Chapter 8 - Road Rage or Road Impatience? 

In the 1990’s a new term came to light, road rage. This term started to be used to describe the anger that one driver has for another driver. Maybe it’s just hand gestures or yelling, but some cases have turned violent and a few people have been killed. Why?

Why is it even possible that someone can be terrorized or killed because of the frustration that many of us feel in traffic? “Road rage,” to me, is negative and not the right description of the problem. I think “Road Impatience” is. Let me explain.

Because of our growing population, and with more and more cars on the road, we have a lot of traffic. That also means that many of us are going to be let in or eventually cut in traffic. When you let someone in, you do it to be nice and help the other driver. Or they have to just jump in when the chance is there. But the one thing that everyone seems to like is when that driver gives them a friendly wave of “thanks.”

How powerful is that wave? Very! Try to look for this. If you pull in front of someone without a wave of “thanks,” he might start tailgating you. However, if you at that time or sooner give a friendly wave to that driver, he seems to back off or let someone else in. Why does that happen? Because we all want to be acknowledged for our nice gesture of letting someone in.

No acknowledgment and they might get irritated, and will not let anyone else in. Acknowledge them and more than likely, they will let one or more drivers in.

So since we all like to be acknowledged and many or all of us want more in life, I have a simple rule:

Don’t give them one finger, give them five.

Another problem with road impatience is that when driving on two-lane roads or expressways, many people fail to remember to move to the right if they can, to let traffic behind them pass. Or even to move over a lane to let someone merge in with traffic.

In Europe, the vast majority of drivers knows and practices this. Maybe it is this part of our driving that confuses many European visitors. Just consider moving to the right lane, when another vehicle is trying to pass. As well, let’s try to move over to let traffic merge on. It not only makes it easier for everyone, but it also diminishes the temptation to impatient drivers to try weaving in and out in traffic, and thereby increases everybody’s safety.

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