Thread: Road Rage

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Some time back another old geezer (who is probably my best friend) was on his way to his graveyard shift job at the airport. He somehow incurred the wrath of a young guy in a Camaro. The usual sequence of events followed (liberal use of the "freeway salute", riding the bumper while flashing the brights, etc.). My friend got off on the service road in hopes of losing the jerk. Didn't work. Jerk kept harassing him.

Finally friend pulled onto the drive of a service station and stopped. Jerk turned in and stopped nose to nose with him and jumped out of his car and started yanking on friend's door handle and yelling. Friend got out and a loud "discussion" followed. Meanwhile the service station attendant called the police.

Jerk is yelling "Hit me, you old (illegitimate)! Hit me! I'll get you thrown in jail!"

Well, by that time friend had had enough, so he accommodated Jerk in fine fashion. He knocked him flat and bloodied his face good ..... just as the police arrived. A kid on a motorcycle told the police "I saw it all. The old guy hit him HARD".

Friend gets hauled off to the slammer and Jerk files assault charges. I went to court with my friend as a character witness, and JERK DIDN'T SHOW UP!

It turned out that Jerk had his own problems with the law and was a known trouble maker. Before we left the court house the chief of police approached Friend's lawyer and told him that he very much regretted the way the situation had been handled, and his main regret was the fact that his (the lawyer's) client didn't just thoroughly beat the living stuffing out of the other guy.

Except he didn't say "stuffing" and he didn't say "other guy".

Jim

I was turning into Home depot and someone was honking. I am getting POed and a mild case of RR saying WTH to cars around me, Im turning as fast as I can. Go back the next day, same intersection, same thing, HONK, HONK. Then I realized it was the CAR WASH guys honking to let the owners know their cars were ready.

some of those road rage folks have about as much common sense as a chicken walking into a Wolf Den...

when i get someone tailgating me in one of the family cars or rods..i just slow down where they cant pass..speed up where they can

now if im in my 86 F350 diesel 4x4 with the 1/4 inch plate steel rear bumber i fabricated for hauling?...i DO have 4 wheel disc brakes & they work WELL!

got a boy who was bein an @SS one time..was tailgating me..when i slowed down where he could pass he just stayed on my rear bumper..sooo..i finaly got sick of it and looked in my rear veiw & waited for him to speed up & get right on my rear bumper again.SLAMMED on the brakes,,felt a bump & the rear of the truck lifted up,stopped,got out & looked at his TOTALED 98 chevy Z71..looked at my rear bumper & told the guy"Man!..I just painted that bumper too!..now im gonna have to go get me another couple of cans of duplicolor spray cans again!"..he didnt think it was too funny but the worse part for the guy?..truck had a fake tag stickers & no insurance..whatta dumbarse...

So they do that in Georgia too? Well, my opinion is that it's just another sign of lawlessness because the police can't do their job! And shows the ignorance of a large percentage of our country in that they don't get in a hurry or act uneducated untill they get behind the wheel of a 2 ton missle of steel. The police force could stop alot of that but they won't!

I had a funny one happen in a parking lot one day. I pulled out of a McDonalds drive-thru and this particular McD's has the exit so you have to drive down the wrong side of the adjoining parking lot to exit. You are going against the painted arrows, but there is no other way to get out on that end.

Anyway, I am going against the arrows, and another car pulls in facing me. Usually people just move over to acccomodate the other car, but this guy must have had too much time on his hands. He pulls right up to my front bumper with his, and folds his arms across his chest sort of saying "There, I'm not moving." I kind of thought it was funny, so I put my car in park, opened up my McD bag, and started to eat my lunch while also reading my newspaper.

I could see him getting more frustrated all the time I was doing this, but I had lots of time and nowhere to go, so I just sat there, enjoying my lunch. He finally got so frustrated he threw his car into reverse and went around me. I waved as he went by, then started my car and went on my way.

I learned that lesson from some guy I was yelling at in traffic. All he did was wave politely at me, and it frustrated me to h*** that I hadn't made some impact on him. There is more than one way to skin a cat.


Don

I saw and experienced a lot more of it than I would have liked, living and working in SoCal for over forty years, and for a lot of that time, my work had me out on the roads all the time. The worst scare I ever got though, was in one of the nicer OC bedroom communities; a lady in foreign dress tried to shoot me - I think. I had pulled out of a parking lot into the middle lane of the northbound street, and signaled for a right turn to move over so I could do just that at the next street. She slipped her Beemer right up next to my right rear tire, and stayed there, no matter if I sped up or slowed down. I suppose I could have forced her to give way, the pickup I had had a four inch lift and 33 inch tires, set up for off road work, not play, but I finally decided to go left, and around the block, and try again. I got headed in the right direction, and at a stop sign a mile or so up the road, this same woman is behind me, blowing her horn and gesturing wildly at me, so I got out to see what was her problem; as I got to the front of her car, she lifted a pistol off the front seat and started to point it in my direction. Not for long, though, as my direction was AWAY. She followed me for a ways, but I didn't let her get too close, and she finally quit. I reported the incident, but the cops said since I didn't have her license number, and there were a lot of BMWs like that in OC driven by "foreign" women, it was a useless task. Nowadays, when someone pushes me around on the highway, I just get out of the way, get off, turn off; I ain't got anyplace to be in that much of a hurry

The census people came out the other day and reported that there is 125,000 people moving to the Dallas/Ft.Worth area every year. Thats an incredible 658,000 increase in 5 years. All these people move in and bring their shitty attitudes with them.

