What am I doing wrong....?

Question

What am I doing wrong to attract the attention I am getting. I think I am a victim of road rage, but I think it might be me that is raging against everyone else.

This morning for example on my 7 mile commute. The car infront wasn't signalling and was crawling over speed bumps at 5mph in a 30 zone. I was getting flustered but I didn't make any aggressive manouvers until he slammed on his brakes at a corner. I drove round him and honked my horn.

Later I was brake tested after overtaking a truck. I followed the car infront in an overtaking manouver and pulled in behind him and he slammed on the brakes. I managed to remain calm during that one as I was a bit perplexed as to his reasons.

Finally I lost it when a guy wouldn't let me overtake. I came up behind his at a set of corners where he was doing 40mph. He immediately slammed on his brakes down to 25mph and remained at that speed until there was a clear piece of road ahead. I then tried to overtake, but he accelerated

so that I couldn't pass him. As we approached a corner he slowed right down again so I performed a stupid overtake and then slammed on my brakes until we almost came to a stop. I was raging!

I know what I did was wrong in that I reacted to him, but what am I doing wrong to attract all this rage inducing attention in the first place.

I drive with my headlamps on dipped all the time as I believe that this is a safety issue, but could other drivers see this as aggressive and get their backs up thinking that I want to overtake everyone all the time?

I'm worried that I'm going out of control and its only a matter of time before I cause an accident. I need to stop this from happening. I need to know what I am doing wrong so that I can stop doing it before someone gets hurt.

I know that I am wrong in reacting. That's not the point of this question. I need advice on how to remain calm and how not to over-react.

Answer 1

You need to calm down. Leave a few minutes earlier so you can drive in a more relaxed state. Laugh at others driving rather than growl at them. You'll still get upset, but you won't find yourself raging at others.

Also, think about whether you actually get there any faster by overtaking all the time. Its only 7 miles to work, so surely sitting behind cars will not make you very late - if at all.

I can appreciate it must be frustrating sitting behind someone at 25mph and then they speed up when you overtake. They are breaking the law by doing so, but I'd be willing to bet that you would also have been breaking the law as you caught up with them. You certainly were by coming to a stop after your overtaking manouver.

Maybe you should just take a step back and think about what might have happened. You could have caused a serious accident. By the sounds of it, it's not the first time this has happened. You really need to calm your driving right down. I suspect you got a scare this morning and that this is a cry for help before someone gets hurt.

Try asking your doctor about anger management or something similar. You need to do something, and I think this is the first tentative step. Good luck!

Answer 2

You are kidding me, right?
You are driving like an uninsured 17 yr old on speed.

Positive suggestions include:
* Double the amount of space you leave between you and the car in front - leave enough so that someone could actually cut in if they had to. If you are closer than this u are not leaving enough room.
* Ditch the coffee- no coffee or other stimulants allowed before your daily commute, yes this includes red bull
* Tomorrow morning- spend 10 minutes extra in bed considering how you will make your morning commute when you don't have a car. Nothing improves your appreciation for having a car as much as being off the road for six months. Better still, take the bus for a week- then being a couple of minutes late won't seem nearly so bad.

* Wear sunglasses. The ultraviolet in spring sunshine makes all males more aggressive.

Answer 3

In each event you tried to pass someone. Maybe you need to slow down. I agree some people just need to pull over or not drive at all that cause traffic to build up but what I can't stand even worse are the impatient drivers who try to speed past every one. I used to be one of those driver's until I had kids and realized its not just my life on the road. If driver's would use some empathy and consideration road rage probably wouldn't be such an issue. I just suggest to let it go before there's some type of tragedy. One other tip that might help is to leave about 10 to 15 minutes earlier. It makes a big difference. Glad to see your looking for a change and want help. Believe it or not there are actually some good people on the road.

Answer 4

I wasn't there so I can't say for sure but my guess it that you have a bad habit of tail gating. That is, driving too close to the car in front of you. I find that annoying as do most people, and I will slow down when they do that for 2 reasons, The first is to irritate them, but the second one is for my safety, if I was forced to make a quick stop to avoid an accident, he wouldn't have room to stop without running into the rear of me.

Tomorrow when you take your commute, try leaving 2seconds of space between you and the car in front of you. Just mark a spot on the road that the car has past, and count one thousand one and one thousand two. then your front bumper should just be at the spot you marked.

See if that doesn't do some good for you. Let me know how it works for you. Good luck

Answer 5

anyone who will not let you in after passing is in the wrong. and anyone who puts on his brakes for no reason is in the wrong.
whether you are tailgating or not this doesnt matter. anyone who thinks so and slams on their brakes for no reason are asking to get hit. what they dont really know is that they are at fault should there be an accident. because they provoked the situation.
therefore your driving habits are normal.
these people need driver education. a lot of them dont even have drivers license. you will be surprised as to the many violations they really are. for driving.
so be careful when driving.
remember the average speed is 55.
and above else be careful cause there are a lot of maniacs out there not to mention drunks.

Answer 6

some days are like that arnt they but you should calm down now and let it go otherwise you will be looking for others driving badly next time that you are out on the road if you feel like this every time you get in the car however then you may have a problemyou acnowlaged in your first paragraph that it may be you who is raging and that is a good step forward to admit that it may be you
is there any other way that you can get into work car sharing for e.g. maybe something to consider

Answer 7

I f you are tailgating with your lights on what more can you expect remember Patience is a virtue posses it if you can seldom in a woman never in a man
my driving instructor said 1 lenght of Vechele for every 10 miles of speed and you wont go far wrong

Answer 8

why do you keep trying to overtake? sounds to me like you are the kind of guy that drives right up close to other cars flashing your lights for them to pull over and let you through. you just want to hope that you don't do it to me one day, because you wont get to work. calm down.

Answer 9

Sounds like you need to calm down and be more tolerant towards the rest of us - as they say, 'What goes round, comes round.'
Take care

Answer 10

Got a feeling It Could Be You. I hope this is tongue on cheek, otherwise you need to review your skills!