BACKSEAT DRIVERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 398, 6 December 1932, Page 2

BACKSEAT DRIVERS

CTJRE FOR TENSION. That good drivers dislike ■ being driven by others has become almost proverbial (writes "M.P.," in the Motor). The keen road sense which distinuishes the expert at the wheel from lesser men is always active, so that when a good driver is being driven by someone who is less alert, or whose reactions are not so rapid, conditions are apt to be uncomfortable for both the parties concerned. The expert, when a (passenger, usually gazes fixedly ahead and may see. for example, a child about to leave the kerb and run across; his feet at once seek imaginary pedals on the footboards, and seat creaks as he exerts his muscles, and an instant later although it seems to hini to be a much' longeir interval — the driver applies the brakes. The passenger sighs with a relief which is only momentary because, a few seconds later, he will be gripdng the door in terrified apprehension of another catastrophe. Under such conditions a journey can become a prolonged torture to the nerves from which the sufferer emerges exhausted. Let it not be thought that this state of affairs can exist only when a poor or careless driver is at the wheel. On | the contrary. the man in control may ! be a thoroughly competent individual, j hut if his methods differ a little from j those of the expert passenger — and I can one find two drivers exactly alike ? j — the apprehensions of the latter can | become quite unreasonable unless he ' takes certain simple rules to heart? i Without question, nervousness when i being driven by others is a condition j which can be cured by an eifort of j will if tackled on the right lines. The nervous passenger is very like i the patient in a dentist's chair; he is | continually apprehensive of being j hurt and by a natural reaction, accentuated in a car by instinctive foot-pressure upon non-exisfent pedals, tautens his mascules by stiffenmg the legs, clenching the hands, and so forth. This tense condition aggravates the nervous state to a marlced degree. Conversely, by forcing oneself to relax all the muscles, nervousness can be allayed. The passenger must make himself loll carelessly in the seat, with his arms and feet in comfortable, unrestrained positions, and his torso as slack as a sack of flour. Having attained this carefree posture, he will find that the soothing effect on the nerves is immediate and is astonishingly marked.

The next rule is to avoid gazing intently toward the road ahead. Let the eyes roam around, picking up objects of interest at the sides of the road or in the distant landscape. Forget about traffic, curves, and crossroads just as one does when sitting on the top deck of a bus or in a train. If tbere are other passengers in the car talk to them blithely on general topics. The third rule — and one which is ! scarcely necessary to mention if the ' others have been observed — is never 1 to warn the driver of any emergency which may be impending. Remarks such as "Look out," "You'll never get through." "Mind this crossing," . etc., etc., are only irritating to any- . one who knows what he is about, and often make an otherwise good driver I behave foolishly. To those who doubt the efficacy of I thes hints the writer can only say: Try them! He has cured himself in these ways of apprehensions when being driven by others, and can now remain quite cairn even when a car in which he is a passenger is being driven by an "average-speed" fanatic. Only a really careless or incompetent driver can now worry him, and in such circumstances there is only one course to take: request that the car shall be stopped, and then, with polite excuses, get out and walk!