I had another experience tonight with a woman in a new SUV. I was cruising home from work on a surface street at 45mph in the right lane and she cut me off three different times, causing me to hit the brakes and slow down at least 10 mph each time before I finally lost my normally cheerful composure. When I gassed the chevy and pulled around her I could see she had a cell phone attached to the side her head. I hope my brake check caused her to spill her Starbucks.

since my dad and i both drive a cement truck,we see our share of people drive like they own the road. since the legal limit for a truck in cali is 55mph, people get pissed and fly around us because we are going to slow. well, a guy in a pinto, or chevette or something pulled around my dad, got around him and slammed on the brakes in front of him to make a right turn. my dad ass ends him and launches his shitbox into someones front yard. another time a lady didnt want to wait behind my dad at a toll booth on the golden gate bridge. she went around and tried to get into the toll booth first, except the kenworth and her car went in at the same time, and they had to cut her car apart to get her out because the truck and her car were in the toll booth at the same time. and the toll booths are pretty damn narrow.

and just last week, my dad and i were together when this @$$hole in an old plymouth (restored) busted his ass to get infront of us on a two lane highway(one lane going each direction). he almost made it, until the rear of his classic caught our bumper. he got sideways and we hit the side of his car. we slammed on the brakes and he went flying into the k-rail and absolutely TOTALED his car. it was a nice one too


i also have noticed that when you are driving your classic people tend to screw with you more. i drive my volkswagen on the freeway and follow the freeway rules(lane discipline, move over for the faster driver, etc.)
i was doing 85, which is slow for most of california. now, my bug is by no means near stock. i have a pretty damn big motor in it with a 5 speed tranny. anyways, i was doing 85 mph on 101 and people are riding my ass flashing their lights, swerving and flipping me the bird. i just smile and wave like any air-cooled vw owner. it pisses most people off royaly. im all about the drive, not the time it takes to get there. but when im driving the bug and want to screw with someone tailgating me, i just downshift, and my stinger shoots a three foot flame. this usually pursuades them to stay back

ive found out the smiling and being polite and not giving people the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of me works best.

"smile, it confuses people"

I live in south central PA and the influx of people from Maryland (mostly Baltimore) over the past 10 years has been near stifling. They moved here (40 miles north) to get more favorable taxes and lower home ownership costs. What they got was very little of either plus a roundtrip daily commute of about 100 miles. The interstate I use for traveling to work used to take about 40 minutes for 42 miles at about 60mph. Now the trip takes 90 minutes or more, and most of it at less than 20 mph. They all start out at 80 - 85 then brake to 20. You'd think they would learn but they are clueless. Just too damn many cars for the dual lane highway plus people who can't drive worth a sh*t. They are afraid of passing semi's, can't drive in rain, and freak out in snow. I'll be damn glad when retirement comes.

And Ratty41, you are absolutely right about the effects of driving your classic on others. It seems to bring out more a$$holes than a full moon. I'll be sitting at a red light in either my 57 Olds or my 34 Plymouth and I will a wild eyed challenger at every light. Racing their engines, squealing their tires, and acting like idiots. I just sit and watch them fly off when the light turns green. Next light I just smile.

this was all in last week alone, i work at a large auto plant. monday pulling into work parking lot, its 2 lanes each direction. there is this gal always yacking on the cell. she plows into a friend of mine cutting across from the far lane. cops and security come and she never got off her phone the 15 minutes i was watching. wednesday another coworker on a state highway in front of the plant sees a well digging truck on the shoulder, he waits until she gets up to him then goes for a u turn right into her passenger door, ya yacking on the cell phone, friday my son and i are going to see an afternoon movie, some gal, ya yacking on the cell at a stop sign pulls right out in front of me, kinda hard to miss the full size bright red 4x4 with 8 inch lift and 33.5's all around, but when your not paying attention thats how it goes. luckily i have fish like reflexes and actually saw her on the damn phone and knew she was gonna do it, it took a hard left into the other lane to miss her gabbing driving vw.

What I can't figure out is, what the h*** do they have so much to talk about?? Everyplace I go now all these people have a phone stuck to their ear.

I'm in a line at Autozone one day and this lady in the line next to me is having a heated conversation with somebody, and she acts like there is no one within 100 miles of her. She keeps yelling "get a life, d*** it, get a life !!!" People are looking at her like shes nuts, but she is totally oblivious to it all.

Another time my ex-girlfriend and I went to a nice restaurant in St. Armonds Circle, and we requested the balcony tables that overlook the street. It is on the second floor and there are only two tables out there. We are having a nice, quiet, romantic dinner, and here comes this guy out there to talk to somebody on his cell phone. He stands right by our table and gets into the lengthy debate. Finally, I say "hey Bud, we came out here to get away from people like you, would you mind taking your conversation inside the bar?" He left, but acted like I was the wrong one.

