KEN'S KORNER - OCTOBER 2003
STRESS-FREE DRIVING
By Author, Educator and Big City Driver Ken Skaggs

I know why RV’s always drive in the left lane, going 55 miles per hour. They’re on vacation. They don’t care about what everyone else thinks. They don’t want to bother with the rat race in the right lane.

RV drivers know that if you stay in the right lane, you have to watch out for merging traffic every time you pass a ramp, and you have to keep passing the slower ones and moving out of the way of the faster ones. That’s just too much work for someone who is on vacation. Especially if they just retired and are on a permanent vacation. They’re done worrying. It’s their time now - their turn to be pampered, and not to be bothered with little things anymore. They’ve done their time and now it’s time for them to relax and enjoy life. They know how to keep their heart rate down and plan to do just that (doctors orders, for some).

I’m not suggesting that we all start driving like that, but I think we can learn something from it. There is a way, to drive relaxed, if you just take it easy. You too can simply refuse to join the rat race (just do it in the right lane, please). You can choose the center lane when available, but if you do, just make sure you are traveling a little faster than the ones in the right lane, but slower than the left lane, and just go with the flow and keep a safe following distance. It’s getting harder and harder these days to do that, as traffic increases everywhere, especially if you live in a big city. But we have to learn to live with it, so we must face it and overcome it. You can’t really expect to always get where you’re going just a little faster than the guy next to you, so why even try?

When you’re in a hurry and trying to squeeze out an extra mile per hour, you start getting into a habit of driving closer to the car in front of you than you should. Switching lanes too much and weaving in and out of traffic makes you tailgate. Sometimes you feel like you just have to pass someone, and if you’re always passing, then you’re probably tailgating and on guard to step on the brakes at any given moment. All that hyperactivity automatically raises your heartbeat and stresses you out. It takes a lot of energy out of you and keeps you on edge. Why do that to yourself? Just to save a few seconds (or minutes, if you drive that way for hours at a time). It’s not healthy to stress yourself out like that. If you do, then you should learn to calm down, before it’s too late. You can do it – you just have to learn to look at driving differently.

Driving time can be a great time, if you look at it that way. If you don’t drive for a living, you should be relaxed on your way to and from work. This is your special time alone. A time for you to collect your thoughts, relax and unwind. A quiet time to yourself, to reflect the day’s events and plan for the future. But mostly, a moment to relax and be yourself.

If you do drive for a living, that’s a little harder to do. You don’t really need ten hours a day, every day, to collect your thoughts. But you can still change your outlook to a less stressful one by simply taking it easy. And try to see the bigger picture - your career. When you drive all day, every day, that increases the likelihood that you will get tickets and have accidents. After all, if you are on the road ten times as long, you would think that you would be ten times as likely. That’s why you have to be ten times as careful. Still, with those odds, many truckers go twenty to forty and more years without ever having an accident. Many go just as long without even a ticket. These are the ones who say, “Just take it easy, you’ll only save a few seconds anyway, so don’t bother.”

If you want to continue driving for a living, you have to maintain a good driving record. If you get too many tickets and get your license suspended, it’s all over. No more choosing where you want to work. You could wind up pushing a broom if you don’t have any other skills. Most truck drivers understand this and value their CDL’s accordingly. Some drivers live life in the stress lane and later develop ulcers and bad hearts (then, of course, these are the folks that are later found going 55 mph in the left lane).

Even if you don’t drive for a living, losing your license would mean that you couldn’t even drive to work, if you had a job. But whether you drive for a living or not, driving can be as stressful as you choose to let it. It’s really the same for everybody (just longer for truckers). If your mind is busy working out the problems of the road, it is too busy to think about much else. But when you take it easy, you have time to think about other things, like whatever it is you dream about. All the good things going on in your life - like the house you’re going to get; the business you’re going to start or build; the money you can save and what you’re going to do with it; the new job you’re going to get because the one you have sucks; how you’re going to pay that phone bill; how a certain co-worker could do such a thing; what your wife is going to say when she finds out about you-know-what; but I digress. Driving should be a time to think about your long-term goals in life, not whether or not you may have to jam on the brakes at any moment.

It can be difficult to maintain your cool under pressure, but it’s either that or go completely nuts. So please, do the former. Visit www.bigcitydriver.com for more stress-free driving tips.