Handling The Expected Driving Experiences

by Tetramobile

I don’t know if this is normal or not, but I don’t really have crazy road rage on a regular basis, but if certain things come up, I can’t help but start swearing at them.

When I drive in the city and traffic is packed and you can’t move, I’m completely fine. I understand that in the city, traffic is really bad and I expect it all the time. I don’t expect that things will go smoothly. I understand that I’m going to have to wait.

So, if people are trying to change lanes and even do stupid things, I completely understand that. Maybe they just can’t handle the traffic and they don’t know what they’re doing. What I don’t understand is when there is no traffic and the roads are perfectly clear and you can go whatever speed you want, people will still do stupid stuff.

There’s no reason to cut me off or speed around me just to slow down. There’s no point at all. There’s nothing to deal with, just drive. It’s almost as if they try and create an environment that’s more interesting to deal with than just driving.

Why can’t people just calmly drive and not act like that? That’s all I’m asking. I can handle it when it’s expected, but when people do it for no reason, I just don’t get it and crack. Maybe that’s my flaw, but I’ll acknowledge it.

Response from Dr. DeFoore

Good for you for acknowledging your problem! And it is certainly understandable that you get angry when people do that to you. Anybody would. The question is, what do you do with your anger, and you were smart enough to write about it here. You don't want to give these other drivers control over your actions or emotions, so you might want to learn as much as possible about dealing with road rage. Remember, it is because you are basically a good person that you don't like to do aggressive things and make a bad situation worse.

Road Rage Is A Scary Thing

by Sarah
(Winston Salem, NC)

Boy, do I have a road rage story for you! This is one memory that I'm sure will be with my always. I certainly hope something like this never happens to me again.

I had just gotten engaged not long before this incident took place. Three friends and I were driving to a mall some distance away, because this is where a David's Bridal was located. You see we were wedding dress shopping.

I was not driving. I was riding with one of my friends who I won't name. This mall was some distance away, so we were driving along on the highway.

Things were going okay until my friend wanted to pass someone. She got into the left lane to pass, but there was already a car in the lane. Apparently she was not in a patient mood.

She started off by flashing her lights hoping that the woman in front of us would take the hint and move over into the other lane. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. My friend then moved onto not only flashing her lights, but also honking her horn, screaming, and making hand gestures.

I'm sure if you put yourself into the place of the other driver, you will realize that this only made her more upset. The other driver actually started to slow down a bit. All of us in the car tried to calm our friend down as we didn't want to have an incident on this day, but she just wouldn't be calmed down.

This was road rage as I had never seen it before, up close and personal! Fortunately for all of us the driver in front of us did move over into the right lane (however slowly that may have happened), and we were able to calm our friend down.

It was hard after this incident to ride with my friend again. I have never been this close to road rage since that incident. I hope to never be again.