What would you do.....road rage or not?

[SpaceMan5]

So I accidentally cut off another driver and he told me in no uncertain terms that I was "number one" in his book. I responded with what I felt was an apology wave, raising my hand slowly with a minimal wave. He pulled up next to me at the light, I didn't look over because I felt that would be poking the bear. He ended up turning left and honked his horn at me.

So wwyd in that situation?
Do what I did?
Ignore the other driver all together?
Shoot a nasty look him?
etc, etc

And on the flip side, what do you do when another driver cuts you off?
Let the bird fly?
Honk, flash your lights?
Don't do anything and just continue on your merry way?
Speed up and cut them off?
etc, etc

Me personally, I disengage on both fronts. The consequences are too great.

 

[Magical2017]

OMG, how scary.

If this happened here, I would drive away quickly. I have friends who have been followed and the driver of the other car has tried to cut them off and get out of the car. I would never engage with anyone because you never know who is carrying and would shoot you over something as simple as having to slow down for another driver.

I literally just started a post about best and worst drivers and am wondering if you live in Maryland.

 

[georgina]

Someone cuts me off I am swearing at them inside my car. Especially ticked if they didn't use their signal. That's all, I don't usually honk or try to cut them off, etc. Usually I try to drop back a bit farther from them.

I too would ignore a mad driver, and worry about getting shot.

Had to laugh at the Maryland comment. Everywhere I have lived the neighboring state had the bad drivers. In Ohio people hated the Michigan drivers. In SW PA it was the WV drivers, and here in VA it it the Maryland drivers. I see more crazy driving here in the DC region than I have seen anywhere.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Too many crazies out there now carrying guns. Best to not do anything and just keep going.

 

[brockash]

So I accidentally cut off another driver and he told me in no uncertain terms that I was "number one" in his book. I responded with what I felt was an apology wave, raising my hand slowly with a minimal wave. He pulled up next to me at the light, I didn't look over because I felt that would be poking the bear. He ended up turning left and honked his horn at me.

So wwyd in that situation?
Do what I did?
Ignore the other driver all together?
Shoot a nasty look him?
etc, etc

And on the flip side, what do you do when another driver cuts you off?
Let the bird fly?
Honk, flash your lights?
Don't do anything and just continue on your merry way?
Speed up and cut them off?
etc, etc

Me personally, I disengage on both fronts. The consequences are too great.

It's just so stupid to engage in any kind of road rage. Anyone that does seriously has some mental health concerns that they need to get help with. No one is out to get you (the collective you)...people don't know or care who you are. Sometimes people are lost, distracted, in a hurry and are too self-involved and full of themselves to think of others etc. No matter the reason it has absolutely nothing to do with the other drivers around them and nothing someone says or any road rage someone shows another will result in a change in their behavior. Gosh if we could all just focus on making positive choices for ourselves instead of going out looking for problems and ways that we've been wronged we'd be so much more productive as a society.

 

[ronandannette]

So I accidentally cut off another driver and he told me in no uncertain terms that I was "number one" in his book. I responded with what I felt was an apology wave, raising my hand slowly with a minimal wave. He pulled up next to me at the light, I didn't look over because I felt that would be poking the bear. He ended up turning left and honked his horn at me.

So wwyd in that situation?
Do what I did?
Ignore the other driver all together?
Shoot a nasty look him?
etc, etc

And on the flip side, what do you do when another driver cuts you off?
Let the bird fly?
Honk, flash your lights?
Don't do anything and just continue on your merry way?
Speed up and cut them off?
etc, etc

Me personally, I disengage on both fronts. The consequences are too great.

I would have done exactly what you did. In this area, we are "wavers" in traffic, to acknowledge when other drivers let us merge or are otherwise courteous. A little "whoops, sorry" wave would seem appropriate in your situation. As for the other driver, well, many people would have reacted that way too...I wouldn't call it road rage. It makes for a momentary unpleasantness, but one moves on.

I've never flipped anybody off in my life and I never will. If a driver does something perilous adjacent to me, I'll honk - maybe they just don't realize? And if somebody is driving very aggressively, I'll just yield to them or get out of their way as fast as I can and hope not to see them in a wreck somewhere up ahead. Not everything in life is a contest...I just want to mind my business and get safely where I'm going.

 

[SpaceMan5]

OMG, how scary.

If this happened here, I would drive away quickly. I have friends who have been followed and the driver of the other car has tried to cut them off and get out of the car. I would never engage with anyone because you never know who is carrying and would shoot you over something as simple as having to slow down for another driver.

I literally just started a post about best and worst drivers and am wondering if you live in Maryland.

Nope, I live in WA.

I feel the same way, I will not engage because so many ppl lack the sense of reality of what the consequences will be once they draw their weapon and fire in a road rage situation.

