Has anybody been a victim of road rage (either in a MINI or not, don't matter).

Curious because I see a lot of signs now where the state is targeting "aggressive" drivers. Not sure how they do that but I see more and more of these signs

 

I ride a train to work each day. Any slight inconvenience is well worth it to avoid the stress of the daily commute in traffic.

 

Aggressive drivers are just speeding lane changers and those who follow closely to "encourage" a slower car to move over. They are not talking about rage incidences.

 

Driving back from Fort Worth today, got passed by a guy in a new GTO. He must have been doing a hundred. I had to hustle to move over. Not sure if he was mad or just stupid. I don't think I'm a victim, might feel different if he'd 'a hit me though . . . I'd like to see the police focus on "Road Stupidity." Soccer moms in Exploders with hot latte and cell phones still scare me the most. They aren't looking around and are most clueless. They bring "situational awareness" to new lows.

 

Sorry ya'll. On the wrong computer. See next post.

 

__________________

 

I was... I used to have a 300D Mercedes. I think the D stood for dog because it was about 0-60 in 40 minutes. Anyway, I'm getting on the 101 freeway heading north and gunning it up to 55 mph (foot on the floor) when along comes a pickup coming up behind me at about 80 and I have no place to go so he has to hit his breaks. (He was going faster than the other 3 lanes to my left) He leans on his horn but I am going as fast as I can. I get it up to 65 and he goes in another lane. I drive about 20 miles and signal to take the off ramp, All of a sudden, out of the blue, he is within inches of me again and is leaning on his horn. He had been sitting back following me from another lane the entire time. So I get off and head over the freeway loop and he maintains his distance of inches behind me. I don't know how he didn't hit me. Once we get over the freeway, now heading east(right on top of the overpass) he gets next to me on the left barely missing me, screaming at me, and just hangs there as we drive. He then has to pull in front of me or he will head onto the ramp that goes back to the freeway in the opposite direction but instead of me merging left too, I stay in the lane and head to the right off ramp in the opposite direction I just came onto the freeway. I went 3 exits, took the exit and headed home. i have no idea what this wacko was going to do but if he stayed with me I was going to just call 911 and drive into the Police station. My adrenalin was pumping and I was ready for anything but luckily I ditched him. I'm a big guy and could fight but I would lose in a gun fight since I don't have one. Somthing tells me this loonie may have road raged more people than just me. I called the police and gave his license.

 

Tired people should not be message boarding. It was I who posted not poor Hotelcalif. Texans....blame me.

I did 5500 miles in the MINI between December 9 and December 21, from Tennessee to California and back, with several detours. Then I flew to Miami to pick up a new car and drove it home. I returned home today with it. I have been on the road ALOT this month. Almost every wreck I saw (except the ice storm outside Amarillo) was a largish SUV. It is amazing to me how unaware and distracted people piloting a vehicle at 80 to 90 mph can be. I am sorry to say, Uncle John, that the worst and most frequent was in TX.

 

I got one story ...

Many years ago I was driving to school and the highway. Just driving along in traffic and some guy wanted to pass ALL the traffic, which, of course, was impossible. He was in the high speed lane and me in the middle. Because of traffic he would pull ahead or be pushed back in his lane.

Anyway, I had both windows down (no A/C) and just as I was going to take an exit, I see this bottle go whizzing by my line of sight IN THE CAR and OUT the passenger window crashing in the breakdown lane!

I looked and kids in the car were laughing, drinking beer, etc.

I actually couldn't believe it but he touched NOTHING in my car, just in one window, and out the other, all at about 65 MPH.

Not sure if that was Road Rage or just drunk kids

 

They tend to block lanes all too much in Texas too. When they are doing 50 in a pickup or suburban, talking on a cell phone, and blocking the fast lane then I think I have a reason to blow the horn or do something to get them to move. They end up creating their own traffic jam behind them and ahead of them is wide open road. That really ticks me off.

 

I don't doubt it. The national car of Texas is a Suburban with an 95 lb driver. the national TRUCK is the Dodge RamDamDieselDually that has never seen dirt.

Oh well, it's their money and they can spend it as they see fit (as long as they don't kill me).

 

Not much road rage in these parts, but the stupidly driven SUVs and 4x4s go way further out into the snow filled ditches than anyone else

 

I noticed on my trip to Canada last fall that you guys speed just like we do, but with a lot more courtesy!

 

AND they have their headlights on too!

 

Were I live we all wave to each other too

 

Lot, I waved to you as I made the hook around Thunder Bay but I think you were doing donuts in the gravel at that time!

 

 

i just let those idiots go. what comes around, goes around.

