On another thread "Dealing with your temper..." a lot of folks talked about how hard it is to keep your cool when confronted with all the idiots and maniacs on the road ("idiots" are people that drive slower than you and get in your way, "maniacs", of course are the people who drive faster than you and want to get around you... imagine that!). Anyway, driving has become something of a martial art these days, so I thought I'd stick this in.
In spite of my long term involvement in the MAs, I still have some anger management issues, and no where is this potentially a more serious problem than when driving. But I found a solution when I started playing a game we called "Road Rage" with some of my friends and co-workers. It works like this. You get together and set up point values for various kinds of obnoxious driving behaviors. Then every day on your commute you tally up all the obnoxious behaviors, and the person who gathers the most points wins. So, for example, if someone tailgates you, you might get 5 points, but if he/she also flips you off, you get double points and so on. But the catch is, you can't provoke the other driver or you lose points. So the trick is to drive courteously and defensively, and really hope you get lucky and encounter some really rude people.
A typical conversation at work would go like this, "Hey, you won't believe what some guy did on the way to work this morning. Traffic was backed up about a quarter mile, you know, where the road narrows down to one lane due to construction, right? So after a 15 minute wait, I finally get up to where the lanes merge. Well, this guy comes zooming in from behind, passing everyone on the right shoulder. He gets all the way up to the front and forces his way back in line, right in front of me. I tried to let him in, but before I could, he rammed his way in, almost scraping my bumper. Then, he slammed on his brakes and flipped me off! I tallied it up, and that should be at least 45 points, putting me in the lead!" To which my co-worker sullenly responds, "Damn, you have all the luck. So far all I've got is one tailgater this morning, and an unsafe lane change back on Tuesday."
As long as we kept the game going, not one of us "lost it". In fact we'd get excited when we had a "good" day... encountering a lot of obnoxious drivers. However, since I now work in a different area and stopped playing the game for a while, all bets are off.
In spite of my long term involvement in the MAs, I still have some anger management issues, and no where is this potentially a more serious problem than when driving. But I found a solution when I started playing a game we called "Road Rage" with some of my friends and co-workers. It works like this. You get together and set up point values for various kinds of obnoxious driving behaviors. Then every day on your commute you tally up all the obnoxious behaviors, and the person who gathers the most points wins. So, for example, if someone tailgates you, you might get 5 points, but if he/she also flips you off, you get double points and so on. But the catch is, you can't provoke the other driver or you lose points. So the trick is to drive courteously and defensively, and really hope you get lucky and encounter some really rude people.
A typical conversation at work would go like this, "Hey, you won't believe what some guy did on the way to work this morning. Traffic was backed up about a quarter mile, you know, where the road narrows down to one lane due to construction, right? So after a 15 minute wait, I finally get up to where the lanes merge. Well, this guy comes zooming in from behind, passing everyone on the right shoulder. He gets all the way up to the front and forces his way back in line, right in front of me. I tried to let him in, but before I could, he rammed his way in, almost scraping my bumper. Then, he slammed on his brakes and flipped me off! I tallied it up, and that should be at least 45 points, putting me in the lead!" To which my co-worker sullenly responds, "Damn, you have all the luck. So far all I've got is one tailgater this morning, and an unsafe lane change back on Tuesday."
As long as we kept the game going, not one of us "lost it". In fact we'd get excited when we had a "good" day... encountering a lot of obnoxious drivers. However, since I now work in a different area and stopped playing the game for a while, all bets are off.
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