June 18, 2005

  • Man, I never gotten road rage before, but I recently experienced it for
    the first time.  I didn't get much sleep that day and I had to be
    somewhere at a very specific time. So those are already two elements
    that will go against me, lack of sleep and a time constraint. 

    I get on one of the main streets and there's traffic due to
    construction.  Ofcourse, I wouldn't have even been on that street
    if I knew that ahead of time, but it's a road that I don't normally
    take. The construction crew also did a really horrible set-up to bottle
    neck the three lane road to one lane, so ofcourse people are cutting
    people off left and right.  I got cut off once by somebody who
    didn't know how to wait his turn to merge.  I was upset and honked
    my horn, but I think I was more upset that I didn't see it happening in
    advance.  If I wasn't half asleep, I would have succesfully
    blocked him in.

    So I wasted maybe about ten minutes on that road, but was finally out
    of it with another ten minutes to get to my destination.  So what
    happens? I start hitting a lot of red signal lights! and then I get cut
    off another time by some lady who went straight on a right turn only
    lane.  If I wasn't half-asleep.....
    and that's when I started really getting upset.  I had one thing
    on my mind right now, CUT HER OFF!!! I realized by that time that I'm
    experiencing road rage, but I didn't care.  As soon as I had the
    opportunity, I passed her over.  I ended up not really cutting her
    off, but it was good enough. 

    Luckily, the rest of the trip wasn't too bad.  I even got to my
    destination with three minutes to spare.  But I learned one thing
    today.
    Lack of sleep, time constraints, traffic, lots of red signal lights, getting cut off, and
    people who can't follow the rules of the road that affects me, all happening within 25 minutes, will
    cause me to go ROAD RAGE.