As a motorist, I think I'm fairly easy-going. I contain my impatience when some old dear in a Micra does 25 m.p.h. and I can't find anywhere to overtake for miles and miles, because she's old and has to drive like that - she can't help it. I don't mind when the driver of an articulated lorry pulls out in front of me on the dual carriageway and then takes the next three miles to get past the lorry in front, because he has a job to do. The tractor pulling a slurry-wagon can't be expected to do more than 15 m.p.h., and he has a job to do as well.
When someone on a powerful motorcycle swoops past me and then cuts in, I smile indulgently because I used to ride a motorbike myself, he's got better brakes and better acceleration than me and can see further because he's higher up, and besides I can't imagine any other way to go when you're 25 and have 850 supercharged Japanese c.c.'s between your thighs. When the girl on a moped flaunts her L-plates in front of me and takes up the entire left-hand side of the road, I remind myself that this is known as "defensive riding" and is supposed to be the right thing to do, avoiding being bullied into the gutter because you're little and slow.
I wave cheerily to the milkman as he stops to deliver, I slow right down past the local primary school and allow plenty of room for all the 4x4's parked outside, and I am very careful around horses. I know I am prone to making the odd mistake myself, and therefore try to be indulgent about the mistakes of others.
And I know that many women are excellent drivers and that some men are rotten ones. I have never been known to sneer about parallel parking. But why, when I give way to a man in a narrow lane or at a crossroads, does he almost always wave or flash his thanks; and why when I give way to a woman does she invariably sail past with her nose in the air?
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