Cell phones are the worst thing ever invented IMO.

Don

"......What I can't figure out is, what the h*** do they have so much to talk about?? Everyplace I go now all these people have a phone stuck to their ear....."

Man I almost hate to admit this one. Last night my daughter came back from going to a wedding with her mom (I managed to dodge the bullet on that one) anyway she thinks she has low tire so I tell her to pull the car over by the garage and I'll check. It was after dark, but I had the big yard light on. Anyway, I get done, she climbs into her car picks up her cell phone calls someone on speed dial puts the car in reverse and darn near backed into the iron pile (would have if I hadn't yelled). I "talked" to her about it something along the lines of what in the....were you thinking?????

Like that did a lot of good.

Cell phones like a lot of modern gadgets make people busier doing nothing.

Originally Posted by marlinspike

On the left lane thing, I think we out to just say you can't use the highways unless you can pass a German driving test (which involve lane discipline, emergency lane changes, and changing a flat tire...or at least they used to not sure if this still goes on). Things move so much more efficiently if the left lane is used for passing and passing only.
Anyways, on to road rage. So I'm on a two-lane (one in each diretion) road at night with a 55mph speed limit, and there is this Ford SUV doing about 25-30. I keep my proper following distance until I come to a passing zone, and proceed to pass. Just as I roll out to pass, he nails his brakes. I think, that's odd, maybe he was just overzealously trying to make it easy for me to pass. About a minute later he's about 5 inches from my bumper with his highbeams on, and makes it clear that no matter how fast I go he's going to stay that close to my bumper. He follows me through some side roads, through a gas station, I get enough ground on him to lose him, but I figure I'll just wait at the redlight in case it has one of those cameras and see what happens (I figure there are a few people about, he probably won't kill me). He comes up behind me, get out of his car, walks up to mine, starts threatening me and telling me he's going to kick my ass (which is laughable because he's marginally sober and about 8 inches shorter than me). I just acted politely and said I apologize for whatever I did to upset him and after about a minute of yelling he goes back to his car and speeds off. I still don't know to this day what his problem was.

What back roads were these at? I get a lot of idiots around here that don't know how to merge onto freeways and then when there is traffic I get the a**holes that wont let you onto the freeway and I swerve away and then towards then REAL hard and scare the hell out of them and get in. I saw the other day a lady reading a book while drive with a passenger in the back seat. Guess what the passenger was doing? Reading the newspaper!!! Idiots, they drive slow, can't merge onto a freeway, ride on your ass and get pissed wondering why you just slammed on the brakes on them. Keep a 357 Magnum under the seat next time guys, that way when they come to your window you pull it out and their eyes get big and they scream like little girls.

Originally Posted by Corvette64

Just yesterday I was going into work (I leave the house at 0530 by the way) I was driving my Silverado up the highway with my cruise set at 75 mph in a posted 65 zone and noted to myself how nice the drive was and how empty the road seemed to be for a work day. A few minutes later a car came flying up behind me and started flashing their high beams at me..... Ok Ok I admit I was driving in the left lane, but the right lane was completely empty and with no other vehicles on the road, I promptly moved over into the right lane. I had seen them coming up behind me albeit too late, but didn’t move over because I didn’t know what they were going to do because they were moving so damned fast. So the car sped past on my left, got about 25 yards ahead of me and just sat there. What the???? I still had my cruise set and ended up passing this car on the right. A few miles up the road this person decided to start F%*cking with me. Passing and then slowing down, changing lanes when I did etc. It is still dark at 0530 so I couldn’t see whom I was dealing with, and didn’t feel like playing silly F-ing games at that time of the day anyway, so I sucked it in and let them have their fun with me. To make a long story short the other car got stuck in a line of traffic and I ended up going around them again on the right. Saying to myself there is a God; I got off at my exit and was sitting at the intersection stuck at a left turn signal light when this WOMAN who has the green light pulls up to my right starts honking the horn in her ricer, mouthing something, I could only assume she wanted a date with me, and flipping me the bird. I just looked at her smiled closed my eyes and blew her a kiss. That sent her into over the top. She rolled down her window and started screaming something. I just sat there with an oblivious look on my face, waited for my arrow and made my turn. She was still screaming when I made my turn.

Just what the hell is wrong with people nowadays?

While Im not condoning road rage, I have to say that IMO you were in the wrong on the first count by riding in the left lane and not getting over fast enough for the other car to pass. If you're gonna cruise in the left lane stay aware of whats coming up behind you and get the heck outta the way quickly! I dont care how fast you are going, if the other guy is going faster get outta the way, plain and simple!

As for the lady cussing you out a giving you the finger, this makes me tend to believe you seem to be driving oblivious to your surroundings! If you cant tell me why she was going nutcakes on you, you really need to start paying attention to your driving habits! People for the most part dont start screaming and cursing strangers for no reason! I think oblivious or non caring drivers are whats wrong with people nowadays!