What A Difference A Wave Makes

Oh the good old days (mind you I'm somewhere between generation X and Z).

When a bag of mixed lollies was 10 cents, no one wore helmets when on their bikes, cricket was played in the middle of the road, and automobile drivers' gave a wave of recognition when another demonstrated road courtesey. Even the lift of a forefinger from the steering wheel would be a common sight.

These days it's a lift of the wrong finger off the steering wheel, maybe even a prolonged toot of the horn and a profanity yelled out the window. If you're lucky, you might even be tailgated and followed home. While this is definately not representative of all drivers on Aussie roads, it sadly seems to be accepted by some as part of the driving experience these days.

Here are some of my all time favourites I have witnessed in my under 10 years of driving:

• The 'lurker' who cooly drives into the park you have been waiting for for the last 4 minutes with the indicator on.
  
• The 'tailgator' who insists you drive 10km faster by driving so close you can see up their nose, so he can then turn off the freeway exit 5 seconds quicker. Of course they always then get the red light when they do turn off - this is road karma.
  
• The 'driving miss daisy' at the other end of the spectrum who thinks they are driving on a gravel road when the speed sign clearly shows 80.
  
• The 'blocker' driving next to you who will speed up to ensure you can't move over into their lane. Probably the same 'blockers' who stop on the 'keep clear' section on the roads so traffic exiting a car park or street cannot move. Genius.
  

Of course there are the majority of drivers who don't do the above, the ones who don't let the above drivers bother them and keep their cool - I like to think I am one of these cool drivers, despite the occasional rants (which I keep to myself and don't verbalise out the window) about the 'plonker' who just cut me off, took my park, etc.

The 'wavers' sadly are few and far between these days. I got a wave today which is the first I have seen in months. Traffic was crawling and in front of me was a 'keep clear' sign painted on the road. I stopped to let the oncoming driver who wanted to turn in front of me go ahead, giving him a little flick of my hand to signal this; he waved, I waved back, he turned into the street, and waved again! Two waves! He didn't even have to wave, the sign did tell me to 'keep clear'. His simple little action put a smile on my face and prompted me to keep showing the same old fashion courtesy to fellow road users, even the lurkers, tailgaters, and blockers - they'll get their road karma.

Who said we are living in the road rage age! oh, that's right, me.