Is Road Rage mental illness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, if he sped up to keep you out of the lane, you could have just gone up a block and turned around. This is what I'm teaching my teen student driver. It's not worth an accident or p*ssing off a crazy driver just to change lanes.

HE is the one in the wrong but don't let yourself become a victim. Just let the crazies go by and take the next turn.

Or just tell your teen that if they know they need to make a right turn then get in the right lane of the road 1/4 to 1/2 a mile down the road beforehand in anticipation that the turning lane is coming up.

Don't teach them terrible driving like OP who has not ability to plan for turns and cuts in in front of other drivers already making turns.

For all you know, OP was getting over 1/4 mile before her turn. Nowhere in her post did she say she was changing lanes at the last minute. Just that there was plenty of room and she was getting over to make the turn. She also stated the person actively sped up so she could not get over. Which is an utterly weird territorial response. Roads are a public utility paid for by taxpayers. You don’t own them and you don’t get to decide the space is yours and no one gets to change lanes.

Also, sometimes you can’t get over any earlier because you just turned onto the road. Or like just happened to me today, 2 roads merged together. I needed to make a right turn but there were already drivers in the right lane as that road joined the road I was on. Thankfully I put my turn signal on and someone let me over like a normal human being should do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, if he sped up to keep you out of the lane, you could have just gone up a block and turned around. This is what I'm teaching my teen student driver. It's not worth an accident or p*ssing off a crazy driver just to change lanes.

HE is the one in the wrong but don't let yourself become a victim. Just let the crazies go by and take the next turn.

Or just tell your teen that if they know they need to make a right turn then get in the right lane of the road 1/4 to 1/2 a mile down the road beforehand in anticipation that the turning lane is coming up.

Don't teach them terrible driving like OP who has not ability to plan for turns and cuts in in front of other drivers already making turns.

Ugh, people like this are probably the same people who get enraged when two lanes merge into one and people drive to the end of the empty lane before merging. Or the people who believe the overhead bin directly above their row on the plane is designated just for them.

If I’m in a turn lane and there is space for someone needs to get in, guess what? I let them in. And I’m not a pushover driver - I have lived and driven in nyc, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, as well as dc, Atlanta, Seattle, la, and Dallas. You cannot take it so personally when someone merges in front of you. My attitude is that if I have left room for them to merge in, then I let them merge. If they signal nicely, I am inclined to let them merge. If I’m in rush hour bridge and tunnel traffic and I don’t want anyone to merge in front of me (unless it’s a zipper merge), then I leave no space for anyone to merge. And that is my attitude when merging as well - if there is room to merge safely, then I see it as permission to enter the lane. If there is no space, I ask with my signal and if I’m not given space, I take it as a no and move on. That’s how drivers communicate.

[Anonymous]

OP who exactly do you think is going to click on a post about road rage saying it could be mental illness? These angry responses were predictable.

[Anonymous]

I don't love calling it a mental illness. They could choose not to be angry, IMO. It's in their control. Refusing to process your emotions or take several deep breaths is a choice, not an illness. And when they kill somebody in a rage, that's also not out of their control or excused by mental illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't love calling it a mental illness. They could choose not to be angry, IMO. It's in their control. Refusing to process your emotions or take several deep breaths is a choice, not an illness. And when they kill somebody in a rage, that's also not out of their control or excused by mental illness.

True, but what good does it do to get mad at them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Took my child to the doctor today and some guy I guess really didn't want me to get in front of him in the right turn lane going into the medical complex. (There was plenty of room and he actually accelerated once I put my blinker on.) He started honking and gesturing and then tailgated us to our parking spot where he then blocked our car in and rolled down his window to keep yelling at me and my child and calling us all sorts of names. I locked the car and quickly rushed into the building and snapped a quick picture of his car and license plate. All the while he is still screaming and and yelling. I called the police non emergency who said they would come patrol the parking lot but otherwise there was nothing they could do.

So scary. I don't really have a question. Just, wow. Mental illness is so scary.

Inability to control emotions is a symptom of things like poorly managed executive functioning or oppositional disorders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, but narcissism is. Looking at you, OP.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't love calling it a mental illness. They could choose not to be angry, IMO. It's in their control. Refusing to process your emotions or take several deep breaths is a choice, not an illness. And when they kill somebody in a rage, that's also not out of their control or excused by mental illness.

In most cases, mental illnesses do not excuse bad/dangerous behaviors. Obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and borderline personality disorder are mental illnesses, but you wouldn’t excuse behaviors like assault or shoplifting because of them. Given the number of people who cannot control their sudden explosive rage in a car for relatively minor annoyances, I think there is something there. Most of these road ragers wouldn’t scream at or flip off a person who bumped into them on a sidewalk or temporarily blocked the aisle with a shopping cart. But put them in a car, and they go absolutely mental.

[Anonymous]

Nobody knows a mentally sane person who would behave this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are a bad driver. You likely jumped in front of him and started hitting your brakes to turn right which is irritating and can cause an accident. People are not obligated to let you in and cutting people off causes wrecks.

That guy's reaction was extreme though.

The assumptions and projection in this response are bananas. You just created a scenario out of thin air to justify this behavior. We’re doomed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Took my child to the doctor today and some guy I guess really didn't want me to get in front of him in the right turn lane going into the medical complex. (There was plenty of room and he actually accelerated once I put my blinker on.) He started honking and gesturing and then tailgated us to our parking spot where he then blocked our car in and rolled down his window to keep yelling at me and my child and calling us all sorts of names. I locked the car and quickly rushed into the building and snapped a quick picture of his car and license plate. All the while he is still screaming and and yelling. I called the police non emergency who said they would come patrol the parking lot but otherwise there was nothing they could do.

So scary. I don't really have a question. Just, wow. Mental illness is so scary.

I've driven hundreds of thousands of miles in this area.... and I'd say its very rare to encounter people who speed up when someone puts a turn signal on. The reason this rarely happens is because if you are a good driver, you see a gap, make sure you are going the same rate as or faster than the lane you are getting in to, put the blinker on and go! The timing really doesn't work for someone to see your blinker and gun it, petal to the metal to get moving fast enough to stop you.

What I HAVE seen hundreds, possibly thousands of times are people who put their signal on and then just start to go. And they go right in front of cars who are travelling at a higher rate of speed and about to overtake them. This causes the other car to slam their brakes on as they are cut off by the slower car. Even if someone did speed up, you STILL need to yield to them.

Generally you should be aware that if you feel people speeding up when you put your blinker on, the problem is most likely that you are cutting off people who are coming along and moving faster than you are. If you were in the left lane and suddenly needed to make a right, cutting someone off to do it just is not a great strategy, especially with your child in the car. Would have been safer to keep going until you could safely get over or turn around.