Road Rage
I am generally considered a very patient guy (my friends say that :)) but while driving, I am an altogether different person, for I get tensed easily at the slightest opportunity. My friends even say that I should properly take up an anger management course or something. It has always been the case with me. Even while I was back in India, I used to get enraged when someone breaks the traffic rules.
There was once this incident that happened during one of my trips to Kodaikanal with my friends. Since its a hilly region, almost all the roads are narrow and not more than 2 vehicles can occupy the road at any given point of time. One time, as a result of an accident, there is this huge traffic backlog in one of the roads, me & my friends were driving in and there was this long line of vehicles as a result of this backlog. So, I dutifully took my spot in the queue. It was then the thing I hate the most started happening. Cars and vans started overtaking folks like me who are waiting in the line and started driving on the wrong side of the road, thus blocking the road for the oncoming vehicles. This is something that we can see it happen anytime a backlog like this happens back in India. But it was all the more horrible here bcos of the fact that the chaos it will cause, are just manifold. We started cursing those stupid morons with the worst possible expletives that we could conjure up but right as were doing that, we saw all of those vehicles coming backwards. Those useless idiots were basically reversing their vehicles. We were surprised on what brought about this sudden change of mind in those guys. It was when the first of such vehicles crossed us that we realized the reason for them making a retreat like that. It was the much-aligned Tamil Nadu police. Looks like the cops who were at the accident site were driving these jerks back and it was not until the cops crossed our car that we heard all the choicest expletives that the cops were using. (Please recall the Vettri Kodi Kattu scene where Vadivelu's maapla uses all defined and undefined bad words on Vadivelu) I was so glad that the cops were doing that bcos those senseless idiots deserved every bit of the verbal thrashing that they were receiving. This incident still remains fresh in my mind bcos of the fact that the cops were doing something I wish I was able to do to those drivers.
Anyway, coming back to the subject of the post - you do not see such blatant violation of the law and the traffic rules here in the US. Thus the reasons for my rage while driving here are completely different and I thought it will be a good idea to compile them in the form of a post. So, here are the top 6 reasons on why I get a road rage:
1) Say, it is a 4-lane highway (2 lanes in each direction) and there is a 60 MPH speed limit. It drives me crazy if someone is driving at 55 mph on the left lane, while the right lane is free and can easily be moved over to. Most of the times, I move over to the right lane and overtake them & then get back on the left lane. But this does not happen all the time bcos the right lane is mostly occupied by drivers who tend to drive slow. I do not blame them for they are not doing anything wrong. So, we are left with 2 slow drivers basically blocking both the lanes leaving me with no other option than to feel enraged and start cursing them. What is beyond my comprehension is why don't they understand the simple logic that the left lane is supposed to be the lane for the faster drivers and the right lane is all theirs for the taking.
2) The second case is slightly different. It is a freeway with 2 lanes for normal traffic and one lane for HOV traffic. I completely hate it when I see a car with just a single passenger, on the HOV lane. In this case, I do more than just getting enraged and cursing to myself. Here in Seattle (I am sure this is there in all the major cities), you can call a number and report the crime. So, the very moment I see someone committing the crime, I call the number and report it.
3) You know what drives me even more crazy - same situation as above. I am driving in the normal lane but I see a car with 3 passengers in it, also driving in the normal lane. This is something that drives me crazy too since why would someone not take advantage of the HOV lane that is being offered to people who carpool. More than a concern for them, it is the fact that cars like these which would have otherwise traveled faster in the HOV lane, slows down the normal lanes, of which I am part of, that much more which irritates me to no ends.
4) You are driving in a 2 lane road (not a freeway) and as usual the person in front of you is driving 5-10 miles below speed limit. As always they are driving in the left lane and refuse to move over to the right lane. I am unable to overtake them by going to the right lane bcos there is an equally slower car on the right lane. And I get mad the most when this car in front of me gets through a signal while I am stuck in it, just bcos that useless driver was driving slow, well below the speed limit. You know what happens most of the times? These folks who keep driving so slowly, on seeing the light turn from green to yellow, suddenly start driving fast and even jump the red light in trying to beat the signal and I am totally pissed off, bcos not only did they block me all these time, but they also make me stuck in the signal.
5) This again has got to do with slow drivers. From the above points you would have understood how much I hate it when these slow drivers block the traffic behind them by driving on the left lane. You know what irritates me even more? While driving, these drivers talking on the cell phone. This is probably the heights. By nature, these folks are slow drivers and on top of that, talking on their cell phone, makes them drive even more slower and no points for guessing my reaction on seeing this unfold before my eyes.
