Road Rage: Yourself and others
 

My dear friends: today I had a road rage incident. Pretty bad one. No one hurt or property hurt but it could have been close.

White van behind me on single lane on ramp. On the top/end of the ramp, the single lane turns into two lanes. The right lane however also has an entry point for another road, so if you want to go to the right lane you have to merge with other traffic. I went from the ramp, took my time and merged into the right lane with the other traffic. There is an intersection with lights after this merge point. The white van however chose to take the faster moving left lane and not merge. However, at the intersection he cut in front of me into the right lane. I was already in the intersection when he did this. Light turns red, and now while he's fine -- I'm hanging into the intersection. So to get out of the intersection, I begin to go into the left lane because there was no one there. The truck in front of me then proceeds to try to also go into the left lane maybe a second and a half after me -- in essence cutting me off again. I got pissed. So I gunned it around him on the left to get in front of him. Part of my car was on the other side of the yellow line (there was no opposing traffic, otherwise I would not have done the maneuver). I honked my horn and revved at him to let him know I was pissed. Then he decides to speed up after me and then swerves back into the right lane again. The next intersection is left lane turn only. I normally go in the right lane to go straight but I wasn't going to cut someone off to do so, thus I just decided to make the left turn. While at the next intersection, as fate would have it, his van pulls up next to my car (I'm in left lane, he's in right lane again). I admittedly gave him the finger. He opens his door and steps out, motioning to lower my window. I crack it open enough so that I can hear him.

He said there's no need to be so aggressive. I said you cut me off. He was like no I changed lanes. After puffing, he said how about I cut your throat. I said sounds good. (This verbal exchange lasted a whole 7 seconds during the red light.) He went back into his van, I rolled my window up, made the left turn and that was the last of it.

So clearly I probably should have not revved my engine / half went around him / gave him the finger. But emotion got the better of me. He was clearly not merely changing lanes. He was swerving in and out of the lanes to get to wherever he needed to go faster. He didn't go into the right lane and merge, but decided to cut me off mid intersection and "cheat". And when the traffic in front of him wasn't moving fast enough he decided to go back into the left lane and cut another person off back into the same right lane. He also probably should not have threatened to cut my throat lmao.

Lesson learned: probably best to control your emotions even when other drivers "start it". He may not have even seen my car for all I know and thus in his mind he was innocent. I was definitely partly in the wrong but I can't help sometimes having a fit of vengeance wherein I want to, through my actions, tell another driver "hey, you wronged me, I'm angry with you."

99.9 % of the time I drive like a grandma and if I'm at 45mph I'm probably already in 6th gear. I just seem to have fits of aggressiveness.

This right here.

Would have immediately called 911 and reported the incident giving vehicle plate number, location, and driver description.

No further conversation.

If said driver tried to enter my vehicle said driver would eat a bullet.

yeah close call. you never know who you will run into on the street. its best to just be the bigger man and let it slide... people like us with careers have alot more to lose in these situations than joe schmo working at the meat packing plant.

Had a road rage when I was 21. Me and my bro nearly beat a guy with the steering lock. It would've been ugly if he hadn't back down.

After 10 years behind the wheels I've learnt that road-rage isn't worth risking your life. Ended up injured or dead just because your inner ego got a better of you is just stupid.

Sometimes, when someone drives like that, chances are, they're in some kind of stress and ready to explode in any given moment.

Thats why if i conseal and carry, id pull it and say 'try me'.

OP--glad it didn't escalate further. But you are right, we all need to learn to "let it go" sometimes, though I myself am no stranger to the "Red mist" that can just strike out of ego, righteous indignation, or whatever triggers it.

Loving these threads for the "internet tough guy" responses they get.

If you called the police and made a report--absolutely nothing would happen. Its just a he said/he said issue where nobody actually got hurt and nothing was damaged. The report would be one file, but zero time would be spent on it other than filing, and then deleting the report later on.

Also, depending on the law in the state you live in, pulling a gun on someone who hasn't even entered your car or pulled a gun on you themselves can actually put *you* in the wrong and get you prosecuted.

As I said, we'd all be better served by driving carefully and sometimes just taking a deep breath and letting it go.

What I like to do when someone cuts me off is honk my horn and look in there rearview mirror or side mirror and look straight into their eyes with a death stare.

At least this didn't happen...But It could've!!! Be careful out there.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiNPyYCsf9g"]Road rage in Los Angeles , 5 freeway , beat down vw - YouTube[/ame]

Someplace on a White Van Forum there is probably a dude saying "well this morning while driving totally responsibly I had this jerk in a sportscar cut me off and almost kill me"!
Thank you OP for being candid and admitting that your actions probably aggravated the issue. Way too often (including some of the responses already) people tend to blame everybody else and ignore or not realize that they at least partially brought it on themselves.

Geeez, bad form dropkickin him while he's down like that. Goes to show how street-fighting is never worth it.

(Pro-tip: If you are in an unavoidable fight, never open with a kick like that, just asking to be brought down.)

Beleive me, it's not worth it. There are many times I am tempted to leave a brick in my car but these jerkoffs just ain't worth your energy. I travel Canada's busiest highway daily. I can't even begin to tell you all the times I nearly wrecked because some fuckface decided not to look while changing into my lane.

Something, something, free candy joke.

I'm feeling lazy today, fill in the blank however you see fit.

Perfect!
Sometimes less is more anyway.