Dan Zen/Flickr Creative Commons
As RVers I’m sure you’ve found yourself in that situation where you’re trying to merge or pull out into traffic and folks either won’t let you in, or you’re not moving fast enough for somebody and they try to zip around you. Nobody realizes more than you do that you’re bigger, heavier, less maneuverable, and accelerate slower than the cars and SUVs around you but they still have to behave like spoiled children in order to ensure you understand their displeasure. So I thought today we could discuss ways to maintain your composure and enjoyment of road life in the face of other’s impatience, discourtesy, and dangerous driving.
First impulse when confronted with another driver’s aggressive driving is meet aggression with aggression, sometimes in the form of angrily shouting curses at the back of their car and secretly hoping a cop is going to chase them down and hit them with heavy fines, or maybe dreaming that that they’ll pick up nails in more than one tire to pay them back for being such a jerk to you and all the other drivers that have had to share the road with them today. But here’s the thing y’all, driving an RV in today’s cell phone addicted world is stressful enough without allowing that sort of frustration and anger into the RV. To some of you folks it may sound childish or even weak, but the ability to shrug your shoulders and not let a jerk turn you into a jerk is actually pretty powerful.
So here’s what you do…take a DEEP breath and imagine situations that would justify someone driving like an ass. Maybe that guy is a father who’s child has just been taken to the hospital and he’s trying to get there as quick as he can. Maybe that woman is a mother who has just been laid off and is distraught and thinking more about how she is going to pay her family’s rent in there new found jobless situation. There are any number of situations of an emergency or stressful situations that could justify erratic driving if only you knew the whole story. So instead of pounding the steering wheel and working your way towards a stroke, think of these situations that would allow for bad driving and become sympathetic to their plight. NONE of what you imagine may be true, they may just be a real ass, but the main thing is it will release your anger and keep your RV a happy place even when you’re surrounded by selfish drivers!