By Jumie
I wrote this post yesterday and had problems uploading on the site, perhaps it was because i needed to update this piece because, there i was yesterday writing about road rage not knowing i would have a breif encounter myself with road rage this morning. I was cut of this morning at an intersection by an elderly man who was obviously in the wrong and and we were both the cause of a bottle neck. I was livid because he was on my lane. Now I was on the left lane and he was on the right but in his haste, to turn into the street on my lane he over took the cars on his lane and drove headon unto mine, thereby cutting me off from my own journey and insulting me at the same time. I was livid with rage and also running late for work. Everyone around me stopped and i could see that we were in for a short wait as we had both put our cars in the neutral position hell bent on not relenting. Even in my anger i took in the situation: i was right, he was wrong but i was going to be late for work and he looked as though he was retired and had no plans for the day. I also distinctively remembered my piece on road rage. While resentment and disgust was building in me and i was yelling in my car with my windows up gesticulating wildly at him, i knew i had to be the bigger person by finding a way out of this quagmire. An area boy who obviously known to this elderly man came up to me looked at the man and decided to plead with me to reverse so as to allow the man to move into the street as there was a bit of space to pass, thus easing the bottle neck he had created. As he moved on another car wanted to repeat the same thing but i was quick to blast my horn and fortunately for me he seemed to realise his own folly and i soon move on. It took awhile for the pounding in my head to ease off and i kept on repeating to myself road rage, road rage but it didnt ease how angry i was feeling and the feeling followed me to work this morning. So my next thought was do i still repost yesterdays post? There seems to be no harm in doing so. I have learnt a thing or two today, even though i felt cheated and angry i was able to controll my rage.
Yesterdays Post.
Don’t you just hate it when someone cuts you off when you least expect it and especially when you’re feeling calm and confident, whilst driving normally, the rage and anger it generates goes from 0-10 in seconds and you let out a torrent of explicit and outrageous adjectives, often lost to the culprit and then you either try to catch up with the offender or blast your horn at the offending party.
The different types of road rage that i have witnessed in recent times often blow my mind and the funny stories often associated with some, leaves me wondering where manners, patience and respect has gone. A lot of road users are not even worried about who might be watching them and how they control themselves when driving. You will even find lots of educated composed and polished looking individuals acting like touts and social miscreants all because of road rage. Car traffication is ignored and seen as a weakness when you oblige the requester.
I have seen what road rage has done to some individuals who have regretted their rage during such encounters. I know of a friend who had an altercation with another road user and ended up with more problems than they should have had. It was a situation where in his haste, he cut off another car and the occupant of the car came out and cracked his wind screen in his rage. By the time the offended person, realised what his rage had made him do, the damage had been done and there was much to pay for, with both parties at logger heads. Unfortunately for them they were later robbed at the spot whilst they were argued and both went their ways a little poorer and definitely wiser and with bruised egos.