Llandudno welcomes sane drivers

It seems that assaults and criminal damage to vehicles by those who feel they've been badly done to by other drivers are on the increase. The official Police figures reveal only 63 incidents in four years, but that belies the true scale of things, according to drivers themselves in various surveys. The media coined the phrase 'road rage' to describe irrational responses to perceived bad driving some years ago, and the real question is whether these responses are on the increase or not.

It's also worth considering whether the driver who believes they've been 'cut up' and who then stops to have a discrete word about the cutter-upper's behaviour is a product of the 21st century and its crowded roads, its high priced fuel and the levels of stress engendered by driving anywhere. Or is this simply a modern manifestation of an age-old condition? Did Imperial Rome have the same issues, when driving its roads through Wales, nearly 2000 years ago? You can see it now..

"Oy, Maximus! You see that chariot? Idiot! Cut right in on me after passing that Yak cart, he did! Must have been doing close to 5 or 6. Been driving like a cruentus idiotus since the circus at Abergelii. Probably just some salutor on their hols, I suppose. It's one of those new Centurians' chariots - Greek thing, two-horse power with knives on the wheels. 'Bout time someone taught him a lesson. C'mon; if we get a move on, we'll catch him at the next Cervices, then we'll sort 'im!"

"Er, Biggus; don't want to worry you, but there's a flashing torch behind - could be the Constabulus specialus. Maybe we'd better leave it."

And thus we can only add Ad astra per asda...