Play a game where you try to predict which drivers will be the biggest idiots long before they even think about doing the stupid/selfish thing that is likely to get you raging.
Obviously you have their car type, any stickers or adornments such as backshelf hattery or ‘powered by fairydust’. Then their general demeanour, driving style and lack of awareness. Round here, full size Leeds Rhino window badge or Nurburgring sticker on the boot lid are the biggest red flags.

That allows you not only the satisfaction of being some kind of driving Nostradamus, but also allows you to give them a wider berth than usual in anticipation.

My usual tactic with bad drivers is normally calling them a couple of very strong swearwords and then I feel better.

I’m broadly the same.

When I was younger I used to try not to get pissed off with idiots, net result was that I’d spend the next 20 minutes quietly simmering away every time something happened. A few more of those, it’s cumulative damage and I’d end up a steaming ball of rage.

Nowadays someone carves me up or some such, I’ll go “oh for ****’s sake!” and after that momentary outburst my brain can throw it away, I’m immediately perfectly calm and relaxed.

Or get some anger management training if its that bad.

Most folk haven’t set out to annoy you personally, they’re just trying to get along, yep they may be bad at driving, but TBH, it’s sometimes confusing if you’re driving around an unfamiliar town, and folk drive slowly or erratically or make poor decisions because they’re stressed.

That sort of thing doesn’t bother me – the kind of thing that winds me up is the deliberate aggressive, self-entitled style of driving that I’ve found is much more prevalent in Manchester than other places I’ve lived.

So if I’m sat in the “straight ahead” lane at traffic lights and some tit deliberately uses the “right turn only” lane to try and jump the queue and then aggressively barge in front of me, I’ll have a few shouty words, flashing of lights and a bit of horn. I’m not about to stop the car and have a roll around on the verge with anyone and I don’t stew for hours afterwards, but it bothers me and I’d rather not react at all. Flashing my lights or trying to “block” someone out from forcing their way in etc ain’t going to change their behaviour – it just gets me wound up.

I’ve got a dashcam fitted – not sure if makes much difference as I can chose to watch / delete / ignore.

I’ve got a dashcam fitted – not sure if makes much difference as I can chose to watch / delete / ignore.

….until you actually have an accident when the cops can seize it as evidence and prosecute you for tampering with evidence if you don’t like what it shows and delete it.

So if I’m sat in the “straight ahead” lane at traffic lights and some tit deliberately uses the “right turn only” lane to try and jump the queue and then aggressively barge in front of me, I’ll have a few shouty words, flashing of lights and a bit of horn

Stop driving. You need help.

So if I’m sat in the “straight ahead” lane at traffic lights and some tit deliberately uses the “right turn only” lane to try and jump the queue and then aggressively barge in front of me, I’ll have a few shouty words, flashing of lights and a bit of horn

To be fair if they indicate I don’t mind them moving over . Really don’t care.

How ever if they just move in assuming I will yield…. They picked the wrong car.

Unfortunately, the problem isn’t people staying in the outside lane, it’s basically traffic*

@philjunior I live in Scotland where there’s likely not as much traffic as where you are, sometimes it is just because people don’t pull back in. When it’s heavy traffic I just accept it and go with it.

brant

Subscriber
So if I’m sat in the “straight ahead” lane at traffic lights and some tit deliberately uses the “right turn only” lane to try and jump the queue and then aggressively barge in front of me, I’ll have a few shouty words, flashing of lights and a bit of horn

Stop driving. You need help.

Woohoo! Here’s the driving god I was searching.

trail_rat

Member
So if I’m sat in the “straight ahead” lane at traffic lights and some tit deliberately uses the “right turn only” lane to try and jump the queue and then aggressively barge in front of me, I’ll have a few shouty words, flashing of lights and a bit of horn

To be fair if they indicate I don’t mind them moving over . Really don’t care.

How ever if they just move in assuming I will yield…. They picked the wrong car.

Yep, key word was “aggressively”. If someone is clearly confused / in the wrong lane / having a bad day etc then no issue with that. But it’s the deliberate and aggressive forcing their way in that riles me.

