Avoiding road rage…the smart way
Life is busy. I get that. It’s been known over the past number of years that we’ve got more free time than we used to have. The problem is what we do in this free time. For those with kids, our free time is spent taking our kids to their activities. The more kids we have or the more activities they have, the less free time we have. For others, work and the daily grind can create havoc in their lives. Sometimes, this busy, hectic schedule can stress out many drivers. Here’s how to cope.
When people talk about having a bad day, it’s not exactly accurate. It’s a bad moment within that day. Why let something which lasted a mere few minutes affect your entire day? Let it go. Pick your battles. Letting these little things build up inside you isn’t healthy for you. It generally will mean when something else happens, it can cause you to think irrationally and react poorly, including while driving. When you’re calm you can make better choices. Better yet, laugh it off. Why let something minor affect the rest of your day?
We hear of road rage happening within our communities and to be honest, it really can be avoidable. Avoid taking the actions of other drivers personally. They aren’t purposely driving in such a manner to annoy you. There could be a variety of reasons why they performed the actions they did. Poor training, distracted, weather and road conditions come to mind as to why drivers make driving errors. Purposely doing it to annoy you probably isn’t one of them.
What can you do to avoid being the road rager? If you’ve had a rough few moments during your day, take a few minutes and listen to music before driving away. Driving angry can distract you from making proper driving decisions. You may even want to close your eyes for a few minutes and take deep breaths. By doing this, it will slow down your heart rate and help to put you in more of a relaxed mood before you drive away. Clear your mind of the negativity. If the stress which caused your bad moment or bad moment is at home, work, or elsewhere, leave it there. It makes no sense to take that stress with you while you drive. It distracts you from making logical driving choices.
If you come across a road rager, never retaliate to their actions. It would only add fuel to their feelings. 
Retaliating puts you at their level and never improves the situation. If it escalates, there could perhaps be charges laid to both of you. A few suggestions to defuse the road rager would be to move over to let them pass. When you’re driving in front of them you’re blocking them from reaching their destination. You could also turn off that road to avoid them altogether. If they follow you, make your way to the closest police station. That should send the message that you’re taking their actions seriously.
Stress and personal problems are part of life. Leave them where you found them. Think of the consequences of road raging before the action is the best way to drive. It’s not worth the risk if you don’t.
Listen to this short podcast to help you remain patient while driving.
Very interesting
Easier said than done. What you never hear about is, in many cases road rage starts with poor roadway design. 3 lanes to 2 with no warning. Left or right lanes become forced turning lanes without notice (unless you know the area). Merging on the highway without a merging lane (due to construction). Road construction without any notification, to mention a few. I’m not saying that this is road rage justification, I’m saying is certainly is a contributing factor. I’ve seen 2 guys go at it right in front of me because 3 lanes were forced to merge to 1 with very short notice. Had that been done the proper way, the road rage would never have taken place. You can say call here and there all day long, the complaint falls on deaf ears. I know, I’ve called. We are in 2019 and can’t put an educated person in charge of state road construction? Designing roadways is big business and tax payers pay for it dearly. Obviously, it is not going to the educated architecture.
I have to agree completely…I lived in the UK for 30yrs before moving to Canada and I was astonished at how poor the road signs were, green light for pedestrian to cross and your vehicle to maneuver…!!!! 🤔
This is a late reply, but I agree with John. Poor roadway construction planning. Who is this person and who does he answer to? This would not end road rage, but will definitely change the equation.