 

[barkley]

Nope, I live in WA.

and we have some of the worst drivers on the face of the earth-literaly put your life at risk whenever you enter a parking lot b/c it's like a demolition derby at the county fair

 

[SpaceMan5]

and we have some of the worst drivers on the face of the earth-literaly put your life at risk whenever you enter a parking lot b/c it's like a demolition derby at the county fair

Same here my friend. King County WA is just stupid

 

[evilmommie]

No big deal. Move on.

 

[dpswift]

I had that happen once about 20 years ago only he cut me off. I guess he didn’t know how traffic circles work. He was so aggressive that I almost drove to the police station

 

[kymom99]

As far as the OP, I don’t think that counts as road rage. Someone was just irritated at you.

A number of years ago I was taking my brother home to his condo. I don’t know what I did wrong but a man followed us into the parking lot and stopped behind me where I parked. He put his window down and said something to me. I think maybe I didn’t use my turn signal? I don’t really remember anymore. But I was just shocked and stood there not knowing what to say. I wish I had been better thinking in my feet. I should have chastised him for following me onto private property to correct my driving.

 

[tony67]

IDK - this happens every other day it seems from my point of view.

This is just everyday driving, if they rolled down their window and started yelling at you or got out of their car then yeah maybe.

 

[_19disnA]

Mistakes happen and generally road rage is an escalation of various situations where it isn't 100% the fault of one driver. I just tend to ignore people acting rudely when I drive and don't look for reasons to make a bad situation worse. You never know when some angry/hot-tempered person might pull out a gun and starting shooting over something as minor as a traffic issue.

Some freeway on-ramps don't leave enough space to merge, so I generally will move to the left when I see cars attempting to enter a busy freeway. HOWEVER, when it is a 2 lane freeway, I also see what other faster traffic might be approaching in the left lane. Sometimes it is a trade-off of either slowing down in my current lane to let those entering time to merge vs getting behind some other speedier driver in the left line who now thinks you cut them off.

 

[slo]

I would have done what you did - almost exactly.

Have I accidentally cut someone off? Yes, I’m not perfect

Has a driver gotten mad at me? Yes, and I apologized the best I could like you did.

I’m not someone that likes confrontation unless I have to defend myself or someone I love. So I do not like continuing a moment like this and would just ignore the other driver too. If they want to stare me down, in hopes for a response, then so be it, but they won’t get a response from me.

Since we go into Chicago a lot, everyone cuts everyone off, it’s just the way it is - especially when you drive on the Dan Ryan .

 

[TippyThomas]

I wish there was a universal 'sorry, I didn't mean to do that' gesture.

 

[barkley]

Same here my friend. King County WA is just stupid

i'm on the east side of the state.

the parking lot driving i blame on the drivers entirely-absolute stupidity. with the freeways i attribute much of it here to two issues-

metering lights being installed on every freeway onramp. how they expect drivers to merge at the speed of traffic after coming to a complete stop on a short onramp (let alone one on an incline) is beyond me. when you've got an onramp in short proximity to an offramp so that far right lane is congested with cars just makes it worse,

issue 2 is offramps that immediatly become round-abouts. the confusion that ensues when cars are exiting and immediatly faced with multiple lanes they have to make a split second commitment decision on causes terrible driver confusion and frustration which contributes to accidents and road ragers.

 

[Disneylover99]

If I accidentally cut someone off and I notice, I’ll definitely try to give some kind of apology wave.

If someone cuts me off, I’ll swear in my mind (if I’m not alone) and just try to keep my distance from the driver.

 

[_19disnA]

Traffic circles present a whole lot of challenges. I always assume someone else entering is NOT going to care what other traffic there is and proceed cautiously. While I think traffic circles are fine for rural areas with little traffic, they can be a disaster in somewhere with a LOT of traffic. If there is a constant flow of cars from the left already in the circle it seems to encourage many to just dive in and hope others let them in. Multi-lane circles where you are expected to change lanes within a few hundred feet causes many other issues.

A city near where I live has already decided to modify their newly installed circle since the signage was confusing and lanes poorly marked which resulted in a lot of accidents. Basically they reduce the number of head on collisions from those running stop signs, but create a new set of problems with cars getting side-swiped.

 

[snowwite]

I slowed down to allow a car to exit coffee shop. The signal was yellow so we were stopping anyway. The guy behind me honked and threw hand signals then proceeded to get out and pound on my roof while hollering at me. The car I let out was a US Marine in uniform. He came back and said please don’t make me get my uniform dirty sir. Please get back into your car. Thankfully he did. People are crazy! Thank God for our men and women in uniform. This Navy brat appreciates them all the time but it was especially helpful that day.