ROAD ETIQUETTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 July 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

ROAD ETIQUETTE

CONFUCIUS AND H. FORD We are coming to the realisation that courtesy as well as pavement is needed on our streets, declared Bud Landis in the “National Motorist.” Well-bred persons who wouU no- 1 - +‘ Mv, k of rushing ahead of you to the dinner table without an encouraging ui a friendly jab in the ribs, think nothing of scraping 10,000 miles off your spare tyre with their bumper or permanently waving a couple of your fenders with no more of an apology than a dirty look. Instead of the familiar hail, “Neighbour, neighbour, how art thee?” of hoss and buggy days, it has become the custom of our highways to greet oncoming drivers with a cheery “Get over, you sap!” While there is nothing particularly rude in calling a perfect stranger a sap and seldom brings ab’out anv greater unpleasantness than a punch in the nose, it lacks, never-

theless, the warm-hearted sincerity of “Do you own the road?” or the more common, “Do you want your half in the middle?” IDEAS DIFFER Authorities differ on just what should constitute courtesy in motoring. However, a tentative list was submitted at the last meeting of the Society for Uplifting the Fallen Arch, which contains ideas crude enough to be practical. This list includes: 1. Never run over a pedestrian without excusing yourself. 2. Do not appear eager when crowding a smaller car off the road. Upon hitting an immovable object come to a full stop. 3. Refrain from turning corners in the middle of the block. 4. Show proper respect for battered five-ton trucks.

5. Don’t argue with the wife while driving- you have a home for that purpose.

Application of these simple rules is bound to reduce the number of mass meetings on our highways. Needless to say, standing back and allowing a

train to use the crossing first is a bit of refinement in which virtue is its own reward. ETIQUETTE OUTLINED Etiquette in general is gaining ground and has already spread to eating. As far back as early in 489 B.C. the wise Confucius urged his followers into the paths of table manners. It was through his efforts that the Chinese took to eating rice with chop sticks in spite of the frightful loss through seepage. In one of his widely syndicated articles, the learned Oriental wrote:

“Etiquette, a quaint form of table fencing, was instituted nobody knows how, by nobody knows who and practiced nobody knows why. Yet it has become a part of us even as double chins or a bald spot. “Originally, eating was destined to fill that aching void. It filled a need, so to speak, and once that need is filled to bulging, the operation should be considered a. success. But no! Thrice not! The process must be done, according to Hoyle. We have it on no less an authority than Oso Shabi, the

wandering Hindu philosopher and sword swallower, that from the first, napkins were worn in the lap instead of suspended from the chin, where they would do the most good. “The point of contact in eating is the lapel, not the lap. But etiquette intervenes and keeps the traditional chest protector away from the scene of action—it is Kismet!” And so Confucius was right. But for the tempering hand of etiquette our riots, mob fights and traffic jams would lack the refined homelike influence that so characterises them today. In the final analysis, we must try to be gentlemen no matter how hard it hurts us. Rome wasn’t built in a day. you know, which is accounted for by the fact that it wasn’t one of Henry Ford’s projects. Word from Detroit says that a “mosquito” car is to be produced in 1928. Pedestrians may now expect to be run down and bitten.

Factories will soon be humming, says the report.

Look before you leap is out of date. Jump first, then if you feel you must rubber around, do it from the kerb.