Buzzing around Yorkshire, our columnist’s days are never the same…
I may be getting less patient as I get older, but I can’t help becoming... well, let’s just say ‘a bit annoyed’ when I hold back to let another driver pass and they don’t say ‘thank you’.
To use a road analogy, it drives me mad – is it just me? A simple nod, even a lethargic lift of one’s finger off the steering wheel – it’s all fine, as long as my good deed is acknowledged. They’ ll pass and I’ll go merrily on my way.
In fact, those two forms of acknowledgement may be pretty much all you are legally allowed to do. Some of the common forms of road thank you, such as flashing your headlight or proffering a thumbs up, are actually illegal according to the Highway Code, which says lights can’t be flashed unless to let a fellow driver know you are there, and you should always have both hands securely on the steering wheel. No waving allowed.
In my view, that’s still no excuse for basic bad manners and I’m not letting fellow drivers off, oh no. While most road users are very courteous – sometimes they even smile and mouth ‘thank you’ as they slide by – there are definitely quite a few who blithely push their way down a crowded street without making any eye contact or even bothering to acknowledge the kind soul squeezed into whatever passing place they can find so they can roll on unhindered. In fact, statistics show that one in 20 drivers never say thank you at all. They may use the excuse that they are following the Highway Code faithfully, but I say they are just rude.
Now maybe I need therapy for a mild form of road rage or, to quote Frozen’s Elsa, I should just ‘ let it go’, but it really winds me up. While I may be tempted to give a little outraged horn toot (I say tempted because apparently that’s illegal too if a car is stationary), I can at least employ my very hard stare (usually ignored) in the direction of the offending driver. Yes, too embarrassed to meet my gaze, eh? You know what you did.
I really do have to stop myself from getting too worked up about it, and particularly since I once made the awful faux pas of getting a little impatient with what I thought was an unreasonably slow car coming towards me on an unlit road. It was moving at a snail’s pace as I waited to let it pass, so I gave it a discreet ‘come on, hurry up’ flash. To my horror, I realised (much too late) that the slowmoving car was in fact a funeral hearse, with coffin on board, and a f
