How to Control Your Emotions on the Road

Along with fatigue, your emotions can have quite an effect on your driving capability if you are overly afraid, excited, worried, depressed, or angry-and you will be an unsafe driver unless you learn to control them.

If any of these emotions surface when you are behind the wheel, here are some things you can do to keep them in check:

- If you are angry or excited, give yourself time to calm down. Take a short walk if you need to, but stay off the road until you have regained control of your emotions.

- If you are worried, upset or depressed about something that is impacting your life, try to stay focused on your driving. Chewing gum or listening to the radio may help you here as well.

- When you feel impatient, allow yourself extra time when you are starting out on your trip. That way, you will be less inclined to go over the speed limit or do anything else that can result in getting traffic ticket or cause an accident. At a railroad stop, always wait for a train to pass in front of you. Trying to beat the train or driving around lowered gates is always foolhardy.

The effect your emotions can have. Researchers tell us that these negative emotions can have a distracting and even paralyzing effect upon our driving capability. Remember that they can:

- Dim or totally block our powers of observation, which are absolutely essential on the road.
- Distort or delay our ability to interpret anything that is happening around us.
- Reduce our power to judge and anticipate the actions of other drivers.
- Result in high-risk decisions and faulty judgment on our part.
- Prevent us from using those skills that involve precise timing.

Handling the "road rage" of others. If you sense that you are about to become the target for the anger of some other driver, here are some preventive measures you can take:

- Stay inside your car.

- Avoid any hostile action or gesture on your part that could be taken as a response by the other driver.

- To help diffuse situations like this, think about keeping a "SORRY" sign in your car and use it whenever you need to.

A survey conducted by Drs. Arnold P. Nerenberg and R. Jerry Adams revealed that more than half of the drivers in the United States suffer from road rage to some extent, and most of us will encounter "road ragers" often when we are on the road. The U.S. Highway Safety Office reports that every year tens of thousands of car accidents are directly related to aggressive driving, including road rage, which is also a leading cause of death for our children.

What you should do. Other drivers may become upset because you accidentally cut in front of them or offended them in some other way.. Surprisingly, 85% of those surveyed saic they would forget their complaint if the other "careless" driver took the simple step of apologizing. These drivers also feel that the "careless" driver (you) seemed to be unconcerned about what you just did and "need to be taught a lesson."

In a situation like this, a sign is the only effective method for conveying your apology. An angry driver may suddenly smile when you unexpectedly raise your "SORRY" sign to him at the right moment. If something like this happens at night, you may also need to turn on the ceiling light so the angry driver can see your sign. (If taking such action would be a serious distraction from your safe driving when you meet up with an angry motorist, leave the sign right where it is.)

The danger of driver inattention. Although keeping your emotions in check is essential for safe driving, you should never forget that driving is a privilege and not a right. Anyone who tries to eat, shave, apply makeup, read or hold pets while driving fails to realize that such actions may be harmful to others. Since your attention should be focused on driving alone, use a hands-free device with your wireless phone or pull over to use it.