Getting angry when someone cuts you off in traffic

[Soup Sandwich]

Initially I feel the anger when someone does something utterly dumb on the road, but it is then replaced by incredulous wonder at what could possibly be going through their mind, if anything at all. I quickly forget the anger and just marvel at what it must be like to have haphazardly navigated life at high rates of speed and not be pushing up daisies by now.

One recent example:
I was driving home from work recently and near my place, a guy SLOWLY pulls out in front of me (I was going about 38 or so), staring at me as he pulled out, intending to make a left hand turn across my lane. Now, the guy obviously saw me. His decision to pull out wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't been going so slow. We're talking "crawling speed slow".
So, as I'm slamming on my breaks and my horn, he just keeps going, staring at me through the windshield with a completely blank look on his face. No surprise or anything. After several seconds, he finally clears my lane then guns it toward the opposite direction of my travel.

I would have been angry for a while, but the whole process of wondering what the heck he was thinking pretty much obliterated any anger I had. It became ridiculously comical to put myself in his place and try to figure out what reason he had for his actions, if any at all.

I swerve to miss and slam on my breaks for these kinds of people on a daily basis. At some point, there's less anger and more of an expectation, then driving simply becomes a game of "Accident free for XXX days!"
(I've only had one accident, in 2002, so I think I'm doing pretty good so far!)

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by Yankees1212

I hate when people move into another lane when they know that lane is going to merge in another 100 feet. But, sometimes I think, wouldn't traffic move faster if the lanes were evenly distributed and the merge operated like a zipper merge. I guess this depends on the specific stretch of road, but I see a lot of situations like this daily on my commute.

Another pet peeve of mine involves this one intersection I encounter every day. Before the left turn lane opens up, there is a left turn into a side street (literally right before the left turn lane). A lot of times, cars turn left into the side street so if I see cars moving into the left lane, I will wait until it technically opens up. Inevitably, there are always people who enter earlier and force me to cut them off in a sense. They probably think I'm the bad driver, when I'm following the rules. Anyone else have situations like this?

This reminds me of another...sore losers! If I'm sitting at a red light, and you pull up next to me in the lane that ends 50 feet after the light, then in my mind you've just challenged me to a race. This I don't mind, as I have a pretty quick car and I like the challenge....if I lose, that's fine, and silently I'll admire your reaction skills and the quickness of your car...but if YOU lose, don't get all PO'd and then tailgate me or otherwise try to punish me, I beat you fair and square.

This never happened when I was younger. In my 20's when I was driving around in my Trans Am and being challenged to races at many lights by many other kids in fast cars, no one got upset when they'd lose; usually they'd give me a thumbs up...it's only the supposed "adults" who don't seem to realize they've challenged me to race when they deliberately get next to me in the lane that's going to end, and then handle their "loss" like a two-year old.