She says . . .

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 8

She says . . .

There can not be many things as annoying as to be all lined up "for a parking place, carefully backing in, when some smartalec whips in from behind and beats you to the place. My initial reaction is always to just keep on going backwards till there’s a mighty “crunch’.’ But the law frowns on that, 1 am told, and I have too much respect for my vehicle.

There was a court .case a few months ago in which a person who did go ahead and “crunch” the interloper was fined heavily for his behaviour. But I must admit he has my sneaking sympathy.

But I wonder what sort of people these are who find it so smart, and so clever, to beat someone else for a parking space? I wonder if they realise that many passers-by always see their behaviour, and must automatically regard them as ill-

mannered. thoughtless, and selfish? Or are they so “far gone’’ in their behaviour that they simply do not care? It is another first-class example of the way in

which people’s attitudes worsen when they cdmb into a car, of course. The same folk, deplorable although their standards of behaviour clearly are , would probably never consider elbowing you aside

in a queue. But put them inside a tonne of metal, and they will elbow you aside with hardlv ' a thought.

The important thing is not to get angry. A man who saw two such incidents within a few days recently (both incidents, I am ashamed to say, involved women) said that one of the “displaced” drivers drove off in what was clearly a towering rage. She crunched every gear change as she roared off along the street.

I would not like to have met her at the next corner. And that, is the point, you see — when you are angry, no matter how justifiably, you can not pos« sibly hope to drive safely. It would hardly make the episode anj’ happier if you caused an- accident within a few hundred metres, while still fuming over your grievance. —Barbara petre