Slow down, and try to get along a little better
A report released last week by AAA Mid-Atlantic shows we've got increasing levels of anger when we're behind the wheel. That bothers me big time. I've seen too many people lost to senseless, preventable accidents.
I've also seen the scary face of road rage, in big and little ways. People who bang down hard on the horn and scream out insults for something as silly as the person in front of them waiting two or three seconds after the traffic light has turned green to start moving, to those who tailgate anyone who has made any type of driving error. Sure, we all see people make driving mistakes. We also see people who are just lousy or obnoxious drivers. We help when we alert them to a mistake or help them avoid an accident they don't see.
We don't help when we go overboard. About 40 percent of those surveyed admitted to "punishing" other drivers. Do they think that somehow makes them better?
Several years back, I got caught in a traffic circle. I was behind someone who had no idea how to navigate one and stopped dead in the middle of the circle, with me stuck behind. About 30 seconds later, a guy who came plowing around the circle (well over the speed limit) and had to swerve when he got to us pulled up, stopped his car and started screaming obscenities -- in full view of my then 6-year-old niece, who he very clearly saw. (Wow, were her eyes wide open when he went off on his 15-second F-bomb-laden tirade. I so regretted not having automatic windows.) I remember thinking -- as his eyes seemed to be rolling around in his head -- that he was going to have a heart attack right there.
Lousy drivers are frightening. Obnoxious drivers are frightening. But guys like that one, who probably would have slugged me and the driver in front of me if he had the chance, are probably the most frightening of all.
I've also seen the scary face of road rage, in big and little ways. People who bang down hard on the horn and scream out insults for something as silly as the person in front of them waiting two or three seconds after the traffic light has turned green to start moving, to those who tailgate anyone who has made any type of driving error. Sure, we all see people make driving mistakes. We also see people who are just lousy or obnoxious drivers. We help when we alert them to a mistake or help them avoid an accident they don't see.
We don't help when we go overboard. About 40 percent of those surveyed admitted to "punishing" other drivers. Do they think that somehow makes them better?
Several years back, I got caught in a traffic circle. I was behind someone who had no idea how to navigate one and stopped dead in the middle of the circle, with me stuck behind. About 30 seconds later, a guy who came plowing around the circle (well over the speed limit) and had to swerve when he got to us pulled up, stopped his car and started screaming obscenities -- in full view of my then 6-year-old niece, who he very clearly saw. (Wow, were her eyes wide open when he went off on his 15-second F-bomb-laden tirade. I so regretted not having automatic windows.) I remember thinking -- as his eyes seemed to be rolling around in his head -- that he was going to have a heart attack right there.
Lousy drivers are frightening. Obnoxious drivers are frightening. But guys like that one, who probably would have slugged me and the driver in front of me if he had the chance, are probably the most frightening of all.
2 Comments:
I define road rage as threatening someone when they have their car where you think your car should be. It's a serious crime because of its terroristic nature.
I witnessed two young road ragers chase down an elderly man and his wife. They forced him to stop in a parking lot, and presumably would have dragged him out of his car. I pulled up perpendicular to them and stared at them, and they finally left. Truth is, although I'm a middle-age man in reasonably good shape, I was scared to death myself.
Road rage is terrorism, plain and simple, and should be treated as such.
You really should forgive Reverend Riley for that outburst at the circle. After all we are all fragile humans.
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