We are surrounded by dangerous driving on a daily basis. Bad driving habits aren’t corrected because they aren’t seen as dangerous, and dangerous decisions are made by everyone on the road constantly, ourselves included.
Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary(Monty) on UnsplashOne of the most dangerous and frightening bad driving habits is road rage. Road rage is unfortunately common, but is often just used as an example of what not to do without further elaboration.
Below, you’ll find a definition, understand how it happens, and even learn ways to calm it down so you don’t succumb to your own road rage. This will hopefully keep you safe and prevent you from needing to understand the logistics of proving negligence in a red light traffic accident.
What is Road Rage?
You may hear a driver yelling or slamming the horn. It’s likely that you’ll see them making rude gestures. Sometimes they speed, run red lights or stop signs or weave dangerously through traffic. These are all signs of road rage.
Road rage is a common cause of car accidents as you may have guessed. The speeding, brake slamming and more are some of the most reckless things a driver could possibly do, but the pure rage blocks out all rational thought and causes the dangerous behavior you see.
Even if you aren’t the target, simply seeing another person like this is enough to frighten you, especially if they were close to you at some point during the rage.
How Does Road Rage Happen?
The causes of road rage are many and can vary from person to person or even day to day. For example, you may wake up some mornings and immediately be in a good mood while you start grumpy and easily irritated other times with no clear reason as to why.
You still need to get to work though, so you hop into your car and drive irritated. This is more extreme for some people as instead of being grumpy, they are quick to anger or are already angry by the time they get behind the wheel.
Whether you are grumpy, angry already or are generally quick to anger, you’ll be bothered more easily by the traffic around you than other people. Unexpected road closures, road construction that impacts traffic flow, traffic jams and more can all be aggravating because they make your trip take longer and be generally more stressful than you were prepared for.
The aggravation is compounded if you’re late as a result. The result of all of this building anger and frustration is road rage.
Can Road Rage be Calmed?
It is not only preventable, road rage can actually be calmed once it begins. When you climb into the driver’s seat, pause before you begin driving and take stock of your emotions. If you feel neutral or are in a good mood then you may start the car and begin your commute.
If you feel annoyed, upset, or even angry then you need to take a minute to relax before you turn the key. Take some deep breaths and sink into the seat a little bit. Find some calm music to listen to or turn on a relaxing podcast. If the anger does not dissipate, try to find out what is making you so angry and try to find a solution to that problem.
If the anger continues no matter what you’ve tried then you may need to call someone to drive you to your destination instead of driving yourself. The separation from the steering wheel will give you the time you need to think about your anger more and calm down without doing anything rash.
How Should You React to Road Rage?
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do to prevent another driver from experiencing road rage aside from driving safely yourself, and that can sometimes be a trigger in and of itself for the furious in a hurry. There are a few things you can do to handle a road rager, though.
Before road rage even begins, don’t be antagonistic towards your fellow drivers. Yelling, gesturing and generally being annoying on the road will make everyone around you upset and will likely cause at least one of them to experience road rage. Minding your own business is the first step to dealing with a road rager.
Should this fail and road rage occurs anyway then you need to let them pass you if they’re trying to do so. Avoid eye contact when possible and call the police. Road rage can be unpredictable, so getting authorities onto the scene as fast as possible is a good idea. However, you may find yourself a target of the other driver’s rage due to this unpredictability.
It’s possible you passed them recently and they didn’t like it, you not making eye contact is fueling their anger or they may have simply chosen to target you for no apparent reason. Get out of this situation as quickly as possible when this happens.
If the road rager follows you then you need to act quickly. Drive to a public area that’s full of people to witness the rager’s actions and then head to the nearest police station. Make sure all of your windows are up and the doors are locked before you get there and then park. Usually, this is enough to deter the rager from following you further.
Once they leave, give yourself a moment to calm down before you continue on to your destination. Should they get out of their car and approach, contact the police station you’re sitting in front of and let them know that you need help.
If you believe a road rage is following you, do not drive to any location that is important in your routine such as your home, local grocery store, the school our children got to, etc.
What Can You Do if You Have Road Rage?
Sometimes, rage and frustration build out of seemingly nowhere and you end up on the verge of becoming a road rager. If you notice this happening, there are a few ways to calm down.
Before you head out, make sure you’ve given yourself some extra time to reach your destination because this extra time will prevent you from worrying about running late and prevent you from getting too frustrated at traffic jams, closed roads and construction work.
Make sure the music you listen to during the trip is not only from the genres and artists you enjoy but also that it doesn’t enhance your anger. When anger does start to set in, relax your grip on the steering wheel and take some deep breaths. Lower your shoulders and unclench your jaw as well. All of this should release some of the tension you’re feeling and help you calm down.
