On the way home from picking Jaden up from a birthday party this evening … I had a confrontation with road rage.
I decided to take the back roads home. Maple Ave is one of those streets where the speed limit is 25 however if feels like you should be going 35 or 45 down this road. It’s a speed trap. So I always make sure I don’t go over 33 in this area. Well I came up behind this guy that is going 23 … seriously!?! It’s already feels like a snail’s pace going 25 … can we please go the limit?
I don’t think I was all that close behind the guy … but all of a sudden the guy dropped to 10 mph. TEN! as in one zero .. ten miles an hour! The little old lady that lives on our block that only goes to the Piggly Wiggly and back goes faster than 10 mph.
I’ll be honest … at this point I started to ride the back of this guy a little. It was getting a little out of control. I thought about passing him but it was a no pass zone and there are usually cops on the road so I didn’t want to get a ticket. We drove on like this for a bit until he hit his break and (get this) STOPS in the road. I laid on my horn. I couldn’t handle it!
At this point, Jaden asked what was wrong and I said the man in front of me was picking a fight. Now mind you, I never once yelled, flipped my finger, or said anything mean about the guy. I was pretty proud at just how calm I had stayed. Jaden was in the car, I had to have some class…
But this got me thinking … there are people in this world who just get a kick out of making things difficult for other people. They, for no other reason than to bug the crap out of others, are difficult. They pick fights. They stand in the way of something you want to accomplish. Tonight it was to get home from Flabbergast (less than a mile away from my house) in under 30 mins! Other times it might be a boss who always tells you that you can’t or a friend who refuses to find a compromise.
Regardless, how do you react to the slow cars on the road? Do you give into your road rage? Yell, scream, throw a fit. Do you try to rise above the rest? Do you just cruise by them and let them eat your dust?
For me, I think it matters who is watching (just being honest …) or who is being my slow car. If it’s my husband I tend to lose all class and have a fight. If it’s with my mother, I am more willing to bite my tongue, ease off the gas and give her some space. She is mom after all …
Who are your ‘slow cars’? When you finally turn down another road are you proud of your actions and how to handled the frustration? What would you have done differently? If your children were watching, would you have been more willing to keep your cool? Just something to think about …
Love, Mel
Well, what happened with the dude that stopped in the street?!?! After you laid on your horn did he just start going again? What a jerk. I would have been losing it too. I often mutter “douchebag” under my breath when I’m driving and somebody else cuts me off or something, and I can only imagine that one of my kids will repeat that phrase sooner or later. Oops!
He eventually went straight through the stop sign and I turned right 🙂 Don’t know that I’ve ever been that excited to make a right hand turn before!
I too mutter “douchbag” under my breath. I’ve also said Jesus Christ countless times. When my son copied me with “Christ to God” it really put it into perspective for me. I’m using the Lord’s name out of anger and my 4 year old is too. That was a major reality check for me.
Good for you for keeping your cool.
There are some days when I go insane with drivers like this – there are others when I AM this driver (the one who slows down because someone is riding my butt.)
I’m stationed in Germany, and I have to drive a fairly dangerous road to work… full or curves and hills (REALLY bad in the icy winter.) There are some parts of the road that are 30mph due to bad curves. So SOMETIMES, although I’m really pissed that I have to ride a butt, or have my butt ridden… I convince myself that “You know what? By going slow, I’m either keeping the driver behind me safe, or I’m being kept safe by the slow one in front of me. (not to mention other drivers on the road.)
BUT… there are those days!! hehe – such is life! 😀
Wow, sounds like a really bad case of road rage on your part. The speed limit is there is a limit. i.e te max speed you should be going. 2mph under the max speed really isn’t that bad. If I had somebody behind me that was tailgating as you were, especially if I know cops were often on the street, then I would have slowed too. Maybe then it might have helped them realise they were being unsafe drivers. Just because you “feel” you should be doing a certain speed, doesn’t make it the speed limit. And if I had my toddler in the car then I certainty wouldn’t have been speeding.
Ash,
If you read the post, I said I was not riding him close when he decided to drop down to 10 mph. And it sounds like you completely missed the point of the post …
I dont’ think Mel was talking about just the guy driving so slow. She was also talking about life in general, when do you get upset with your “slow driver”, when do you pass or when do you just let go or just make a right turn and / or when do you go and starts honking. Just like in life when do you just let go when your husband, mom, friends, boss, etc… upsets you, do you ease back, do you honk/talk back, or do you just turn another road and let it go.
I was once behind this lady, who I believe had kids in her car, who stopped to let a bus make a left turn in front of her, thus holding up the trail of cars behind her. I put my hands up as if to say “what are you doing???”. I guess she thought I flipped her off because she flipped ME off, then proceeded to drive up the hill at reduced speed. Because I had a child (not mine) in my car I opted not to cuss or flip her off in kind, but I was quite disgruntled. Finally we got to where it was 2 lanes and she ended up turning. As she did I waved and yelled “Have a nice day!” (not that she could hear me). It wasn’t said nicely, though. In hind sight, I should have pulled over and let the cars behind me go ahead and maybe she would have speeded up and then I could have joined the end of the line and hopefully driven at a normal speed! If the child had not been in my car I would have been cussing and flipping the lady off.
it is normal to have road rage