Hey Raj: I know exactly what you mean.
A lot of it has to do with your baseline catecholamine levels. Living in large cities with tons of traffic...being in a hurry...overworked...worries on the job or at home...all of these things raise your baseline levels and contribute to your fuse blowing much earlier than average.
I'm sure you have noticed that your rage is easier to control when you are rested, enjoying a nice ride on your S on a Sunday morning than when you are going to work and need to get there NOW.
I can tell you, I used to live in a large city with a clogged roadway system and at times I had problems controlling those impulses too. It always was in the context of me being in a BIG hurry (I'm a physician) and people doing the stupid things people describe in the posts above. I have since moved to a smaller town, my daily commute is 1.7 miles one way and yes, at 43 years of age, I guess you do mellow out a bit.
Suggestions: Find ways to decrease your "baseline" stressors. Leave earlier for work so you are not so harried in getting there, learn to say "NO" to things you don't really need or want to do, take a few min. to meditate during your day.
Good talking to you Raj, thanks for reading.
Daniel

 

thunderchicken are you my long lost twin brother? I feel the same way....

...and to all of those wiser members telling us to relax, you are right and I'm working on it....

 

:stands up:

hi, my name is soul_fly and i admit and i that i often frequent the unpleasantry of road rage.

ironically people that speed, or cut me off rarely piss me off. sometimes you gotta get in where you fit in. please don't miss you exit because you don't wanna cut me off, jus' put on a signal to let me know what's goin' on, and i'll do you one better and let you over.

it is the people that impede my commute that get on my nerves. why some people drive like they have no where to go is beyond me. i do admit that i speed, however i feel that i do it justifiably, and most importantly safely.

i'm sorry, but if we're on a two lane highway,and you and the car next to you are doing the speed limit, with a mile or two of empty highway in front of you -- YOU ARE IN THE WRONG!! so please, get the f*ck outta my way!!

i also adhere to the speeder's code of ethics that thunderchicken mentioned. accordingly, if someone gets road rage because of my antics they simply cannot drive.

 

I chose that I do get pissed, but don't do anything. I used to react and try to get "them" back, but found that it doesn't really do any good. Besides youhave no idea what or who you're dealing with. It's interesting though that when most of us are in our cars we are much braver than if we were face to face. It's almost like we have a weapon at our hands and sill use it to teach some people a lesson when it is we who should learn.

 

dangarza, you are so right. Meditation is the key. I used to be more laid back and I will follow your advice. I am just need to chill and give my adrenals a rest!

 

What a great thread! Interesting answers all around.
I find my road rage incidents have decreased since getting my S2000...for one thing, I now go out of my way to be a good driver (yielding to other vehicles, letting them turn in front of me, whatever) and it feels good. If I encounter jerks in situations where I can simply leave them in the dust, 'THAT' is theraputic. And if the guy in the Camry next to me wants to act like Mario Andretti, let him. I'm the one with the cool car!

Also, I'm mellowing with age and I like to think I'm finally getting my act together!

 

S2000raj,

I used to do the same thing but I tried to figure out why I get so upset. I think I'm upset b/c the stupid drivers "waste" my time by driving inconsiderately. Now I use the time in my car productively so I don't feel the loss of control anymore. I gave up being so upset b/c I was pretty peeved at all the other drivers in NYC.

The best things are Audiodigest ophthalmology (or anesth) and learn to speak Spanish in your car. It's amazing how much calmer I've become since doing so.

 

Thunderchicken I too yell "Car color, make, model *&$^*$" I did not notice it until my friends pointed it out to me, now they get a good laugh out of it when it happens. Unfortunately I am guilty of most of the above actions as well.

What really bothers me is why don't cops start ticketing people for some of these stupid (mostly not paying attention IMO) such as
1)Going same speed in left lane as cars in the right lane
2) Using the turning lane (in a 2-4 lane road w/turning lane in middle) to merge into traffic
3) Not using blinkers
4) Not doing head checks when changing lanes
5) Going well below the speed limit for no apparent reason
6) People that get stuck in the middle of an intersection when their light is red
7) Can't hold a constant speed with in 2-4mph for longer then 15sec

I realize that most of these can't really be ticket worthy offenses, but what it really boils down too is the drivers education is 100% piss poor. It is WAY WAY too easy to get a drivers license, easy solution to this....

To get your DL instead of a real world test, you do it in a simulator. It is a full sit in simulator, the car equivalent of what pilot's might train in. During the test, various actions would be tested. Few off the top of my head would be, how far ahead the person looks when driving (I bet most people don't look past 200 feet), reaction times (cars cuts them off, kid runs into road etc.), how they react when the car goes out of control (this would just be great 'replay' material for teaching), and how well they actually use their peripheral vision. Possible?

Sorry for the long post, I have spent sleepless nights thinking of a solution. And for what ever reason this is about the only thing that can really get a 'reaction' out of me, it just eats me up.

Steve

 

Thunderchicken: Man, I was laughing so hard as I read your post. I don't swear when people do stupid things but I do usually mutter "stupid jerk", "idiot", "woman driver!", or "insane!". My wife of over two years is now trained to the point where she is also getting a sixth sense of when people are going to do something stupid. These days she's picking up on things pretty much as fast as I am....so obviously I'm pretty vocal about what I see on the road.

Soul_fly: I'm pretty much in agreement with you on this one. First time for everything, eh?

 

The funniest moment I had was when my wife was driving and we had to put up with an erratic Lexus that was driving like driver was blindfolded.

As we passed my wife looked over and shouted:

"Fu--ing Asian drivers!" and flipped the other driver off.

I thought it was hilarious, because my wife is a Japanese native.