SHE SAYS ...

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31238, 9 December 1966, Page 15

SHE SAYS ...

There is no doubt about it —courtesy is not only contagious, as the road safety posters tell us, but also leaves a very good impression with those to whom the courtesy hag been shown. A friend told me how she and her husband had been trying for many minutes to drive from a parking area into a continuous stream of traffic. Nobody left them a gap.

Then a small car came to a stop, and the driver waved them into the traffic stream. My friend was most impressed. “You know, the driver was only a young girl, too,” she said. “It’s so rare to see such courtesy in Christchurch. ...”

This act cost that girl driver only a few seconds, but it left behind it a lasting impression and a good example that may, in the future, benefit other drivers. We women can be a great force for spreading courtesy on the roads and, unfortunately, we can also be a great force for spreading discourtesy. Far too often we see women drivers who seem to expect men to give way

to them just because they are women, and too often we see pedestrians who think that just because they are women they can cross the city streets where and when they like, stalking imperiously across the bows of approaching cars. We have a great weapon on our side, too —the disarming smile. If we make a mistake in our driving, a friendly smile acts both as an apology to the other road-user and as an effective antidote to his or her wrath. If they make the mistake, the smile will probably make them feel a little foolish and rueful, whereas a curled lip or a shaken fist would merely annoy. We, too, can exercise some influence over our menfolk when they are driving, and encourage them to show courtesy to other road-users. Courtesy on the roads is never wasted, for the driver to whom courtesy is shown is all the more likely to show equal consideration for others. And we women must always remember that road rules apply equally to all road-users “Ladies first” does not apply on the roads.