Lately as a runner I get more abuse from motorists than I ever had as a motorist, I do not use ear phones ever, its truly shocking how many drivers have their head up their ass or more often than not in their phone, and not paying attention, then have ago at me.
It generally ends in me shouting, eyes on the road, and me plodding on..But do they want to argue, hell yeah, but I've got zero interest and move on.
If someone cuts me up I'll hold my hands up as if to say WTF but nothing more, if I unintentionally cut someone else up I'll acknowledge my mistake with a wave and mouth sorry if they can see me.
If I drop a bollock I just hold my hands up and apologise. In general I'm pretty chilled, either smile and move on or ignore and move on. Makes for stressless-ish driving. However I do sometimes become agitated by dawdlers especially if I'm on a tight deadline.
I'm getting increasingly annoyed at mamils. Today I called one a really silly billy, or words to that effect. He responded by touching the camera on his helmet and told me I'm to be a silly billy You Tube star.....or words to that effect.
On a narrow road with staggered parking on either side I was already committed to passing a string of vehicles to my nearside. A silver BMW coming the other way pulled into quite a large space, allowing me to continue on. There were two mamils behind him yet instead of pulling in they continued past the BM right into my path, so I had to stop leaving very little room between my car and the offside kerb. The mamil had one of three choices, hit me, hit the kerb or stop. He stopped, I offered him my glasses, he offered to make me a You Tube star. Pillock.......or words to that effect.
It all depends on the exact situation - most of the time there is nothing that can be done, so it's best to get out of harm's way and continue with your day.
In one instance I had to really slam the anchors on as some idiot reversed out of a driveway across a busy road into my lane.10 seconds later at the (red) traffic light I got out and asked them what the @#$% they were doing - the old guy just shrugged, adjusted his trilby and very dark glasses and promptly drove into the traffic light.
He could become a you tube idiot.I'd guess that most dash cam/head cam warriors actually turn out to be the aggressor in most videos.
Generally nothing other than eff and jeff to myself in the car.
I try to stay relaxed. Yesterday in slow traffic someone overtook me where there was no real room, forced his car in front of mine so I had to brake, then sat in his car afterwards shaking his head with exaggerated movements so I could see it, as if I was in the wrong.
If he’d just put a hand up to apologise I wouldn’t have minded, but trying to wind me up by driving aggressively then doing that did have the desired affect unfortunately, although I didn’t do much other than some swearing.
A raised hand usually calms things down, but some people want to wind others up and deliberately do it for some reason. Not reacting is easier said than done!
Keeping relaxed is the key. If you do any driving you will see morons fairly regularly. It’s best not to react, you never know what nutter is in the car.
I hit the log button on the dash cam, give them some space and carry on.
Increasing my stress levels is not going to make me a better driver and if someone behaves like that, it’s hardly going to help matters if I inflame the situation.
I try hard not to cut up or harass other drivers, but on roads I don’t know well, particularly at rush hour, I might make the occasional transgression! Its unofficial peak time one way systems around schools that seem to cause most problems in my experience.