Traffic in Britain

Traffic in Britain is getting heavier all the time and the roads of most big cities are almost permanently blocked by a slow-moving procession of metal cages. One-way streets and traffic lights have not settled the problem. The motorist driving in crowded towns gets very little pleasure of it.

Some time ago, a friend of mine who works in a part of the city I do not know very well, invited me to call on him. It took me hours to get there, and I drove round and round looking for a place to park my car. At last, I parked it in a backstreet. As I was already three quarters of an hour late, I hurried off on foot. Walking quickly along the street, I could not help thinking that, nowadays, it is much easier to walk than to drive.

At noon, just as I was leaving my friend’s office, it suddenly struck me that I had no idea where I had parked my car. I could hardly go up to a policeman and tell him that I had lost a small green car somewhere! I would simply have to look for it myself. Walking down street after street, I looked over each car closely and was happy to see a small green car just behind an old cart. But how disappointed I was to discover that though the car was exactly like my own, it belonged to someone else! Feeling quite tired now, I decided to drop the search for a while and went off for lunch. Some time later, I left the restaurant and was walking down the street. Turning the corner, I nearly jumped for joy: my car was right in front of me — and there was no mistake this time. I could not help smiling as I approached it. Stuck on the windscreen was a little ticket which informed me that the car had been visited by a policeman in my absence. On top of all, I had broken the traffic regulations!