I AGREE with Helen Lane that parking on pavements can be dangerous ( Letters, December 20) but even if cars parked on the roadway adjacent to her house she would have the same problem when reversing out.

The correct, safe, method is to reverse into one's drive and come out forwards.

The most common place to see reversing out causing problems is in supermarket car parks where the worst incidents are at the areas dedicated for disabled and family parking. Regularly one sees cars being loaded from the roadway, or wheel chairs being put into the boot in the same fashion and then the drivers reversing out. In the process of parking or leaving, children are often on the road instead of the dedicated pathway. The art of reversing in seems to have been lost.

In the film The Dangerous Hours, when sending the head of the family on a mission, the character played by Humphrey Bogart tells the driver that when he returns he should "park heading out". As ever, our American cousins have a neat way of putting things, even if they do not themselves follow such good advice.

Richard A McKenzie,

Dalmeny Avenue, Giffnock.