Re: I did a bad thing. How do I improve?
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:26 am
ADC - great introductory post, great self-awareness, interesting tangent into car control.
My one thought when in a situation that increases heart rate, be it due to driver conflict, or following someone with a view to overtaking and noticing it's affecting my driving, is to back off and create space between me and the vehicle in front.
If it's because of emotion, that will almost instantly ease the tension. As you noted, getting more involved just escalates the emotion, turns it into anger, and may lead to other poor behaviour (both on your part and theirs).
If it's about overtaking, sometimes it's too easy to focus on the vehicle in front, and forget road craft. Backing off a little and just "driving the road" instead of concentrating on maintaining contact, also improves your concentration and smoothness (and it's spooky how often a nice overtake then becomes available soon after that can be executed smoothly and with no adrenaline required).
Usually, if a vehicle is poorly behaved, I want it in front of, rather than behind me. If that means I need to slow down for a while (in your case until your right turn, which probably would have cost you less than a minute, since they caught up while you waited to turn), so be it. Find something else to concentrate on during that time, like perfect gear changes, or accurate positioning on the road. Problem gone.
As for Don, as jont says, go and do it (in the autumn on a rainy day or winter on a freezing cold one - although standing around in a cold wind while Don does his tyre stuff can be painful).
My one thought when in a situation that increases heart rate, be it due to driver conflict, or following someone with a view to overtaking and noticing it's affecting my driving, is to back off and create space between me and the vehicle in front.
If it's because of emotion, that will almost instantly ease the tension. As you noted, getting more involved just escalates the emotion, turns it into anger, and may lead to other poor behaviour (both on your part and theirs).
If it's about overtaking, sometimes it's too easy to focus on the vehicle in front, and forget road craft. Backing off a little and just "driving the road" instead of concentrating on maintaining contact, also improves your concentration and smoothness (and it's spooky how often a nice overtake then becomes available soon after that can be executed smoothly and with no adrenaline required).
Usually, if a vehicle is poorly behaved, I want it in front of, rather than behind me. If that means I need to slow down for a while (in your case until your right turn, which probably would have cost you less than a minute, since they caught up while you waited to turn), so be it. Find something else to concentrate on during that time, like perfect gear changes, or accurate positioning on the road. Problem gone.
As for Don, as jont says, go and do it (in the autumn on a rainy day or winter on a freezing cold one - although standing around in a cold wind while Don does his tyre stuff can be painful).