Meth: a Ticking Timebomb Gone Viral

Mr Walker/Mr Wheeler

For those of you old enough to remember Goofy cartoons, there is one in particular I recall watching as a kid. In it, Goofy is a mild-mannered citizen about to leave home for work, but once behind the wheel of his car, he becomes a road rager. Mr Walker...the mild-mannered citizen who wouldn't step on an ant, is shown leaving for work, and the instant he gets behind the wheel, his persona changes into Mr Wheeler...a person who these days, would be described as a maniac driver.

We are not all 'road ragers' per se, but becoming frustrated by other drivers' actions is almost a right (unless, of course, you are a courteous driver, who realises going faster rarely gets you to your destination any quicker). One study suggests that more than half of us at some point have acted aggressively towards another driver. This may not include pulling a pistol or angrily crashing into someone, but even yelling our frustrations and curses from the car window can be a catalyst for an escalation in tempers.

The reasons why we sometimes feel enraged behind the wheel are both simple and complex. When we have a tonne of steel protecting us (unless like me, you ride a motorcycle), along with the fact that on the road we are, at least to other drivers, virtually anonymous, can cause some people to act in ways they wouldn't dream of if, for instance, they were waiting in line at the checkout. On the road, however, birds get flipped and horns become an extension and release of our daily frustrations.

The reason I am posting about this phenomenon is because of the events that took place on my ride home from Bangkok to Hua Hin. It was a Friday afternoon, and getting out of Bangkok was a nightmare, but not knowing which way to go in bumper-to-bumper traffic was not seriously life-threatening. However, riding along a three-lane highway at the end of the working week, with many fellow road users anxious to get their weekend underway, was a danger I decided early on to try and avoid.

When riding a motorcycle at high speeds, an accident between two cars compared to a car and a bike is a story too well told in thousands of orthopedic wards the world over. The reason I stopped riding a motorcycle in Australia was because of a serious accident which I was lucky to survive. "I Can Fly" .

The amount of cars whistling past me at breakneck speeds was astounding. I found the middle lane to be the safest because it allowed those in a hurry two options to pass me by. I made it home safely, but a lesson was learned...a lesson I needed reminding of. Cars in a hurry will always trump motorcyclists.