I was pulling into a gas station. Their driveway consists of a two lane entrance / exit. I was pulling in as an idiot was pulling out. He was in the entrance lane trying to exit. He was so clueless. He laid on his horn at me because he thought I was in the wrong. I had 3 choices: drive over the curb to get in the station, go around the block and re-enter once the idiot moved on, or wait there and let him move to the proper lane. I chose to stay in the road and let him move. He rolled down his window and shouted some F words and wanted to get out and fight. I said one line: “there’s two lanes here, get in the proper one”. And he continued to threaten to fight me, so I repeated it once again. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t flip him off. I didn’t swear. I just calmly exclaimed that there’s two lanes here. I rolled up my window and proceeded to park and enter the store.
That’s where my story ends. No fights. No drama. Simply sheer stupidity. I am just agitated as hell. Someone 100% in the wrong got me fired up. I control my road rage because you never know what crazy idiots are out there.
Because you never know what crazy idiots are out there, including the one in front of you who wants to get out and fight, I would drive around the block.
I recall hearing Paul Briggs, former kick boxing world champion and WBC light heavy number 1, talking on the radio. He recalled that, due to the abuse he suffered as a child, he was a very angry young man. He would often, when angered by another driver, pull them from their car and beat them unconscious and leave them in the street.
He later overcame his anger problems and used boxing as a way to prove to himself his ability to control himself. But he may be the guy coming out in the wrong lane, itching for a fight.
Job we’ll done, mate! I, for one, think you’re awesome for demonstrating such composure and maturity.
I suggest ice to release your anger. Stand back and throw ice cubes and hard as you can into your bathroom shower. Expends a lot of energy, makes a lot of crashing noise, then, very little cleanup!
But mostly, just breathe. Deep long breaths! And congratulate yourself for your feat of strength!
Yup. Nobody’s paying me to be that moron’s driver ed teacher, and The sense of satisfaction I’d gain by besting him I can get much less dangerously from a video game, and I’d rather not have my day ruined by a jerk who has something to prove. I’d raise my eyebrows and scowl and drive around the block, annoyed buy not in danger.
I just got back from a weekend drive to San Diego (Santee, actually) from San Francisco. Driving through LA on the freeways, was amazed at all the road boulders. One of the best parts of the drive was a 3-hour “detour” of driving my SUV on the dirt trails of Hungry Valley SVRA, at the top of the Grapevine. No traffic, just open country.
So anyway, LA area freeways - lots of road boulders, yeah.
About the OP, it’s amusing when situations occur where driver #1 does something dumb that they’re totally in the wrong for, and then they get angry at driver #2 who is waiting for driver #1 to move out of the way. Almost like it’s the fault of driver #2.
Hey A. James, congrats on being polite but firm and not letting the other guy escalate the situation into a potentially life-changing event for someone. You handled it well.
Remember, your agitation will eventually dissipate (i’m sure it already has); that other guy, however, will always be an idiot, raging about things he doesn’t even understand.
Sometimes, if the situation is right, and I’m not in physical danger, I play a kind of game with the idiot offender, where I claim responsibility, even if the situation is not my fault. In very exaggerated fashion, I do a face-palm, then exclaim loudly, DID I DO THAT?? Then I weep and wail a bit, stagger around, looking very contrite but not mockingly so, just sort of innocent. It tends to defuse the situation, and might even make the idiot offender laugh. It doesn’t cost me anything. Most of the time it helps.
I started to do this with my kid, who thought every problem was a huge crisis. We learned to laugh about most things.
Same thing happened to me. Trying to pull into a gas station, moron was trying to exit on the far left side. I stopped and waited for her to exit. She pulled out into 4 lanes of traffic and the car passing me on the left lane drove into her front fender.
The cops got there instantly, since the the police station was next door to the gas station. The cop told me they caught the whole thing on their outside camera, and they didn’t need a statement from me.
My options were 1- stop and wait for her get out of my way, 2- drive around her and enter the gas station on the wrong side. I was not ever going to enter the gas station on the wrong side, since any accident then would be my fault. I waited, and she made a bad decision. No worries for me!
I’ve seen this happen in the past, pabstist. I have to confess that I always laugh. I do feel sorry for the unsuspecting driver who hit the moron, but still…
Driving around the town square I had to stop for a guy in front of me who was yielding to entering traffic. I beeped my horn and yelled “It’s a round about. You don’t yield. They do!” I was all proud of myself for educating a stranger in my city when he flipped me off. Then his 12 year old daughter in the passenger seat did too. Lovely.
Drive for a while in rural Thailand, and you will be impressed with how well all Americans drive. I could fill a small book with the bizarre driving I’ve witnessed here, but will content myself with one example:
Driving down an almost empty road, someone pulled out of a driveway in front of me to make a turn. I was almost certain I’d hit him, but my anti-lock brakes worked as a charm and I was barely able to stop in time. We lowered our windows to exchange comments and he spoke first: “I had my blinker on!” This non sequitur left me speechless.
I got to witness stuff like this firsthand when I went to China last October: Beijing Left Turn.
We were telling my mother-in-law how crazy the traffic was. She said, “Oh, I’ve seen some here, the other day I was stuck on the interstate for half an hour!” I said, “Okay, picture that, but the traffic is still moving, cars are jostling for position as though lane lines didn’t exist at all, some cars are facing the opposite direction, and there are pedestrians, bicycles, and motorcycles among all the cars. That’s China traffic.” There were times in taxis when I just had to laugh, because we were constantly cheating the reaper.
That is hilarious. You could probably draw a similar diagram for driving in downtown DC, and probably other US cities. As well as Paris and Barcelona.
Lately (past 3-4 years) people are taking to the avenues of Washington DC on Segways. Think about it… a real live human adult on (basically) a skate board in real live traffic competing with cars and taxis and delivery trucks and very often speeding vans and SUVs with tinted windows and government license plates. :eek:
