Verbal abuse

I have feared for my two young sons as I try to hurry them across the street with drivers whizzing past and dealt with it. I have had my car scratched by lorries using the road which are clearly too large for it.

We grumble but it is a price we seem to have to pay.

What I have not seen addressed and what is becoming almost more of the issue is drivers’ attitudes on the road.

Recently I was returning home at 9pm after a long day to be met headon in the road by another driver.

I am used to this occurrence.

What usually follows is a brief stand off before one driver gives in and reverses to allow the other driver to pass. Not in this case.

The driver leapt straight out of his car, approached me and then started angrily shouting at me. I sat in my car, slightly stunned and unsure what to do. I gestured for him or me to reverse but this only seemed to anger him further.

‘Why will you not get out of your car?’ he yelled at me, as if his goal now was to have a brawl in the street as opposed to simply getting past each other and to wherever we might be going.

Well, if you are reading this, I will tell you why I would not get out of my car. I am a young woman, on my own, in the dark, trying to get to my home to husband and young family.

Being threatened and shouted at in my street, a nice quiet area of Cheshire, has really gone too far.

Yes, maybe this letter is more about attitudes than the street itself but this was not the first time, and no doubt will not be the last time, a driver has been aggressively attacked on Cranford Avenue.

What is it about Cranford that turns people into these aggressive abusers?

I am sure in the cold light of day the man in question is usually an upstanding gentleman who would never dream of verbally attacking a woman yet such are the frustrations of Cranford Avenue.

Something must be done and if a one-way system would stop this then the sooner the better.

Emily. Cranford resident