Road Rage

When one vents their stress on fellow travellers on the road. At the time, the driver feels justified in their rage at other incompetent drivers. They have been angry for so long, usually about other stressors in their lives, that the smallest violations of driving etiquette are seen as serious personal slights.

I found myself in this boat several years ago. I enjoy driving and was driving over the speed limit everywhere I went. Poor drivers made this habit risky for me. Their incompetence was annoying. I felt I was being productive by accomplishing tasks at point A until well past time to leave for point B; then speeding to point B. In truth, I was just mismanaging my time. I needed to plan my departure time for point B and work until than time. Leaving at the planned time would allow me to drive the speed limit and arrive at point B early, relaxed and unstressed. -- BrucePennington

Y'know, you can speed like a mad demon and still arrive relaxed and unstressed. I find driving five times the speed limit is a great way to unwind. I like shooting down coiled British B roads at 95mph, heaving around a bend at full tilt and COW!!! COW!!! OH MY GOD IT'S A COW IN THE ROAD!!! sledgehammer the brakes and let the ABS handle the traction issues. Because my car has the best brakes of any regular production sedan for its year, speed is scrubbed off and tossed away like taking a Makita power rasp to soft cheese. The G force pops my eyeballs out of their sockets, my throat bends in the middle and tries to thread through the steering wheel, and my stomach contents squirt out my belly button. Sometimes the cow survives, sometimes not. Fortunately, new grills are cheap.

A few rounds of that and I'm as soft and squishy, relaxation-wise, as a sleepy kitten. Y'all oughta try it. Sure, some of you will die, but you're all going to anyway so what's the difference? Go out grinning, I say... -- DaveVoorhis

Dave, you're my kind of guy! What are you driving anyway?

My current sled is an E34 BMW. -- DaveVoorhis

I find too that when driving late at night on a long trip, driving fast keeps me much more alert than "normal" driving. Slowing down to socially (including spousally) acceptable speeds tends to induce fatigue. Perhaps it's just my perspective, but it seems to me that discouraging spirited driving is just another symptom of (Canadian) society's tendency to reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator, unless of course you happen to be a professional athlete or in the celebrity cult entertainment industry. -- MarkTilley

A few years ago, I saw a statistic that claimed by the end of the decade, the number of deaths due to AIDS would exceed the number due to automotive accidents. If that isn't proof the speed limits are too low, I don't know what is. -- DaveVoorhis

Gawd, Dave, hair on the back of my neck! I used to "practice" my performance driving on those same "B" roads. One night on my way back to Shefford from Bedford (not far past Cotton End), employing your "driving faster will keep you awake" approach, I awoke (oops!) to find myself bumping along at 50+ mph off the road, bracketed on the left by a ditch I'd somehow crossed and on the right by trees I hadn't yet reached. Dead ahead was a stump about 2 feet high and 3 or 4 feet across. In a maneuver I've never been able to satisfactorily explain to critical thinkers (or drunks, for that matter), I crossed the ditch (3 feet deep, 4 or 5 feet wide) and regained the road. Staying awake was no longer a problem. Next day I crawled under the car (1964 Ford Zephyr) to assess the damage. None. Some grass clung to various bits of springage and metal protrusions with clumps of dirt and grass stuck in the bumper brackets. Local garage confirmed the wheel alignment wasn't off. While High Road is not as twisty as some, it was (at least in 1970) not rated for 50+ mph. Fond memories. Along with a bit of prickly scalp. -- GarryHamilton

Obviously you weren't driving fast enough. -- mt