Road Rager, The Confession. (Road Rage)

Member Name: Technical Tobes

Product:	Road Rage
Date:	23/04/01 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Causes grief to others and yourself. Pointless!

I suffer from road rage, I know I do & I’m not particularly proud of it. I’m not a really bad case & I know I would never go to the extremes of hurting someone or damaging property, but, never the less I have done a few silly things.

The purpose of me writing this opinion is to let you know what I’ve done, what made me do it, what I was feeling, why I think I do it whereas others would not and, finally, what I think helps me and others like me from doing it in the future.



◦◊◊◊ THE RAGE! ◊◊◊◦
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Following are the last 2 examples of me loosing my rag at the wheel and what I did, here goes...

● RAGE 1 ●
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It’s just after 8:30am in the morning and I set off for work. I aim to be there at 9:00am, it’s a 12-mile journey and journey times vary considerable with the traffic, 20mins best, over 30mins worst.
I drive out of my estate and along about 3 miles of narrow lanes. Just into this lane, a car pulls out just in front of me, not dangerously I might add, but it did annoy me as the driver was driving at a pace somewhat less than I would have done and there are no overtaking opportunities for a few miles.
I pull out of the lane on to a main but scenic and twisting country road. Shortly after this is the first overtaking opportunity, but alas a car is coming in the other direction so I cannot.
I’m now very annoyed as the driver is driving much slower than I would. I would normally cruise at around 50 to 60mph; the driver in front is doing 40mph tops.
I join onto another road; down this road are the last 3 overtaking opportunities until I get into the city. All are lost due to traffic. This is turning into a 30mins worst scenario and my patience is going quickly.
I hit the outskirts of the city, the speed limit
s have all been reduced recently to a somewhat extreme level, doing 30mph down a straight, main road seems like it is quicker to walk. I usually drive a little quicker than this limit, but not today, the driver in front is dictating my speed!
I’m now really wound up and am planning a speedy overtake when we finally hit the dual carriageways into the city, which is pretty much the end of the journey for me.
I drive down the, now painstakingly slow, roads until I hit a 2-lane roundabout that leads onto the first short bit of dual carriageway until another roundabout.
This is when my blood boils, the driver in front now takes up both of the 2 lanes so that I cannot get past him in the 2nd, he then straight lines the roundabout causing me to have to brake sharply.
I am now very pissed off and my rage takes over! I put my foot to the floor and speed past him, cutting in abruptly and finally braking right down to a stop at the roundabout. There I stay, passing up many opportunities to join the roundabout. The driver beeps his horn but I ignore it. Then, just before a big line of cars come to the roundabout, I speed off, leaving him to wait for the queue of cars to pass.

● RAGE 2 ●
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This is much the same scenario, so I will not go into as much detail. This time however, I’m on my way back from work. It’s been a long day and I’m tired – I just want to get home and sit down with a nice cup of coffee.
I drive through the rush hour traffic, it’s busy, but there is nothing I can do about that. Eventually I get out onto the open roads, but alas I’m stuck behind a car. This time, going extremely slowly and once again all overtaking opportunities are lost.
By the time I’m 3 quarters of the way home I am fuming, the person in front is driving with erratic speeds of between 10 and 30mph along the roads I normally
cruise at 50/60mph. I’m continuously having to brake as the driver slows for every corner, then speeds up.
Finally, coming up to a tight corner, I snap, I floor it past and slam on the brakes. The fact that I could overtake at the point I did was testimony to how slow the car was going, normally you’d risk your life overtaking at this point but in this case I managed it with ease.
Anyway, I now decide that my top speed is going to be 10mph and proceed very slowly along the road until pulling off onto the lanes.

There have been many other occasions when I’ve had an attack of road rage, sometimes this can just be the middle finger salute, normally an aggressive overtaking manoeuvre, often accompanied by colourful language.



◦◊◊◊ WHAT MAKES ME DO IT? ◊◊◊◦
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There are two main reasons why I get wound up when driving, these are...

● People holding me up.
I hate being held up when driving, I like to drive at a comfortable speed for me and so anyone who prevent me from doing so is going to irritate me.
Basically, they are preventing me from getting to work as quick, sometimes it will make me late, in either case I will have to work that bit longer to make up the time. So, basically, the person in front is cutting into my time and this is what gets to me. And before you say it, the frequently quoted phrase “You won’t get there any quicker” is complete bull, depending on just normal traffic conditions (excluding road works etc), my time taken to get to work varies as much as 15 mins, bearing in mind that on a really good day it only takes me 20mins to get to work!

