Now and again you see some motorist doing something dumb. Commercial Road is one hazard area. It's a one way street and sure enough sooner or later someone doesn't spot the signs and proceeds against the flow of traffic totally bemused at the agression and 'lunacy' of other drivers.

Just lately it seems Regent Circus is becoming a hazard too. Not because of any chabges, it still remains a busy ring road like it has been for decades, but there's something peculiar. At the bottom of the hill the traffic lights seem to get out of sync, so cars entering Regent Circus from the hill then have to play russian roulette with cars coming from their blind right side (and which have right of way, incidentially, green light or not).

That's a technical error rather than driver error of course. On the same ring road an increasing number of people are taking short cuts through the bus stop, accelerating madly to gain a two-car-length advantage before the lanes merge again. usually there's a chorus of loud horn blasts when that happens.

Now I see people joining the ring road from Commercial Road without stopping. White lines? Traffic lights? Pfah! No such obstruction comes within the remit of the Swindon driver. Cue another chorus of loud horn blasts.

Sometimes it's just bad manners. A couple of weeks ago I was walking beside a main road and observed a line of cars at a side road waiting to join traffic when the opportunity presented itself. It's a busy road, a main trunk route through town, and trying to slip past the oncoming traffic on the right and into the left hand lane requires patience.

The old guy at the head of the queue had all the patience required. Clearly he was capable of waiting all day, if need be, and I suspect the little hatchback he was driving didn't exactly have have the performance to nip across a gap even if the driver saw his chance.

Behind him, the younger man in a massive 4x4 waited, waited, then stopped waiting. He simply went round, shaking his head, and no doubt feeling very pleased with his time-saving manoever. What is it that the Highway Code tells us? Show patience for other road users?

If I were honest, I'm not entirely angelic behind the wheel. Usually I follow the rules, and I'm definitely more patient than some. Always slowing down for horses and so forth. Normally I quote an example of Herge's Adventures of Caldrail at times like this, but offhand, I can't think of one, which kind of makes me suspect I do nip around old age pensioners rather more often than I'm concious of.

Ding! I Remember Now

The light bulb has come on. Many years ago, not long after I bought my first Toyota MR2 sports car, I was proceeding along a road and found myself slowed down by a pair of pensioners in their little japanese 5-door buggymobile. I was in a good modd. I wasn't in any great hurry. So I thought I'd wait until the big roundabout at the end of the road. Chances are the pensioers would take the left hand lane and I could zip past.

Sure enough, they did. So I sped past on the inside bend and discovered why you need to take care pressing the accelerator on a curving road in rear wheel drive cars. Wooah!...

All very dramatic, very embarrasing, but thankfully control was not lost completely and no harm done. Ahem.

Meanwhile, Back At The Muddy Lane

The alleyway running away from the yard near where I live is not what you'd call salubrious. it's overgrown, filled with rubbish, and is a known haunt of drug-dealers and fire-starters. Funny thing is though, under the trees growing out of the Old College site is a patch of muddy ground where drug deals normally take place between the local teenagers from up the hill. No matter what happens, it's always muddy there.

Someone has had enough. They can take no more. So they laid an old wooden fence on the mud for people to walk over (mind the post). Great. Brilliant. Now assuming I don't trip over the post at some point I walk the length of the alley without getting mud all over my slightly less than white trainers.

You just know someone is going to set fire to it soon.