Dealing with (Road) Rage

[panholio]

This morning on my commute to work I approached a 4 entrance/ exit roundabout. I was looking to go straight across. Cars coming onto the roundabout at 90 degrees to me (the more major road) looking to go straight on had blocked the roundabout as their exit was a queue of traffic. I edged out to get through this queue to go straight on. Saw a gap and went towards it and the woman in the car I was going in front of started waving her arms, gesticulating and flashing her lights at me. When I turned to mouth the words "you were blocking the roundabout" she started swearing and waving her arms even more vigorously and the chap in her passenger seat issued me with the "V"s and mouthed the words "fk off"!

Now I know that I shouldn't let this get to me at all so I just quietly drove off cursing them to myself. However the angry man inside me would like to have seen them both issued with some kind of disproportionate level of retribution. Possibly the kind of thing that would have landed me with a life sentence. How do I deal with this?

There are so many idiots out there that I genuinely think I am on the verge of having a Falling Down moment where I launch a small rocket into some roadworks.

[bqf]

Do you get angry when you're not driving - ever feel like you've lost control of your temper?

[TwistingMyMelon]

Leave it and move on

Ive lost it with people and hated myself after, its pointless you lower yourself down to their level

Just laugh to yourself that they are so fking feeble

Idiots tend to attract idiots

[Matt UK]

I find the way to deal with it is to pity them.

The world is full of dheads with tiny pointless aggresive little lives that see giving you some stick as a high point in their pathetic day and something to brag about at some crap pub at the end of the day how they "owned some mug earlier"...

Pity them, wish them a better future and take heart in the fact that you are not living your life down at that level.

All sounds a bit Christian Motoring I know

[gforceg]

Commuting is too much like this.



The trouble is that there is no chance of civilised discussion. I always drive away from those situations wishing I could've asked them what was really going through their mind. Did the NEED to be 6 inches from the bumper of the car in front? Did they actually want to block the flow?

Ah well.

[panholio]

bqf said:

Do you get angry when you're not driving - ever feel like you've lost control of your temper?

Yes... usually with inanimate objects. For example an awkward coat hanger can send me into melt down.

[Matt UK]

panholio said:

bqf said:

Do you get angry when you're not driving - ever feel like you've lost control of your temper?

Yes... usually with inanimate objects. For example an awkward coat hanger can send me into melt down.

OK, road rage is the least of your issues right now

[thescamper]

Just blow them a kiss and move on with your life.


Not only that I find that the idiocy of the act puts a smile on my face and completely removes the need to kill someone.

Edited by thescamper on Tuesday 10th December 11:09

[zeppelin101]

thescamper said:

Just blow them a kiss and move on with your life

If you want to see a person explode in a car then this is 100% the way to go.

My mate does this to people who are driving like dicks and mouthing off at him. The reaction from the other person is hilarious.

[bqf]

panholio said:

Yes... usually with inanimate objects. For example an awkward coat hanger can send me into melt down.

If you're joking, then

If not, then i would make a note over a week of the number of times you are getting angry. If it's almost every day, off to your GP.

[robinessex]

You can do nowt. They look at the pictures in the Sun/Sport, and ask more literate people to read the Mail/Express headlines to them. I do happen to have a very impressive looking pass for work, and on a couple of occasions I've waved it at such creatures. For some strange reason it seems to quieten them down!!!

[snowen250]

zeppelin101 said:

thescamper said:

Just blow them a kiss and move on with your life

If you want to see a person explode in a car then this is 100% the way to go.

My mate does this to people who are driving like dicks and mouthing off at him. The reaction from the other person is hilarious.

100% this. They usually look like they are having a combination of a stroke a heart attack and a sever case of the squits all in one go. Hilarious.

[Happy82]

thescamper said:

Just blow them a kiss and move on with your life

Waving at them and mouthing "hello!" Is fun too, leaves them wondering if they know you

[B.J.W]

I was road raged once, by an overweight 'powered by fairy cakes' young lady who possessed a face so unattractive and objectionable it was likely that, as a child, her parents fed her by catapult.

I must have upset her in some way, because she was effing and blinding. My response - I pointed and laughed at her. Her response was most amusing - she just got angrier and angrier. I continued to laugh at her to the point that I actually thought she was going to spontaneously combust in her car. I think she would have been a lot happier if I had effed and blinded back at her.

[Matt UK]

B.J.W said:

...who possessed a face so unattractive and objectionable it was likely that, as a child, her parents fed her by catapult.

Brilliant, I'm having that

[Hoofy]

Try driving with the window down. You'll feel more exposed and less cocooned.

[Nerfbat]

B.J.W said:

I was road raged once, by an overweight 'powered by fairy cakes' young lady who possessed a face so unattractive and objectionable it was likely that, as a child, her parents fed her by catapult.

You just caused me to spit my tea out all over my keyboard...

[shiftydave]

panholio said:

bqf said:

Do you get angry when you're not driving - ever feel like you've lost control of your temper?

Yes... usually with inanimate objects. For example an awkward coat hanger can send me into melt down.

Thank god I'm not the only one. Inanimate objects and other drivers get me raging big time.

[paranoid airbag]

Personally I find I'm usually angry at someone because I failed to predict what they're going to do. Not always, but often it's based on being suprised at someone and blaming them for suprising you.

They may well be to blame of course. But as far as I can tell, the success rate (assuming "success" means "they'll behave differently next time") of getting angry at someone on the roadside is basically 0. Unless you're a copper or extremely good at emotional manipulation (in fairness, maybe look up mirror circuits - part of the reason getting angry rarely works is that it's a pretty fundamental mental reaction to get angry back), you can't fix moron, all you can do is better predict them. You'll still be annoyed at seeing them get away with it, but hey ho.

[Crow555]

Hoofy said:

Try driving with the window down. You'll feel more exposed and less cocooned.

In December?