You’re in a hurry. You’ve got business to take care of, errands to make, people to meet, and things to do. The last thing you need is an overly cautious, timid or insecure slow driver in front of you, or worse, a self-absorbed distracted driver paying no attention to the road. It happens—seemingly now more than ever.
Road Rage is inexcusable—acting out, doing harm, causing damage or even personal injury to others because we don’t like the way they drive. There is no justification for it. But all too often we simply focus on the bad deeds of the driver with road rage and ignore the misdeeds of those who contribute to the building up of road rage in others.
What about the preoccupied driver that is crawling maybe ten miles below the speed limit, holding back traffic while doing so. Or that first car, waiting in a left-hand turn-lane, that fails to notice that the green arrow says go, thus causing the last two cars in the same lane to needlessly wait yet another turn, because that first car delayed way too long in going, all for not paying attention to the turning of the light?
Small, insignificant, tolerable setbacks you say? Yes, but they do build up. It is not one or two incidents. It is the accumulation of missed signals, distracted drivers, road blocks and detours, train crossing delays, stop and go school busses, etc. that cause one to become exasperated. Pile up these incidences and you get one frustrated and growingly impatient driver.
Well, drivers need to learn to be more patient, you say. Yes. We do. All us drivers need to become more patient while driving. But there is something else we need to become more of. We drivers need to become more conscientious, courteous, thoughtful and considerate of the drivers around us.
The first thing this means in practice is to simply stay aware and alert. Courteous driving and respect for the other driver means driving in a way that says, “I am aware of the fact that there are other drivers, with whom I share the road, and my actions directly affect these other drivers. I don’t own the road. Thus, I won’t unnecessarily block, hinder, cut off, or delay other drivers if I can help it.” For example, if you are greatly slowing down traffic and you know it, might you pull over to the slow lane (or road side), if you can, and let the other drivers go by, so as to not make them wait on your time if you can help it? That’s courtesy.
Courteous and considerate driving also simply means obeying the basic laws of the road. You’d be surprised at how much more smoothly driving conditions improve when everyone simply does what is expected of them as the law dictates. Go when it’s green. Stop when it’s red. The car to your right has the right-of-way when two cars come to a four way stop sign, and so-on and so-forth. Know the laws and simply abide by them. This is also considerate and respectful driving.
Allow for individual variations of driving patterns. There will always be the fast driver, the slow driver, and those in between. Don’t appoint yourself as Mr. (or Mrs.) Citizen Police, determined to slow down the fast driver. Leave it to the police to catch them. Meanwhile, if and when you can, move aside and let them go. Stay out of their way. There is no doubt in my mind that this simple gesture will go a long way in reducing road rage incidents.
I suppose that there will always be idiot drivers out there, driving like maniacal imbeciles. Okay, in my forty-plus years of driving, I’ve no doubt that I myself have been one of those idiot drivers, at times. I know no perfect driver. (I wonder what Jesus’ driving pattern would have looked like, had he lived in these times.) Nevertheless, if we all became a little more consciousness, respectful and considerate of the other drivers on the streets, I’m sure we can make a difference and reduce the overall frustration and anger we all experience when driving in today’s overly congested roads.
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