Have you ever been the victim of road rage?

[Anonymous]

Not really road rage but crazy still. An elderly woman deliberately rear ended (pregnant) me while I was stopped at the window in a fast food drive through lane. She thought I should have pulled up faster.

[Anonymous]

I learned to drive in downtown Boston. I mean like Fenway and Mass Ave Boston. So there you yell and honk and cut people off but I was never followed and I was never scared. Here, in just a few months of living in Nova I have been followed twice/aggressively tailgates. I didn't even cut people off. One time I was driving the speed limit and the other time I didn't move fast enough when the light turned. It wasn't even during rush hour.

[Anonymous]

Lived here 15 years. Haven't had anything super scary, just your typical aggressive tailgaters. Had one guy speed around me then slam on his brakes. Looked like he was getting out of his car when he noticed me filming with my cell phone. I find that whipping out the cell phone to take photos usually dials down the behavior, because they know you can swear out a warrant for the shit they try to pull.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I learned to drive in downtown Boston. I mean like Fenway and Mass Ave Boston. So there you yell and honk and cut people off but I was never followed and I was never scared. Here, in just a few months of living in Nova I have been followed twice/aggressively tailgates. I didn't even cut people off. One time I was driving the speed limit and the other time I didn't move fast enough when the light turned. It wasn't even during rush hour.

Have you heard the old expression - "when someone from Boston tells you that you are a bad driver, it means you really are a terrible driver". So true!

[Anonymous]

My car windows were tinted in the South due to the sun. It has gotten a few nutcases to stay in their car because they can't see who is in my car. Not looking forward to the day I have to remove it.

[Anonymous]

Once.

I was driving home late one rainy night in my little Honda Civic hatchback on a highway with lots of trucks.

I pulled out to pass a truck and saw there were about 4 of them all in a line. Just as I started passing the first one a pick up truck roared up behind me and was tailgating so close he must have been inches from my bumper. I sped up a bit but it was raining pretty hard and I was beside the big trucks and didn't want to go too fast (I was already well over the speed limit).

The pick up truck then slowed down and fell back, then accelerated towards me again until he almost hit my car. He did this twice more and then actually tapped my car on the 3rd time lurching me forward. He was honking and gesturing. At that point I got quite scared and actually slowed down a little as I felt I really needed to be in control of my car if he was going to bump me.

I was finally able to pass the trucks and get back over into the right lane. As the pick up truck came past me he served way over into my lane, forcing me off the road. Thankfully the the shoulder of the road was beside a field and so I just drove a little off the shoulder into some grass. I waited a bit to give them time to get far ahead of me then got back on the road and kept going.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and it was awful.

Years ago (maybe 13 or so) we were trying to get on Key Bridge to head in to Rosslyn. Now they have some sort of barriers to prevent this, but back then people would block like a mile of traffic by staying in the wrong lane and then not moving until they could get over. So just sit there blocking tons of cars. We honked at someone doing this once. They yelled and gestured at us. Once we got on the bridge they got in front of us and then slammed on their brakes repeatedly, so that we continuously almost rear-ended them. It was pretty scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Are you seriously justifying road rage behavior? I hope you're teaching your kids better.

No, see the first five words.

[Anonymous]

When I was young and new to DC I got confused in a traffic circle -- nothing drastic like going in the wrong direction -- and a guy stopped his car in the circle, got out and yelled at me.

[Anonymous]

Not as bad as op, but I also made not-the -smartest-move, making a turn as another car was approaching to turn. I thought I had plenty of time but he was going faster than normal on a quiet side street, so I ended up cutting him off. He slammed on his horn from behind me, and I waved as an apology. My bad but he was also speeding and not completely blameless.

He couldn't let it go with his honk and my wave, and proceeded to follow me, tailgating and slamming on his brakes behind me at stop signs. I was on my way to drop off my 5 year old at school and didn't want to lead the guy there. I weaved through side streets waiting for him to give up and finally headed to a shopping center parking lot. Once we were in a more public spot he gave up and sped away.

I was really freaked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Are you seriously justifying road rage behavior? I hope you're teaching your kids better.

No, see the first five words.

OP here. So what would you do in this situation if I got in front of you? I was obviously unfamiliar with the area and trying to follow Waze's directions home. I had kids in the car. I was not driving aggressively and had my blinker on. So sorry, I don't agree with you on this one and hope I don't encounter you on the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Are you seriously justifying road rage behavior? I hope you're teaching your kids better.

No, see the first five words.

OP here. So what would you do in this situation if I got in front of you? I was obviously unfamiliar with the area and trying to follow Waze's directions home. I had kids in the car. I was not driving aggressively and had my blinker on. So sorry, I don't agree with you on this one and hope I don't encounter you on the road.

You should acknowledge that it was your mistake and keep going make the next available u turn and try again. Not cut off someone who did not contribute to your mistake. That's selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was out of line but you sound like you're partiality to blame. You say you "managed" to get in front of him to take an exit. Did you wait until the last minute and cut in front of a long line of cars patiently waiting? Did you cut him off? You did something that set him off. Also, why not switch lanes and slow down to let him get in front of you so you could disengage?

Are you seriously justifying road rage behavior? I hope you're teaching your kids better.

No, see the first five words.

OP here. So what would you do in this situation if I got in front of you? I was obviously unfamiliar with the area and trying to follow Waze's directions home. I had kids in the car. I was not driving aggressively and had my blinker on. So sorry, I don't agree with you on this one and hope I don't encounter you on the road.

You should acknowledge that it was your mistake and keep going make the next available u turn and try again. Not cut off someone who did not contribute to your mistake. That's selfish.

I agree with this. I have missed lots of turns and circled around the block or gotten off an exit later and then immediate left and left to get right back on the highway if I cannot get to where I need to be in safety without cutting people off, backing up at exit ramps, asking someone to let me over when the light changes or any of that other entitled BS.

[Anonymous]

I haven't really been a victim of road rage yet, but I have almost had road rage. I'm a pretty rational driver and don't typically do anything beyond giving someone the finger (don't tailgate or anything like that). I was waiting in line one morning at McDonald's to get an iced coffee and a woman cut in front of me. I tried to block her out but she kept inching her car forward into the line in the drive thru. Feelings of rage came over me and I strongly wanted to just ram her car. I have never felt such rage before over literally the smallest injustice. It freaked me out how angry I got- my son was also in the car! All this over freaking coffee at McD's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it just me or are DC drivers worse than other areas of the country, even urban ones? People are rude, deliberately ungracious, etc. I get that this happens everywhere, but in general it just feels more stressful and unpleasant around DC. It might be just a higher number of lawyer/government assholes ruining it for everyone.

24YO here and people in general are just ruder and meaner in this area. I feel like I've become a nastier person just from living here. People suck.

OP here. Exactly. There is no courtesy or it is just very rare. The situation I was in would have been avoided if the guy were courteous enough to just let me in. But people really are tightly wound around here. It makes my neck hurt just thinking about it.

Agreed. I'm the PP and if someone is clearly lost I will let them in. However I will never let in assholes who cruise down the exit only lane (usually in obnoxious flashy cars) and then try to cut people off at the last minute. I take such pleasure in seeing them sit there having no one let them in.

And if they do manage to cut in, they never give the courtesy wave.

I'll tolerate just about any rude driver as long as I get the courtesy wave, but I unfortunately I see that less and less.