38 - Friday, April 30, 1999 — North Shore News

north shore news

# AUTO
Assuage the rage, say ‘Sorry’

YOU know, it’s not that
I dislike ICBC terribly,
it’s just that I seem to
feel better when they
keep their mouths shut.

Htike the fect that the
Jasurance Corporation of
British Columbia is sinking
money into our local police
force and enhancing trattic
enforcentent.

like beng part of the two
or three per cent of B.C. dri-
vers thar actually pays less in
insurance premiums than my
safe-driving counterparts in
other provinces.

feven like that fact that I'll
pay a discounted deductible
should I care to use an
approved anti-auto-theft
device but have my car stolen
anyway.

There’s some good things
going on at ICBC.

That said, I’m absolutely
stunned that some peon in
that colossal corporation is
getting paid good moncy to
offer bad advice.

I'm talking about ICBC’s
latest ‘TV campaign promoting
“road sense.”

I'm ail for it, reaily, and
often chuckle at their mes-
sages’ method of delivery.

However, there is one
piece of ICBC advice regard-
ing “road rage” and how it
can be avoided that has me
irked to no end: “Ignore
aggressive drivers” they sug-
gest and follow up with
“Don’t make eye contact.”

Are you kidding me?
Ignore?

Is that how it works at
ICBC? Ignore a problem and
it will go away?

That advice served me well
in Grade 3 when Grade 6 kids
would raunt me with a limer-
ick about my height, my Celtic
lineage and reference to what I
ware to school. T could ignore
them just fine. Eventually they
went awy. Ahh, Grade 3.

Loo!, folks, if you're hav-
ing a contlict with an aggres-
sive driver the last thing you
wani to do is ignore him (or
her). The driver’s aggression is
YOUR problem.

When we’re talking “road
rage,” ignoring the problem
will only make it worse. The
raging driver is already ticked
off at you.

Do you think ignoring him
will calm him down? Not like-
ly.

, The lack of communication
out there on the mean streets
of Bonehead Ciry is exactly the
reason we have road rage in
the first place.

We need more communica-
tion and we need it more
often and we need it starting
yesterday,

Not according to ICBC,
which disgorges detrimental
advice cleverly disguised as
truth simply for the fact that it
comes from the one and only
auto-insurance agent.

If these guys say “Here’s a
good driving habit!” who's
going to argue the merits of
that advice?

Other than little old back-
page me, I mean.

What really has me all
choked up and fuming is the
fact that some clerk at ICBC
got paid decent money to
process this ill-conceived pap.

Some dork with a college
degree in castern lit.rature (or
something equally irrelevant)

signals

has worked his or her way into
a cushy, advertising-task force
position, sits in some third-
floor cubical and comes up
swith pens like “Ignore aggres-
sive drivers.”

Worse, someone gets paid
to hire dupes like this; gets
paid to supervise them and —
worst of the worse — gets
paid to approve the drivel that
spews out of the peon’s word
processor.

T want that job! I'm insane-
ly jealous! Hire me, ICBC!
Any pap that comes down the
pike, PH rubber stamp it!

Just give me every other
Friday off... Whatever.

Pve been putting together
sage traffic advice for some five
years now and in one fell
swoop the big moncy machine
at ICBC gets a provinee-wide
message to the rage-fearing
civilians that hiding one’s head
in the sand is approved, con-
doned and encouraged behav-
iour.

Years of ditgent back page
advice,‘ tiller down the drain,

Se fot us start trom seragh:
Folks, road rage is here to stay.
We are an over populated city
bursting at the seams with
bonehead drivers.

Our roadway infrastructure
is not designed to accommo
date the number of cars out
there. Too many people trving
To go too many places in too
short 2 time.

But there is something you
can do to counter the effects
of road rage as they pertain te
you.

It’s your problem, after all.
Don’t ignore aggressive dri-
vers.

Communicate with them.
It's that simple. Make eye con-
tact. See that fellow gnashing
his teeth and giving you the
finger? Yeah, you.

He’s angry with you.

Look him in the eye and
say “I’m sorry. That was very
stupid of me. Please forgive
me.”

Odds are the fellow is not
going to hear you but he'll get
the message as clear as day.
Then wave a friendly wave.
The angry fellow won’t be so
angry anymore. He might
even forgive you and wave
back. He'll probably laugh at
his own behaviour. P've seen it
happen (1 anger peopte all the
time).

CARTER CHEVROLET-O

And the deeper message
here, in case vou missed it, is
that this prescribed reaction to
anv dase of road rage doesn't
inwoly any specitic areuny
staflee.

It doesn’t matter that
Aggressor Guy ts way out of”
fine.

Also, it doesn’t matter that
you were the initial aggressor
and some fellow is aggressing
you night back, only harder,
with a bigver finger.

Who's the thicker bone-
head doesn’t factor into the
scenario at all,

Maybe you meant to cut
the guy off. I don’t know, But
if the fellow is winding up and
teady to pop, assuage his ire.

Smile. Wave. Say “Pm
sorry” or “Oops, how clumsy
of me” or “Gosh, lost my
marbles tor a wee moment
there as a grade school lep-
rechaun limerick floated to the
forefront of my thoughts.”

Who knows, it might save
your life — or at least a trip to
an ICBC Claims Centre sim-
ply bursting with geniuses who
think ignoring a problem will
make it go away.

When it comes to road
rage, ICBC has inadvertendy
become part of the problem.

Please, become part of the
solution. Communicate with
your fellow drivers.

Be safe.

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