2Wheeltips

The older I get (and I'm pretty darn old right now), the more my tolerance level for inattentive (now called "distracted"), rude, incompetent or just plain stupid motorists is next to zero.

When I'm driving my car it bothers me a lot but I feel I'm at least on an equal playing field (car versus car). When I'm on my bike it makes me furious because I'm at such a disadvantage and so much more vulnerable.

I'd be very interested to hear how all of you feel about this problem. Can you easily shrug off a bozo who cuts you off and go merrily on your way? or are you more like me where I'm pulling out the AK47 ? I don't want to get off track with this article as it's not about anger management due to misbehaving motorists (that's just my personal problem!!) but about identifying those motorists who are either misbehaving now (pretty easy) or have the potential to misbehave, based on their "profile", and do you serious harm.

Here is how I profile drivers I don't want to be around and it's solely based on bad experiences I've had. Just like my article on "Junkers and Clunkers" so I take the same concept in a different direction. Here is my list of drivers I avoid as each category relates to an example of a driver who has nearly ruined my day at one time or another.

• Cars full of teenagers who are more concerned about what's going on inside the car than what's ahead of them.

• Soccer Moms with the team onboard and a lot of "activity" inside the minivan or SUV.

• Senior drivers going 10 MPH under the speed limit with those dark wrap around sun glasses and a death grip on the steering wheel.

• Young men or women drivers with several toodlers or babies in child seats in the back and no other adult in the vehicle.

• Business people in their typical company cars or rental cars multi-tasking as they attempt to drive. (I saw a guy driving down I-35 in his company car and he had his laptop very professionally mounted off the dash so he could keyboard while he drove which is what he was doing when I passed him. How would you like that "over achiever" following you down the highway?)

• Any driver who is speeding, tailgating, and or weaving in and out to get that one extra car length ahead.

• Truck drivers are a mixed bag for me. They can be the most well trained, diligent and courteous drivers on the road. They can also be the the most arrogant, rude and sleep deprived. I can give examples of both extremes, and I choose to make my determination based on how they perform at the time I encounter them. My rule of thumb is to stay away from tractor trailers as much as possible for 3 reasons:

  1. First, they obscure my view big time.

  2. Second, they block other motorists from seeing me. 

  3. And third, they create air turbulence (some call it "dirty air") that buffets you around and diminishes the quality of the ride. 

Anyway, I think you get my point by now. It's not that I have a grudge against older people or young people with families or Mom's who volunteer to haul the team around. I simply don't feel comfortable riding in their vicinity (or anybody else's for that matter who is giving something less than 100% of their attention to driving the car). It's perfectly legal, I guess, because thousands of motorists do it every damn day, but it's not OK with me and if I have a choice I get the heck away as fast as possible and find friendlier company.

I pay a lot of attention to who I'm riding with because, to me, it matters. It's something I can do proactively to protect myself before the "distracted" driver puts my life at risk. We've all had close calls while riding; it's near impossible not to, with the lack of attention to the task of driving paid by many drivers today. It's a huge problem on the roads and I expect it will continue to get worse.   This is my advice on how I deal with it; hope you find it useful.

This leads me to my third and final article in this series:  How to improve your vision skills and avoid missing something that is a serious threat. VTXRon did an excellent article discussing the problem of "target fixation". This is a serious error in focusing on the problem and not the solution. Please stay tuned for my next article as I will talk about how you keep your vision open and look at the 'big picture". The next time you're out riding, notice what those drivers that are "near and dear" to you are doing and act accordingly.

Ride safe, be safe, live long, and prosper!!