Never take your eyes off the road and always try to remain calm. That's what I tell myself before I drive headlong into Beijng's rush hour every morning.
A pedestrian argues with a taxi driver after a near-miss on a busy street. (Liu Nianhai)
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Traffic congestion aside, my 15-km ride along the Fourth Ring Road can really get the adrenalin flowing due to the high level of aggressive driving and lack of courtesy demonstrated by some of my fellow road users.
It starts when we enter the ring road bumper to bumper. If you're not following closely enough, some car will appear out of nowhere and try to cut in ahead of you. If you let the car slip into the lane, it will only trigger angry honking noises by the cars behind you.
Once on the expressway, while fretting about how today's traffic jam will compromise your day's schedule, you should also be alert to those drivers who are busy talking on their cell phones, and those who forget to signal before changing lanes or who decide to overtake using the hard shoulder.
You also need to remain calm if you see a car begin backing up in front of you after missing its turn off.
And try to refrain from hitting the horn yourself when a Santana or Charade slows down in front and a ball of used tissue flies out of its side window, or a black Audi with pitch black windows keeps honking until you move over and let it pass.
To be fair, not all of these drivers are road bullies. Every day, Beijing adds 1,300 to its 4.6-million army of licensed drivers, while its car population (currently 3.1 million) swells by 1,200. This means that crowded roads and inexperienced drivers are unfortunately a permanent part of the landscape for us motorists.
But I believe most of this negative kind of behavior can be avoided if drivers learn to mind their manners and violations are dealt with more diligently.
If the city is determined to curb people's bad habits, like spitting in public, littering and queue-jumping ahead of the Olympic Games, it should also take measures to civilize its aggressive and rude drivers, a missing part of the current city-wide courtesy campaign.
For example, if small "spit bags" are distributed to people on the streets, "litter bags" could also be given to drivers at gas stations or at toll gates to shame litterbugs on the road.
In accordance with the traffic rules, motorists will pay a fine of 200 yuan and lose two points if they make a call while driving or tailgate. Meanwhile, litterbugs will pay 100 yuan for dirtying Beijing's roads. But I suspect almost all offenders on the outer ring roads have got away with breaking these and many other rules, as traffic police and their civilian helpers are usually deployed at main crossroads.
Can we drivers also do something when we see aggressive driving on the road?
One recent, rainy night I was driving in an eastern suburban area when I had a brief brush with a tailgating driver equipped with self-enhanced high-beam headlights, a cardinal sin of nocturnal aggressive driving.
The inside of my car was ablaze with the reflection of his glaring headlights, which made my driving uncomfortable and his presence ever more threatening. Since I was doing nothing wrong, I decided to put my hazard warning lights on to deter him.
To my surprise, he turned off his high beams and, seconds later, he had overtaken me and vanished into the night.
I have used this technique ever since with much success whenever I am followed by cars with blinding headlights at night. After all, in a collectivist culture like ours, it is not that hard to persuade people to show concern for others.
