Re: road rage - BMAC

["Matt Howe" <ismhowe@state.me.us>]

>Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 21:48:12 -0400
>From: Huw Powell <human@nh.ultranet.com>
>Subject: Re: road rage - BMAC (bare minimum audi content)
>
>> >I found this site while helping my son with a 'project.'
>> >
>> >http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/interview.html

>Hmmm, someone here who could have learned from the site...  This is
>serious stuff.  Consider:  I live in a fairly congested area.  Very
>little room or time for what many consider "fun" driving, besides
>enjoying that the whole 16 year old Audi works properly.  Learning how
>to drive "considerately" and not just "defensively" is helping me avoid
>tickets, etc., for longer and longer periods.  It also seems to help
>with general stress management.  You just can't think you know all about
>driving just because you drive a lot.  It's a very intense social
>interaction, unlike most car commercials.

I had an opportunity to check out this site.  I believe everyone who drives
could benefit from reading it.  Driving is just like any other social
interaction.  For example, if you're walking behind someone else into a
building, and they don't hold open the door for you, do you chase them down
and pummel them?  I think the frustration in driving is that when someone
else does something foolish, you don't have any opportunity to explain to
them their error.  Getting mad doesn't help, it just exaggerates the
importance of their act.  My other rule for driving, and for life, is this:
Any time you are about to criticize, or pass judgement on someone, apply the
same criticism to yourself.  In other words: Don't judge someone-else until
you have first judged yourself.

I like to think of driving as an adventure, which it is.  Every time you get
behind the wheel, you risk death or killing.  But awareness is not the same
as paranoia.  You can remain relaxed, yet aware, you can see the rhythm and
flow of traffic, and flow with it, not against it.  If you try to swim
against the current of a raging river, you'll drown, but if you swim with
it, you may survive.  And traffic is not unlike a river, there are thousands
or millions of pounds of steel all around you, moving quickly, and usually
just as mindessly.

I think the most important thing to remember when driving in traffic is:
The moment there are other cars on the road with you, you cease to be an
individual.  Multiple vehicles on the same road are one entity.
Unfortunately, it's like having segments of a centipede each with their own
will.  But each driver has the same objective (to get where they're going as
quickly and safely as possible) so it's easy to function as one.  Look
ahead, see what's happening before it happens, and be aware of everything
around you.  Don't depend on the person in front of you to make decisions
for you, chances are they will make a bad one before long.

And, for the sake of all that is funky:  Driving is NOT a contest, there is
ALWAYS someone with a faster car, and fewer brains than you.

Sorry 'bout the rant....  Laters!

-Matt