Dick Potter channels his inner grumpy old man.
Hope your summer has been great so far dear readers? Many of you are possibly still away; I have not been, yet. This is very possibly why you would be forgiven for assuming that this month’s installment has been compiled by a grumbling Victor Meldrew! However, please, do read on!
There are few of us without our personal ‘grumbles’ whilst driving. Over the summer period I have noticed that many of my individual peeves were particularly salient – I’m not suggesting there were any coincidences to this but, well, here goes!
Went to see the Lion King movie last week – nope, never too old to see that – got to the mall and… well, we’ve all been there: the car park is packed (it always is), and some inconsiderate driver of a huge SUV is taking up two spaces. I assume that’s because he couldn’t manage to navigate his precious motor between the lines. There are doubtless other reasons also. Perhaps another nearby inconsiderate driver could scratch his paintwork. One vehicle, one parking space, thank you!
On another occasion, inching along in very slow traffic, stopping and starting on Shawarma Alley, I stopped an extra few seconds to allow a driver to reverse out from side parking into the traffic flow. Well, the volley of beeping that induced from drivers behind me! As if that wasn’t bad enough. You guessed it, the ungrateful *insert word of choice* didn’t give me a second glance as he entered the traffic! If someone makes room for you to join in during heavy traffic, give them a nod or a wave. That sort of recognition shows goodwill and might encourage them to be courteous in the future.
To those indecisive drivers crawling around, very visibly using their phones, as they check Google Maps – for the umpteenth time – please pull over and get your bearings. Thanks.
Please don’t tailgate us so we speed up and move over to let you around only for you to slow down again. It’s annoying. Please drive at a safe distance behind other drivers, i.e. me!
Although you may feel it polite, there is absolutely NO need to stop unsafely in the middle of the road anywhere to let a pedestrian cross. However, don’t run someone over at a pedestrian crossing either.
It also makes me grumble when sitting in a traffic queue, at traffic lights or a roundabout to have another driver, who clearly perceives his time to be more important than mine, drive to the front of the queue and try to nudge in. Alas, he is, often as not, allowed in. This only serves to encourage others. Even worse are those drivers who use the emergency lane to bypass the queue.
This one’s especially for my missus… and all other passengers: please don’t slam the door when you exit a vehicle. A slight push suffices. I read somewhere that Uber drivers are known to give their fares lower star ratings if they slam the door getting out.
This one’s especially for me… we all have places to go. The road doesn’t belong to you or me. Whatever your personal grumbles are behind the wheel, breathe in, breathe out and let them go!
Wishing you all grumble-free driving!
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