 

I got a bit lost this past Thanksgiving & missed my exit when I was going to vsit my mom in Tennessee. In order to get back on the Interstate I had to get off & make a funky U-turn due to road construction. I saw a big Buick in the distance (& I mean no where near me). About 3 miles down the Interstate this woman in a big Buick pulls up beside me & tells me I'm #1. Guess she was mad at my U-turn & it took her 3 miles in her big ole Buick to catch me lol. People crack me up when they flip me off. I mean I am gonna give them the 1 finger salute back without a 2nd thought & what good did it do this crazy woman to drive her Buick as hard as she could to catch me & salute me for no real reason

At least she made me laugh

 

I have pretty bad road rage when it's induced by crappy drivers, but I don't think I'd ever hurt anyone because of it. I just do things to make it annoying for the driver that pissed me off. Pretty much if they jam up the fast lane by going slow, I'll just get beside them and box them out of their exit when they need to exit, if I'm not in a rush of course.

But, to give you guys a laugh, a friend of mine was minding his own business when he got ran off the road by a random truck on the freeway. I don't really know how but my friend remembered the plate #'s on the truck. So then he gets on the internet when he gets home, and hops onto ----.com and put in the plate #'s, and the truck owner's info comes up, like address, phone #, etc.

So, my friend calls up the phone number, and asks for Mr. ---whatever. I guess the guy responded saying it was him. Then my friend asked him if the guy owned a blue truck, the guy said yes. Then my friend asked him if he was driving on the freeway earlier that night, of course the guy said yes. My friend says "Well, this is the guy you ran off the freeway earlier tonight. I'm calling you to ask why you would do such a thing."

My friend said he seemed scared to hang up in case my friend would do anything to him or his property, and they talked on the phone for 40 minutes. I asked my friend why he would do such a thing, and he said "Well, I just wanted to know why. It's not like I wanted to hurt him or anything." -- Just reminds you how much info $9.99 will buy you on the internet.

 

We dont get to much road rage in Ft Walton. The locals just have to put up with all of the tourists not knowing where they are going.
I was on a normally 2 lane road one day. It was 2 lanes one way and 2 lanes the other way with a grassy median. Speed limit is 45. Well coming close to the stoplight they where doing road construction. Having the right lane shutdown,causing everyone to merge left. The had signs a mile back before you even had to merge. Letting you know what was ahead. I saw this lady in her car, cant recall what it was at the time, flying in the right lane trying to get ahead of everyoone that was already backed up in the left lane,youve all seen these people. Then at the last minute they want to merge into the lane that was open at the last minute becuase they think they are now ahead of everyone. It just so happened, she was trying to merge into my lane right when the front of my truck was at her rear. Not this time I told myself, she already passed me on the right once, I wasnt going to let her in front of me again. Traffic was at a stop at this point and she thought she was going to nudge her frontend in and get in front of me. Now Im not sure what she was thinking but I was in my Pathfinder at the time which is lifted and would have rolled over her car if she pulled out any further. Some shmoe finally let her in and she ended up about 3 cars behind me. She actually got out of her car and came up to my window and started knocking on it for me to open it. Who in the world would knock on the window of a lifted Pathfinder with big tires and 5% window tint? She could not see who was on the other side of that glass! I lowered my window looking down on her and she jumped and took a step back! I couldnt keep from smiling! She started to barrage me with how I dont know how to drive etc. I eventuallly just rolled the window up! What was she thinkin when she goes and knocks on my window that is tinted 5%? Now I wouldnt hurt a poor lady but I am 6' and about 200lbs! Not to mention Im legally packin sometimes! Maybe I need to put a sticker on my truck to let people know. Most people dont ever confront me because of my dark windows!

 

now thats SCARY

Well, we are not like LA, but we do get shootings now and then. They always make the paper and then another big crackdown on "agressive driving"

 

I was and watched two full bore NJ state troopers passing in the very skinny emergency lane at well over 100mph just to chase down a couple of motorcycles to write a couple of tickets. And they get PAID by the citizens of NJ to express their rage, a little like some of the cops in New Orleans and all over this great country.

 

Since I have had the MINI, I have not experienced any RR. What is also interesting is that people never pull out in front of me like in other cars. I think it must be the strips and checkers; you can’t help but notice it. I have an hour commute so I do not drive very aggressively, mostly just relax, sit in the center lane, listen to music. I do get a laugh out of the idiots always trying to pass everyone else, they really save little time and get to work with their blood pressure already high.

Can’t help but notice one thing on the thread though, the mythical “Fast Lane” is often mentioned. While slower traffic should always keep right, the speed limit actually applies equally to all lanes of the expressway.

 

Good story about how to control your road rage..

A man rowed a small boat upstream, heading toward home, when he felt another small boat, heading downstream, collide with his boat. Since he had the right of way, he felt angry. Turning, he yelled at the other boatman, "Watch out. Be more careful!"
The other boatsman apologized, and gently passed by. An hour later, as the man continued upstream, he felt another boat collide with his. Furious, he turned to yell. His anger vanished when he saw that the boat was empty – it must have come loose from its moorings.
Calmly, he pushed it aside and continued on his journey. The boatsman never lost his temper again, because from then on he treated everyone like an empty boat.