10 Things Most People Panic About On A Road Trip

While road trips are supposed to be a lot of fun, there are plenty of factors that go into making one a success. As such, there are also quite a few contingencies you need to prepare for because quite literally anything could go wrong at any given time - especially if it is a long road trip.

Today, we're going to run through a handful of those potential problems as we try and figure out what it is people panic about the most on road trips.

Is this a universal list? No, but we'd like to think it's pretty close to being one.

10 Running Out Of Gas

Nobody wants to run out of gas because let’s face it, that stops you in your tracks and puts a huge delay on your timed arrival for wherever you’re going. While that may not be too much of a big deal for a lot of people, some folks aren’t on board with the idea of waiting by the side of the road or calling someone to help.

Instead, they’d much rather just get on with their journey, and we can’t say that we blame them. Road trips are supposed to be fun, and this is the definition of something that would cause a great deal of panic.

9 Traffic

This is worse if your road trip route takes you through a city or a particularly busy town. In some ways, this is even worse than running out of gas, because you’re using up so much of it and you aren’t even really getting anywhere.

Most people go on a road trip in order to hit the open road and have a good time driving, but traffic doesn’t allow for any of that.

Our advice: Avoid Los Angeles as much as possible and things will work themselves out from there.

8 The Music

It doesn’t matter how long your road trip is going to last or anything like that, because the music is of vital importance no matter what. You need to have the perfect tunes to take with you because if you don’t, then you could be in for a less-than-stellar journey.

That sounds ridiculous but if it’s a really long trip, then you need some tunes to listen to so that you can pass the time. You’re singing away having the time of your life, not realizing that you’ve already managed to travel twice the distance you’d initially expected.

7 Hitchhikers

Even if you have absolutely no intention whatsoever of picking up a hitchhiker, they can still be incredibly intimidating. Whether it’s the way in which they look at you, the methods they use to get your attention, or just their general demeanor, it isn’t always pleasant when you pass them by.

Of course, we have no idea what they’ve been through and what brought them to the point they’re at, but that’s kind of one of the most dangerous parts of it all.

It’s just not something we particularly endorse.

6 Going The Wrong Way

No, we don’t mean driving in the opposite direction towards oncoming traffic.

We mean when your form of GPS takes you in a direction that just doesn’t make any kind of sense.

While this all comes down to technology, in the heat of the moment, you can’t help but feel like someone has specifically wronged you.

That sounds weird to say out loud but you can’t really feel that kind of anger and frustration unless you’ve been heading down one road, and then all of a sudden, you’re being taken down a dirt road for no apparent reason.

5 Idiotic Drivers

Plain and simple: Some people just shouldn’t be out on the roads. It’s really aggravating when they’re so bad at driving that it starts to impact those around them. In these instances, it can often be good to just get your head down and focus on your own journey, but in equal measure, road rage is a very real threat.

You need to try and contain that frustration as best as you can because otherwise, you’re going to be dragged right down to their level and nobody wants to see that.

4 Bad Weather

Rain, snow, and wind are the main culprits here because they all cause such a high degree of stress and panic. It doesn’t happen every single day and we can understand that, but for a lot of road trips, you’re just praying that you get some nice conditions to drive in.

90% of the time, bad weather can increase the risk of you crashing. While you may be a perfectly capable driver, that doesn’t really mean all too much in the grand scheme of things.

If the stars align, then you could be in trouble.

3 Forgetting Something

You’re halfway towards your destination and all of a sudden, you realize you’ve forgotten one of the most important things that you were reminding yourself all week to take.

Depending on the distance you have two choices: Turn back or keep moving forward. Neither is ideal because when it’s a human error, it hurts even worse knowing that you probably could’ve done something to avoid it.

Ah well, we live and we learn – but still, we highly recommend that you triple check next time before walking out the door.

2 Falling Asleep

For passengers, falling asleep in this instance probably isn’t going to be the end of the world, and all it means is that the driver isn’t going to have anyone to talk to. Oh, and more often than not, your neck is going to hurt due to how uncomfortable cars can be.

If you’re the driver, however, and your eyes are starting to feel a little heavy, then pull over immediately. If you’re on your own then find the nearest rest stop and recharge, and if you’re in a group, just change the driver for a little while.

1 Getting Pulled Over

You may want to get to where you’re going in a decent amount of time and we can understand the logic behind that, but don’t allow your stubbornness to lead to your arrest. That isn’t going to help anyone, and that’s putting it lightly.

In addition to wasting valuable road trip time, an arrest could lead to a series of other consequences that we’re pretty sure you don’t need us repeating. If it’s an emergency then you should, of course, do whatever you need to do, but aside from that, let’s try and take it easy out there.

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