Looks like that’s 2 of us that need to give up driving then…

Stop driving. You need help.

Stop posting. You need help.

the deliberate aggressive, self-entitled style of driving that I’ve found is much more prevalent in Manchester than other places I’ve lived.

Try Bolton. I drove through there the other day, the amount of deliberate bellendery I saw was astonishing. I was intentionally run off the road at least twice.

I was in a similar situation:normally calm behind the wheel, let people out, go with the flow, professionally had extra training etc and very rarely had any issues that made me boil. Cue 18 months ago and I was reacting to all sorts of things with anger. Beginning of this year I had a mini breakdown caused by stress. As soon as I recognised that all anger behind the wheel disappeared. Now have a dashcam which helps calm me down even further. Have caught 4 separate accidents on it in that time too!!

Definitely look at other things that could be causing it, I reckon 90%+ of road rage is caused by underlying issues totally unrelated to driving.

This has been all over my FB feed this evening:

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/white-van-rams-car-motorway-17287638

Apart from all the usual “u ok hun?” comments, it has been refreshing to note how many people have referred to the Astra driver as being a twunt as well.

Buy a dashcam and point in inwards. You might be surprised.
I used to commute to west London daily and it was a nightmare so I changed jobs.

Watch some Reg Local observation vids on YouTube and take pleasure spotting idiots, sorry, ‘hazards’ well in advance of coming into conflict.

Flashing my lights or trying to “block” someone out from forcing their way in etc ain’t going to change their behaviour – it just gets me wound up.

But you’re not normally like that and have done “some advanced driver training”.

Either you are normally like that and you don’t recognise it, the training didn’t benefit you at all, or you really do have a more serious anger issue you haven’t realised yet.

No, I think that’s fairly normal.

TL:DR

We can’t be responsible for the actions of others, the ONLY thing we can take responsibility for is our reactions.

OP, the driving/road rage thing is an outlet, go seek help for what’s really going on for you.

What winds me up is people who love their jobs so much & are in such a rush to get there that they have to tailgate me through 30mph areas expecting me to speed up & as soon as the national speed limit sign’s visible they tear past. Usually to get stuck behind another vehicle.

I hate people who love their jobs that much!

I do think that people who drive like **** need to have that pointed out to them every now & then, otherwise it legitimises their behaviour. Having a phone on your lap or parking like a ****? they should get it pointed out too.

Once Boris gives us (back) all those coppers, perhaps some of them could do it ?

The trick, is to improve YOUR driving to the point where you can pre-empt the idiots and therefore be in a possition to just sit back and watch them be idiots from a safe distance!

Applying defensive and advanced driving techniques not only keeps you safe, it gives you the tools to be able to actually enjoy other people being idiots!

I now spend a lot of time spotting idiots before they do the inevitably idiotic thing they were about to do, but that i have distanced myself from, and therefore avoiding “getting caught up” in it!.

Classic examples are slow cars on the motorway pulling out from behind a truck at the last minute because they haven’t even spotted the slow truck ahead (which has been pbvious for at least a mile up front) or the 100 mph “lunatic” arriving at warp speed behind them. That ALWAYS causes conflict, but nto conflict that i will be anywhere near!

Or people coming down slip roads, and managing to prefectly position themselves right next to a massive truck, and then running out of slip road (100% of the time, there is a completely empty road ahead / behind should they have just changed there speed minutely)

Or people on roundabouts, clearly people who can’t even correctly operate a small plastic switch on the steering column and indictate correctly, so what chance do they have of navigating a complex, multilane road feature without cutting up about 3 other motorists

All these types of situations are all BLATANLTY obvious, sometimes even minutes before they happen if you just learn to observe properly. Once you learn the basic skills and signs to be able to spot these incidents before they happen, your own driving becomes much, much less stressful, at whatever speed you drive 🙂

BTW the example of being “cut up” by someone in the turn right lane at a traffic light going straight on:

You may have no idea they are going straight on, but you should always consider it as a possibility, either deliberate “queue jumping” or just someome unfamilar with the road or lost.

