I'm with Tom! If I ever come to visit any of you, I'm definitely going to insist on driving!
I don't get road rage. The most I ever get is road indignation, and that's pretty rare. Nine times out of ten, I just assume that the person driving erratically is having a bad day, or a baby, or has a wasp loose in their car, or something. I give them a wide berth if possible, but that's about it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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This whole post reminds me of my trip to India .
My driving, and tolerance for other foibles in the civilized driving world has greatly increased. How bad is someone cutting you off compared to:
quote: On a standard two lane road you will have three cars, a bus, and a three wheeled scooter all passing a pair of bicycle rickshaws despite the tractor pulling a wagon as oncoming traffic. Horse traffic, pedestrians, cows all fill the road, with equal rights to be their. The right of way goes to whoever has the biggest horn, and the cows seem to be well equipped for this ruling.
In the US, a honked horn is a sign of anger, of audio violence. Honking is considered a threat and an insult. In India, it is mobile conversation.
In the US you pass in passing lanes or face police fines. In India, you make passing lanes.
In Dehli, half the stop lights are no longer legal after 9pm. In India fault falls to people who stop, not to people who refuse to stop. In India they drive on the left side of the rode, as in England, but this too is optional depending on the crowds.
The only thing that keeps people from being killed at ridiculous rates in Indian traffic is the fact that speed never exceed 40mph. How can you drive faster when an oxen drawn wagon my be in you lane around the next curve.
I flew half way around the world, at altituded where breatable air is so thin you would suffocate before falling to your death, and it did not bother me. I was in Amit’s car for half an hour and wanted to run screaming--accept running in traffic, though common, would have been just as suicidal as staying in the car. At least in the car some steal protected me.
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A friend of mine returned to his birthplace of India about 10 years ago to marry his wife. Sadly, he never returned because he was killed in a head-on collision somewhere outside of Delhi.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Thanks for the warnings about hurrying out of an intersection. However, I am not trying to race--I just want to get where I'm going, and somehow the other people always end up lagging behind.
And I do watch for people running red lights--I'm not careless. I do occasionally do stupid things. Most of them are linked to having to drive when tired, due to working nights.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Ok guys....my head almost exploded today...the guy, in front of the guy in front of ME...(got that?) SLAMMED on his brakes...the guy in front of me SLAMMED and then I (who had plenty of room, don't you dare accuse me of tailgating) had to SLAM. The problem was, I didn't realize how serious the slammage was until I was too close, so I SLAMMED too late...and HIT the guy in front of me. Luckily, I was almost to a stop and just nudged him forward a bit, but it still scratched up his paint on his bumper and my insurance premiums will STILL go up....
Oh, and the killer!! The guy in front of the guy in front of me?? The PERPETRATOR??? He just drove off and left the other two cars that were trading insurance information because of HIS stupid @$$ stunt. ARGHH!!!
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:I don't get road rage. The most I ever get is road indignation, and that's pretty rare. Nine times out of ten, I just assume that the person driving erratically is having a bad day, or a baby, or has a wasp loose in their car, or something. I give them a wide berth if possible, but that's about it.
Me too, Noemon. Occasionally I'll have very sarcastic (one-sided) conversations with them in the privacy of my own car, such as "Do you think perhaps you could go a little slower? I'm afraid we might pass an ant or two," but that's only when I'm in a bad mood.
Usually, I take the tactic of resolving to look out for other people on the road. Psychologically, it's satisfying: if someone is trying to leap in front of me, I can be in charge of "helping" them achieve their intended destination quicker. It makes me happy instead of pissed, and I can amuse myself by telling myself outrageous stories of how I just helped them save the world, etc.
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I'm so glad to be enriched by my fellow jatraquero! Let me tell you a story!
Yesterday, I was driving my brother home from his tutoring. There's a junction of two major freeways right by my house. Basically, I go sailing off of one freeway and onto the exit ramp of the other one without changing lanes. So, if people need to get onto the same exit ramp, they must watch behind them and do it quickly as to mesh with traffic. I came around onto the ramp, not speeding. Yea, in fact I was only in 4th gear and doing just fine. A big white truck...no, he doesn't cut me off. He just starts to SLOWLY drift into the lane in front of me. Obviously, he didn't know I was there and by then I was too close to stop, so I honked my horn to alert him of my presence and drove on by him. I did nothing wrong!!
Well, he was pissed off anyway. He did move over onto the lane behind me and stayed right on my bumper. As you have all read earlier, this bugs me to no end. But, I used the downshifting trick that I learned on this very thread (which wasn't even illegal because it was an exit ramp and I had to slow down anyway) and it made him SO MAD that he started pointing angrily and shouting things that I couldn't hear. He got off the ramp with me and I was afraid he might follow me home, but he got in the lane next to me and a little behind. We had to wait at a red light, so he had lots of time to yell out his window. And man, did he yell. Thankfully, he drove away, but not before he called me some of the most atrocious names and flung 4 letter words everywhere. I just ignored him, though the temptation to --|-- was very strong!!! I wanted to be a good example to my 17 year old brother.
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Luckily, I was almost to a stop and just nudged him forward a bit, but it still scratched up his paint on his bumper and my insurance premiums will STILL go up....![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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