go through the traffic and so save a few minutes on a journey. It is not because he is really in a hurry that, by skilful driving and thrusting methods, he threads his way through the gaps which permit his passage with only an inch or so to spare: he likes doing it, it adds to the zest of driving, and turns a pastime into a sport which is different from all other sports because the people with whom he is competing are /unaware of their part in the contest. It is so easy to win a game of strategy if one's opponents are not playing. . ; •

This would not matter at'all to the world at large but for the fact that the thruster cauees a great deal' of inconvenience to a large number of people and contributes to the number of accidents on the road. The thruster, always being the overtaking party,. does : not realise how disconcerting it is to have a car "on one's tail" as it were, constantly juggling for position , in order to swoop by. If he had competed in an international road race he would know that his methods are exactly the same ae those employed by the. great continental drivers who wear down many a rival by .this same harrying process. If it can play on the nerves of a road-racing expert, its effect upon the ordinary family motorist can well be imagined.

A driver who is harried is not clearheaded in an emergency, therefore the thruster is definitely lowering the standard of driving among his fellows. Legally it is. not often an offence, and there is only one law which the jnotoring public can hope will mitigate the nuisance, for such it is, and that is the law of decency.