Guest f***2f*** Report post Posted September 5, 2011 (edited) I guess this will take the form of a rant but it really mystifys me and maybe some of you CERBIES have some insight into this stuff. Yesterday I was coming back into the city on the 417 west bound from Montreal. I was in the inside lane and came up to a slower moving vehicle so I needed to pass him. I checked my mirrors and shoulder checked, there was one car almost at my rear fender and another one behind him at a good interval. I made the decision to cut out between the two cars as it seemed safe to do so and come up to the same speed they were at to pass. The guy in the second car went absolutely apeshit. Ran right up on my bumper blowing the horn and gesticulating....then he cut around on the inside to try and get ahead of me but there wasn't enough room...I was already almost even with the car I had pulled out to pass. This enraged the fellow more and he resumed blowing his horn and waving his fists...very red in the face. When I had passed the car I'd pulled out to pass I moved over to let Mr Road Rage by. He came up beside the car blowing his horn and waving his fist. His SO in the passenger seat was joining in and flipping me the bird and making what might have been a pretty face look pretty ugly! OK I might have misjudged the distance...I don't think so as I've been driving with an unblemished record for a lot of years but could happen. At any rate why would someone get so upset about a thing like this? It was a Sunday afternoon and not like a busy rush hour commute...WTF?? Edited September 5, 2011 by f***2f*** wrong direction Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grass_Hopper 18263 Report post Posted September 5, 2011 Sometimes, we just know the route by heart and let ourselves getting distracted by something. Did it ever happened to you to drive and then realize you were already at a certain point? So, maybe, he got distracted by something and just did'nt realize you were there... One way or another, I can suggest to this guy that, instead of renewing his driver's license, to take the money and try psychotherapy... Just saying... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nicolette Vaughn 294340 Report post Posted September 5, 2011 I completely understand. It seems these days people have no patience at all. Years ago, I once had one guy chase my boyfriend and I down the 174 because he did the same thing as you did and got into the left lane. Because my bf wasn't going fast enough for him ( guy was going 140 )we got off an an exit and were at a red light. He came up behind us at the red light at actually got out of his car and knocked on the window yelling and screaming. My boyfriend got out of the car and actually wanted to take him on he was so mad. I urged him to tell him to f**K off and get back in the car since the light was green. And did this guy actually get any faster where he was going? In short, no! And speaking of fast drivers, I would go out for a coffee run to Tim Hortons in the morning and the way people would roar into the parking lot at 7 am as I was turning from another part of the lot to go out was scary. They would enter and they'd see me turning and they wouldn't even slow down! Someday i will actually drive the parking lot speed as I make that turn and if they hit me, it will be on their head. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest f***2f*** Report post Posted September 5, 2011 I completely understand. It seems these days people have no patience at all. Years ago, I once had one guy chase my boyfriend and I down the 174 because he did the same thing as you did and got into the left lane. Because my bf wasn't going fast enough for him ( guy was going 140 )we got off an an exit and were at a red light. He came up behind us at the red light at actually got out of his car and knocked on the window yelling and screaming. My boyfriend got out of the car and actually wanted to take him on he was so mad. I urged him to tell him to f**K off and get back in the car since the light was green. And did this guy actually get any faster where he was going? In short, no! And speaking of fast drivers, I would go out for a coffee run to Tim Hortons in the morning and the way people would roar into the parking lot at 7 am as I was turning from another part of the lot to go out was scary. They would enter and they'd see me turning and they wouldn't even slow down! Someday i will actually drive the parking lot speed as I make that turn and if they hit me, it will be on their head. Parking lot pet peeves. 1. The people who park at the curb near the door 2. People who can clearly see your backing out and walk behind your vehicle (death wish?) 3. People who can clearly see your backing out and drive behind your vehicle....sheesh. 4. People who bang my car with their door or shopping cart and dent my car. 5. People who are too goddamn lazy to take the cart to the little cart corral and leave it in a parking space or banged into my car!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest s******ecan**** Report post Posted September 5, 2011 Why do people get road rage when they don't get sidewalk or mall rage (just try walking through a mall on a busy shopping day without getting, bumped, feet stepped on, whacked with shopping bags, cut off etc, yet fist fights don't break out, not even arguments) In their cars these peole feel powerful, like they're in Ironman suits or tanks or something. Plus they know they can curse swear gesticulate whatever but feel they can always run away using super speed (for humans anyhow). I really think the sense of power and invulnerability that comes with being in control of a large powerful mechanism has more to do with it than traffic stress, I'd prefer to think of it as "auto-arrogance" rather than "road rage". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
silverado17 12689 Report post Posted September 5, 2011 i find alot of people have road rage well not just road rage when it's hot out and there driving on the highways some are in another world and then all of a sudden wake up and duh i'm driving on a highway those people should stay off the highway when it's hot out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bcguy42 38594 Report post Posted September 6, 2011 Drive a limo for a while. Road rage becomes just another part of the scenery. My totally unqualified theory about RR is that it stems from people having so much in their life they cannot control that when they encounter a perceived injustice (whatever it is that you did that they perceive as wrong), they feel this is something they can do something about. It becomes their duty to correct your error or punish you. "Rage" being an operative term here, they make decisions and take actions that no one in their right mind would do. Since driving is my profession, I can't afford to fight stupid with stupid. Usually, I just stop. Literally. Most of the time pulled over to the side of the road, give them 60 seconds to move on, but I've been known to stop dead in the street (not the 417!), let the little arsehole go around and give him (usually it is a him) have the satisfaction of burning rubber as he takes off. By the way, I stop in such a way that there is a clear exit path if needed. Two incidences - one funny, one not: Sometimes I drive a stretch Navigator. It rides higher than the normal car and the low-beam headlights are sometimes just level with the rear-view mirror of the car in front. I recently had a woman get so torqued off about this that she sat a green light angrily giving me, not one, but the dreaded double bird, shaking both fists at me. Ok, thought I, she doesn't like the light. I flipped on the high-beams. :) There was a long pause, she pulled her hands back, adjusted her mirror and drove off into the night. The other one, also involving headlights, was some years back in the Midwestern city where I lived at the time. Driver A took umbrage at Driver B following him with his high beams on. At a stop light, A got out and went back to ask B to dim his lights. A got back in his car. They continued to the next stop light. B still had his high beams on. A got out again, walked up to B's car and shot him dead. I suspect that whole "A, B, headlight thing" has something to do with my lack of desire to directly interact with road-raged drivers. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
