She says...

Press, 28 February 1980, Page 15

She says...

Yet another reader who has recently been in the United States has written commenting on the remarkable behaviour (to a New Zealander) of American drivers. “I was absolutely fascinated by the movement of cars in their lanes, and the patience, courtesy, and tolerance shown by drivers,” she writes. “I wondered if it might be due to their high insurance premiums and the possibility of being sued for damages that made them so, but then even in Auckland drivers will allow you to change lanes without deliberately obstructing that manoeuvre, as they do in Christchurch.” Quite so. Only the other evening we were driving along Bealey Avenue, in heavy traffic, and trying to move into the left lane

in time for a left turn ahead. The traffic was heavy enough to make the move impossible without some co-operation. There was a gap, but as soon as he saw our signal, the apparently otherwise normal family man travelling behind us put on a fierce expression, and accelerated hard' to get alongside and block us from moving over. ft all goes back to the lack of courtesy and consideration I’ve mentioned often before. I suspect that it also is a product of the lack of enforcement of such good motoring behaviour. I have driven behind a traffic officer when such things as this deliberate “shutting the door” happened right in front of him — and he took not the slightest notice.— Barbara Petrie.