Assuming you aren’t leaving the lights on the yellow like an F1 driver at the start of a GP, there should be plenty of time to spot the fact they haven’t actually turned right, and are encroaching on your lane, which gives you 2 further options:

a) Use your car as a battering ram, and spin them into the central reservation or oncoming lane of traffic.

b) just Lift off / brake if necessary to re-establish your safety zone and just let them in.

Option a) despite being satisfying in theory really has no point. Your car is wrecked, you’ve just ended up with a load of hassles / paperwork, your insurance is going up next year, and you may end up in jail due to causing death by dangerous driving. Realistically, all that has happened is that there is another car in front of you. so what? there’s probably 100 other cars in front of you already!!

If the person doing the “cutting up” is the sort of person who cuts people up deliberately then do you really think that you are going to change their mind or stop them doing it? If that IS really important to you, become a police officer and join TrafPol so at least you can do it officially…….

How do you increase your safety zone for example on a slip road.

Situation A ( real life , last weeek ) long straight slip road, good vis , can see 200mtrs ahead.
I can see 5- 6 cars all braking toward the end of the slip road and lane 1 is pretty full ( NSL dually ) . I continue at approx 50mph with the obligatory white Transit trying to enter me from behind and flashing his lights as im not going full speed ahead. I can see the traffic bunching , so leave maybe 50mtr – 60 mtr before accelaerating to maybe 55mph which is the speed lane 1 is going at , join smoothly into traffic flow without barging in .- Transit goes straight into lane 2 and close passes on the horn. Lane 2 is going slightly faster and I maybe could have joined Lane 1 1 car earlier , so saving 3 seconds

Situation B . Driving to work, Vectra Estate is clearly on a mission but cannot actually drive . He is tail gating a Macan , I am behind him . I leave a nice 100mt gap and use it to accelerate and overtake both safely with quick toot to let him know Im there , and I am gone.
He overtakes at the next opportunity , maybe 1 mile further down the raod. He then blasts through the 30mph zone I am now in , at around 55mph judging by the closure rate.
I then get the tail gate treatment and there is allsorts of arm waving going on . I should have stopped to let this tool be on his way , but its solid whites and oncoming traffic
I turned off 2 miles up the road and he did his best to nearly ram me into te right turn I was entering.

I was going to say, you can spot the idiots, so just stay out the way, and have a giggle when they get in horn wars a little further down the road. I also watch out for the last minute lane changers, you usually can see them drifting a little out of lane, or partially blocking two lanes.

quick toot to let him know Im there

😉
I wonder what he thought your friendly toot was for

@philjunior I live in Scotland where there’s likely not as much traffic as where you are, sometimes it is just because people don’t pull back in. When it’s heavy traffic I just accept it and go with it.

I live in Scotland too haha.

I get that if people had strong lane discipline it would be better for all and require less tarmac, but often it’s simply nose to tail for everyone who thinks they’d be going faster if it wasn’t for everyone else in that lane.

@philjunior where abouts?

I drove up from Hartlepool last week and never had any problems such as you describe until I hit Glasgow. It must be a central belt thing.

@philjunior where abouts?

I drove up from Hartlepool last week and never had any problems such as you describe until I hit Glasgow. It must be a central belt thing.

Outskirts of Glasgow.

I agree it’s generally not too bad except around the central belt at peak times, unless you’re driving up north around bank holidays.

I tried a new thing this morning – something I learned from CBT therapy stuff – (in brief) put your focus elsewhere, rather than on the thing that causes you anxiety. So instead of thinking, “argh that **** in the Jag! Driving like a ****!” think about the Jag, the shape of it’s lights, the colour of the car…etc. .Worked for me today, be good if I can keep it up.
I shall become A GOD.

Yeah thought as much. That’s why I hate driving, if you’re not hooning along in the outside lane with someone up your arse you’re stuck on the inside behind someone doing 50 with nose to tail traffic overtaking you.

stuck on the inside behind someone doing 50 with nose to tail traffic overtaking you.

This is the “fear” that makes people middle lane hog. But in all my years of driving… it just never happens!