An age-old problem. The following is from a story in the September 1970 edition of Reader's Digest called Sex, Honor and the Italian Driver by Jackson Burgess:
'In Italian cities, four-lane streets usually become, after four or five blocks, two-lane and then one-lane
streets. Since most cities are force-fed with automobiles by an excellent turnpike system, this produces the Funnel Effect. The Funnel Effect can be unnerving. The unwary motorist may get trapped against one side or the other ( cars A and B) and have to stay there until traffic slacks off around one or two o'clock in the morning. But the Reverse Funnel Effect is even more dangerous. Imagine the effect of bottling a number of prideful and excitable Italian drivers in a narrow street for a half-mile or more and then suddenly releasing them. It's like dumping out a sack of white rats.'
Of course, no offense was meant to readers of the Italian persuasion. 'Politically correct' was, after all, an unknown concept in 1970.