● People driving badly.
I hate being cut up or people pulling out right in front of me. I hate people straight lining roundabouts, I hate it when people do not indicate or use the wrong lane. I hate it when peo
ple drive inconsistently, brake or slow unnecessarily and I hate people you drive right up my backside.
I hate bad driving; particularly as these bad drivers are often the people who would also come under the first category, i.e. drive slowly.
Bad driving really winds me up!

Now, I don’t snap quickly, it’s when I get any of the above continuous for a long period of time, I’m kind of on a timer!
I can usually withstand just the one of the aforementioned irritants, but a combination makes my fuse burn much quicker.

I can handle heavy traffic and traffic jams, there is nothing that can be done, but with other drivers, they could speed up, they should be driving properly and as a result of them not doing that, they are holding me up or causing me to concentrate harder. Just like, when someone hogs the bathroom in the morning, this winds me up and I get angry. And on occasions, this anger turns into rage.

There are of course many other factors that come into the equation, how I’m feeling, where I am going, and what kind of day I’m having all have an influence.



◦◊◊◊ WHAT I’M FEELING ◊◊◊◦
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When road rage attacks me I go through three different stages...

● Before:
This is the stage where I’m getting angry; I start shouting to myself, shouting at the other driver (as if they can hear me!). I get this intense feeling of anger, I want to teach the driver a lesson, show them what it feels like.

● During:
I get a real adrenalin rush; I can even feel myself shaking sometimes. Feelings of anger, pleasure and satisfaction all rolled into one. I feel like I’ve showed them, I’ve accomplished something, I’ve got my own back!

● After:
I feel stupid, I feel like I’ve made a right twit of myself and I feel ashamed.
Thoughts start going through my head about what the other driver must have thought, what they must have said as or perhaps I may have even scared them. I get a real sense of regret and wish I hadn’t have done it at all. Most off all I feel really ashamed that I lost my self-control and for what, usually nothing at all!



◦◊◊◊ WHY ME? ◊◊◊◦
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So, as I sit here writing this, I’m thinking, what is different about me that makes me get these rages whereas other people do not? This is what I think...
I’m a workaholic, I’m always doing something and I’ve never got time, I’m always in a rush.
I have a powerful car and like speed, I probably drive naturally and comfortably at a pace above most other people.
I get bored very quickly, if I’m not doing something, I’m bored and boredom makes me irritable. I have little patience.
I’m in a job where I am in control and I have little time to make decisions, I am almost always right and frequently time is of the essence. People ask me what to do, how to do it or for advice, very rarely the other way around.
I’m very competitive (!), I hate being wrong and I hate loosing so I make every effort to get there first, and to be right.
I think these, or at least some of these points, are the underlying cause of my rage.



◦◊◊◊ WHAT CAN HELP? ◊◊◊◦
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So what can help me avoid these fits of rage?
Well obviously, less traffic and les traffic restrictions would help; this is most probably why road rage has increased so much. But this ain’t gonna happen is it, if anything this will get worse!
I think the previous ‘Why Me?’ section said it all really, I think I basically have to change some aspect of my life.
Basically, r
elaxation is the name of the game, I need to stop working, stop doing anything in fact and just sit or lye down and take time out. I need to relax more.
To help do this, I really need to organise my life more, leave for work earlier, go to bed earlier and allow more time for things, basically drop down a gear. Right now, I should be snuggled up in bed with my girlfriend watching a film or something.
My girlfriend would certainly agree and has often tried in vein to help.
I know that when I am more relaxed, I don’t get wound up with other drivers, it not a problem. Maybe I should try taking a deep breath, putting in a more mellow CD or something the next time I’m stuck behind a slow driver. Maybe I should trade in my flash car for Fiesta 1.0 or something... ...no, that’s too far!!!

So basically, it’s a subtle change in lifestyle that I need!
Question is, can I do anything about it? I’ll let you know!




Well thanks for reading, it’s about time I dropped the ‘Technical’ from my name and wrote something a little different! Hope you’ve enjoyed it, and if you’re a road rager, hope this helps.

I do hope I’ve not painted a bad picture of myself; these road rage attacks of mine are few and far between and someway off the more extreme and violent cases we’ve all heard about.

I would be most interested in anybody’s points of view on this opinion, advice even (oooh, me taking advice – scary!).

Thanks for reading, Tobes.

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