In Texas, unlicensed middle fingers and car horns are legal.
What really gets to me are people who weave in and out of heavy traffic, attempting to get that tiny bit of advantage over the other drivers. I really laugh when I see them up the road, only a few feet ahead of me. My concern is that, while they are executing their maneuvers, they will cause accidents by people who were startled by the guy's sudden moves.
Well I think (original post) she was entirely in the right in smashing the lawn furniture but she probobly should have avoided the building.
Here in Cali, Colombia driving in public areas (ie: streets, highways etc) is a total free-for-all but honest to god road rage like people pulling over to duke it out is something I haven't seen.
BLINKERS! if i ever get worked up it's because of people who don't signal and just turn. i don't know how many times i nearly rear-ended these fools, not to mention nearly lost my life on a bicycle. they just turn, no look no nothing. GRRRRR. boston taught me to flip people off, yell and curse and highbeam. wasn't brought up that way at all. didn't start out as a driver that way either. but boston socialized you into the madness. hell, i'm even furious just thinking about it!
The no-signal I hate most is the guy trying to pull onto the road from a parked position. Recently a guy edged his nose end out slowly, expecting people to let him into the stream of traffic. Finally, after many cars passed while drivers glared, he put his blinker on. And, lo and behold, someone let him go.
Once on the way to work, I was in the passing lane, going about ten miles per hour over the speed limit...I saw this car flying up from behind me, and I moved over...but I guess it wasn't fast enough for this jerk-off, cuz as he flew by me at about 80 mph, he flipped me off.
So I sped up and passed the piece of ****, and cut him off at about 90 mph.
Then he caught back up to me, and I was really pissed, but when I saw the idiot as he pulled even with me, I could see that he was a complete nut, and I gave up. This idiot was throwing empty MacDonald's wrappers out the window, swearing and yelling at me...at that point I just got off at the next exit and hoped that he would slam into a telephone pole and die.
What a f*cking nutbag.
I'm usually ok on the highways. I get frustrated with slow and/or idiotic drivers, but I don't spend a lot of time on multi-laned roads. My angst comes from in-town driving - especially rotaries.
yes, in town driving, which has a much higher concentration of idiot and arrogant drivers.
another thing that really gets me: this guy got to his car, opened the door, sat down, closed the door. THEN opened the door again, and dropped a paper bag with trash right there on the street!
No, I haven't given into it, but I've been hopping mad at times .... some folk are just plain STUPID behind a wheel. Good grief, we're all just trying to get from A to B, it's not like it's a war zone, or something ....
I hate driving in Boston... I avoid it as much as possible.. I also hate driving home in rush hour traffic where everyone is either too slow or too fast!! I wonder why they call us Massholes... hmmm... The only thing I do when I get angry in flip the finger and if I am really really angry you get the horn and the finger... One guy tried to run a friend and I off the road once because we got through the light before him, so we called the cops on him and followed him until they came!! I don't highbeam people though, too mean for me. I did chase a car full of teens once that threw an apple at my car and I scared the sh*t out of them!! You should have seen there faces... 5 guys maybe 18 years old being chased down by two girls the same age....They pulled over to the road and hid, those where the good old days!!! Lol...
I hate when people "forget" to use their blinkers or when they ride your ass!
You make some excellent points Phoenix. Sometimes, yes, I do get mad driving, but usually it never escalates. I try to consider that the person could be lost, or simply made a mistake. Haven't we all? And that tends to lower my blood pressure. If some one does the reverse to me and loses their temper toward me, I simply smile and wave as they yell profanities.
My husband on the other hand can be hot head when it comes to things like that. I try to explain to him similar stuff as you wrote and he may calm at the time, but is anger just flares up the next time.
I was quite a long time ago in a situation that almost escalated into a serious incident. My boyfriend at the time was driving me home late at night. I really did not notice, but there were some girls in a car near us that was driving a bit crazy - not sure what they did to irk his temper, but next thing I know he pulled over and they did. He got out of the car and both girls got out (from the looks of them, they were a little on the rough side). There was lots of loud yelling and one approached my door. I am not normally aggressive, but under the circumstances your adrenalin is high. I opened my door and shoved it into her. My boyfriend ran over and yelled at her to leave me alone. I realized what a stupid thing this is and shut my door and locked it. I yelled at him to get in and let's go before something bad happens. In the mean time, being a heavily populated area several people gathered - out of reach of the impending fight, but close enough to let us know that they called police. I think that threat and me yelling at him to get going, convinced him and he got into the car.
I commuted 25 miles each way from Pasadena to Van Nuys, CA every weekday for 3 years.
Enough said.
Lol - same here.
Yesterday, after being held up for ages at the scene of some horrible collision between a car and a poor bastid motorcyclist - (four busy lanes becoming one) - I was driving peacefully, albeit late, to my meeting - when I saw a commotion behind me.
Some cretin was driving his car across four lanes of traffic - left it stationary over two of them - while he GOT OUT OF THE CAR - and, gesticulating and swearing, tried to throw himself in the path of a car approaching in the fifth lane - which managed to avoid him - AND, thankfully, avoid stopping. He CHASED it - still screaming and gesticulating - and managed to get to hammer on the windows and try and get the door open@!!!
Today I was on my bike on a main road, pulling away from a light and shortly after the lane goes from two to one. Everyone tries to race each other in position, of course. Behind me were two cargo vans bombing side by side, and two cars in front of me, the front car put his/her blinker on to take a left...now it's one lane.
I saw the van behind me flying up, I had two choices: Stop fairly short behind the car in front of me, hope the van doesn't clip me and can pass on the right...or hit the throttle and pass both cars on the right, hoping the car directly in front of me wouldn't attempt the pass the same time I did. So I passed the car safely. 20-50 in less than 2 seconds can come in handy.
Next light, the van pulls up to me, I look at him and yell "you always drive like a dick?" He told me "don't worry, I saw you," and I kept yelling at him. F'n moron. He told me he "had to get around the idiot trying to pass him." Yes, and flatten me in the process.
The one thing I'm guilty of doing, is when a car is in the left/passing lane on the highway and refuses to pull over, when I can finally pass on the right, I'll cut back in front of them a little close. BUT...I'm not that guy riding up their ass at first either. I hate tailgating people. Other than that I've calmed down quite a bit behind the wheel. I think since I've been riding a motorcycle a few years ago it's taught me to slow things down.
I'm not a "natural" driver and I have an unfortunate tendency to let my mind drift. Consequently driving takes a great deal of energy just to keep focused on the road--I don't have emotion to spare for other peoples' egos.
Quote:Today I was on my bike on a main road, pulling away from a light and ....
Slappy... I read this part and then read the part about 20 - 50 in less than 2 seconds. It was then that I realized your
bike was a
motorcycle 
