THE ROAD HOG.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 March 1929, Page 13

THE ROAD HOG.

SPEEDING NOT ONLY FAULT. SLOW DRIVING~AND STANDING ALSO COUNT. What makes a road hog? asks a writer in the “Morris Owner.” Unsuitable speed in the road conditions of the moment? Well, that is, I suppose, the most common mark of the genus, and the fault by which the majority of people identify the road hog. But to travel faster than is safe or for the public convenience is by no means the only wrong thing that may be done at the wheel of a motor-car. In fact, speed has not necessarily anything to do with it. You can, for instance, make yourself particularly obnoxious by travelling too slowly, and thus holding up the rest of the traffic on a busy main road.

Or you can be a road hog at rest. Road conditions in the country as weh as in towns have become such that a stationary car can be just as much a nuisance, and even danger, as a vehicle travelling too rapidly. A car that has been halted just around a blind corner, for instance, is an obstruction to traffic following it, both directly and indirectly. When you come upon such a vehicle, you may not find it difficult to avoid running into the car itself; but you have to overtake—no matter whether the overtaken car is moving or stationary—on a corner, and surely" by now everyone knows that this is very nearly the most dangerous action that a driver can perform. Some people are road hogs in this particular respect unwittingly; and others, as they imagine, perforce. In the latter category is the driver of the local tradesman’s delivery van. It does not appear to occur' to him that even if a customer’s house is on a corner he could stop his van twenty yard* or so farther along the road and walk the difference. Then the private ear stops involuntarily, perhaps through lack of petrol; in many cases the driver—possibly a girl acquiring experience in her first car—regards this as a matter over which she has no control, since the stop was involuntary. Probably, even, she fills up and takes herself out of the way as quickly as possible; but it would have been much to the benefit of public safety in the meantime if the car had been pushed out of the danger zone —on to the border of the road, for instance. For the picnic party which clioses a nice shady bend as a location for a meal I can find no excuse whatever!

But the road hogism generally is a breach of the eleventh commandment. “Thou slialt cause no inconvenience to thy- neighbour.” The beginner cannot be expected to think of everything, of course; but if he or she would just consider each proposed action with the inconvenience idea in view it would make matters much more comfortable. When one is visiting a friend after dark, for instance, almost invariably the house is on the right-hand side <r the road. How manv people take the trouble to approach from the opposite direction, or to turn around, so that the side-lights shall not be shining in the eyes of motorists approaching on their correct side? It is a small mat-

ter, but side-lamps are a good deal more dazzling than is necessary, since we never depend upon them for a driving light; and in any case, a white light in a position where only a red light should be can be most embarrassing if there is much traffic on the road. And if you happen to .stop by the roadside at night out in the country, do you make a point of instantly switching off your headlamps? Other motorists would have to put up with them if you were moving, you may sav, so why should you put them out just because you have stopped for a moment ? ell, supposing that the road is straight and two cars are approaching eacli other at thirty miles an hour. The lamps begin' to be a nuisance at, say, half a mile. That half a mile is past in half a minute.

But if one of the cars is stationary the half-minute becomes a whole minute, added to which is the fact that a driver approaching stationary lamps has absolutely no idea of wiiat the other driver (of the car to which the lamps are attached) is going to do. He is not likely to turn round or cross the road, or do anything that might cause clanger, it is true, but the driver of the moving car has to be prepared —and, to be brief, just to avoid the awful labour of snapping up a switch you cause him quite considerable inconvenience. ■»'

And there are plenty of other things that you cap do ancl should not do. Talcing up more than your fair share or space m a car park is one of them. Luck or skill at reversing is the most common cause of this particular manifestation of road hogism at rest; but that is only a reason, and not an excuse. AN lien you go shopping in a city, too, it is just as well to make sure that one ot your rear wheels is not so c.ose to the tramlines that when you come out you will find a string or trams patiently—more or less —awaiting your arrival so that they can proceed, oince the police will probably have something to say in such a case, i don’t suppose that any one person is likely to make that mistake twice. Another thing when shopping—-don’t leave the door of the car open while you rush into your favourite emporium to mrvteh a piece of ribbon. On a narrow pavement the obstruction to pedestrian traffic is obvious; but I am thinking rather of the damage which the inevitable, irritable passerby will cause as he slams the door, or torees it back against its hinges. .Likewise, it is rather inconsiderate to stop right opposite the main entrance to a -shop, hotel or club. That is where you want to get out, 1 know; but so do other people, and as you are bound to be away from the car for at least a minute or so, you might just as well drive it a few yards along and leave the entrance clear. Well, there are doubtless many other matters of a similar kind that might oe mentioned, and in every case the fault is due to lack of thought, and not to defioerate cussedness. Lack oi thought, however, is not necessarily caused by lack or experience, and 1 will say lor the beginner that so far as these finer points of motoring be- ■ haviour are concerned, she is no worse an offender than some of the old hands. Those old hands are apt to smile in a superior fashion upon the mere novice, but to a very large extent their longer experience is not of so much help as might appear.

The conditions in which we drive now are totally dissimilar from those in which they gained their experience and they need special measures. in the old days ,\ou could take risks, on the principle that it was unlikely there wouid be two fools at the same point at the same time. -Now you “know’ there will be —not two, but twentytwo! And so is everything else; there is no necessity for the oeginner to .eel inferior just because the o.d hand looks superior. . But there is need to think ; ana to think particularly of how e.en the simp.est ot one s actions will a.*ect other people. ii you don t think ~ou are bound to be a road hog, even at rest, and it you do, your own common sense will generally tell you what to do and what not to do.