Get Over It
Has traffic become more aggressive, or have I finally become that grouchy old man I feared I would become? In the town I live in and in the places I ride a motorcycle it seems to me accidents and near misses have become ordinary occurrences. Drivers today are commonly distracted by the phone or whatever, and respect of others using the same road they are on somehow ends once they have closed that door and encapsulated themselves in their car. We can’t fix stupid, but we can make sure that our response isn’t on the level of an aggressive driver by not letting them draw you into their world.
Shakespeare once said, “Though this may be madness, yet there is method in it.” An unstable driver could be triggered by something as little as honking your horn, or by the way you passed them on the two lane. In every road rage situation it is always better to use your smarts and get lost. The way you respond to a bad or aggressive driver can dictate how the next few seconds of your ride will go. Trying to educate the four wheeled driving world one at a time is a little crazy so why try. Get over it.
One motorcycle crash statistic I don’t like is that in a car/motorcycle accident the car always wins. Car/motorcycle accidents represent over half of all motorcycle crashes and Riders deaths with rider error being a close second. Do you wonder after a near miss or an accident if you have contributed in some way …you should. If you were cut off by a driver and responded by flipping the driver off and/or putting a fancy move ‘right back at ‘um’ you may have just triggered a war, and yes, you did contribute. Yeah, yeah… what about the driver getting away with disrespecting you. The heck with the other driver, surely it will be an ugly life for them anyway, can you imagine fighting your way through life always on the aggressive edge. Two Wongs don’t make a Wright and it takes two to Tango if you catch my drift.
Triggering road rage can be done in several ways such as tailgating a four wheeler after being cut off, how crazy does that sound. Who wins when the four wheeler slams on the brakes. I’ve heard tales of ball bearings tossed in front of a bad driving cage, what if they lose control and crash into a family going the other way? I’d feel pretty bad for not letting that one go. Triggering a chase with a cage after being offended at a drivers actions can have bad results and it’s usually someone not even part of the race that gets hurt. Ask yourself Grasshopper, “What do I have to lose before engaging in a road rage incident?” and then answer with a truthful answer …“everything”.
John ‘Hammer’ Hanzlik
ALR Road Captain
Post 1 Omaha, Ne