6) The other thing that irritates me (this one is not on the road) is the way people park. When I see a compact car like Hyundai Accent/ Toyota Corolla/ Dodge Neon, parked in the most irresponsible of ways, my anger level just shoots up. I mean, one of the 4 tires would be in the adjacent parking lot or so close to the dividing line, that the person from the adjacent car can not open their doors properly. I mean, how callous can they be. It is not the fact that they have not parked correctly that irks me the most. Nobody is expecting them to park their cars perfectly at the first try. They see that they have not parked properly but they do not take the effort to spend a few extra seconds and park it correctly. Most of the times, if my car is cordoned off by such an improperly parked car, I need to be extra careful and go out of my way to take my car out of the parking lot without inflicting damage to both my car and the other car. Sometimes I am so enraged that I say to myself 'Let me just take my car out of the parking lot the normal way and if it results in a damage, I am fine with it'. But then the state of my new car pegs me back from actually doing so.
So, there goes my reasons for a road rage. I am sure each one of us have their own reasons like this which ticks us off while driving. Would be ears to listen to them.
There was once this incident that happened during one of my trips to Kodaikanal with my friends. Since its a hilly region, almost all the roads are narrow and not more than 2 vehicles can occupy the road at any given point of time. One time, as a result of an accident, there is this huge traffic backlog in one of the roads, me & my friends were driving in and there was this long line of vehicles as a result of this backlog. So, I dutifully took my spot in the queue. It was then the thing I hate the most started happening. Cars and vans started overtaking folks like me who are waiting in the line and started driving on the wrong side of the road, thus blocking the road for the oncoming vehicles. This is something that we can see it happen anytime a backlog like this happens back in India. But it was all the more horrible here bcos of the fact that the chaos it will cause, are just manifold. We started cursing those stupid morons with the worst possible expletives that we could conjure up but right as were doing that, we saw all of those vehicles coming backwards. Those useless idiots were basically reversing their vehicles. We were surprised on what brought about this sudden change of mind in those guys. It was when the first of such vehicles crossed us that we realized the reason for them making a retreat like that. It was the much-aligned Tamil Nadu police. Looks like the cops who were at the accident site were driving these jerks back and it was not until the cops crossed our car that we heard all the choicest expletives that the cops were using. (Please recall the Vettri Kodi Kattu scene where Vadivelu's maapla uses all defined and undefined bad words on Vadivelu) I was so glad that the cops were doing that bcos those senseless idiots deserved every bit of the verbal thrashing that they were receiving. This incident still remains fresh in my mind bcos of the fact that the cops were doing something I wish I was able to do to those drivers.
Anyway, coming back to the subject of the post - you do not see such blatant violation of the law and the traffic rules here in the US. Thus the reasons for my rage while driving here are completely different and I thought it will be a good idea to compile them in the form of a post. So, here are the top 6 reasons on why I get a road rage:
1) Say, it is a 4-lane highway (2 lanes in each direction) and there is a 60 MPH speed limit. It drives me crazy if someone is driving at 55 mph on the left lane, while the right lane is free and can easily be moved over to. Most of the times, I move over to the right lane and overtake them & then get back on the left lane. But this does not happen all the time bcos the right lane is mostly occupied by drivers who tend to drive slow. I do not blame them for they are not doing anything wrong. So, we are left with 2 slow drivers basically blocking both the lanes leaving me with no other option than to feel enraged and start cursing them. What is beyond my comprehension is why don't they understand the simple logic that the left lane is supposed to be the lane for the faster drivers and the right lane is all theirs for the taking.
2) The second case is slightly different. It is a freeway with 2 lanes for normal traffic and one lane for HOV traffic. I completely hate it when I see a car with just a single passenger, on the HOV lane. In this case, I do more than just getting enraged and cursing to myself. Here in Seattle (I am sure this is there in all the major cities), you can call a number and report the crime. So, the very moment I see someone committing the crime, I call the number and report it.
3) You know what drives me even more crazy - same situation as above. I am driving in the normal lane but I see a car with 3 passengers in it, also driving in the normal lane. This is something that drives me crazy too since why would someone not take advantage of the HOV lane that is being offered to people who carpool. More than a concern for them, it is the fact that cars like these which would have otherwise traveled faster in the HOV lane, slows down the normal lanes, of which I am part of, that much more which irritates me to no ends.
4) You are driving in a 2 lane road (not a freeway) and as usual the person in front of you is driving 5-10 miles below speed limit. As always they are driving in the left lane and refuse to move over to the right lane. I am unable to overtake them by going to the right lane bcos there is an equally slower car on the right lane. And I get mad the most when this car in front of me gets through a signal while I am stuck in it, just bcos that useless driver was driving slow, well below the speed limit. You know what happens most of the times? These folks who keep driving so slowly, on seeing the light turn from green to yellow, suddenly start driving fast and even jump the red light in trying to beat the signal and I am totally pissed off, bcos not only did they block me all these time, but they also make me stuck in the signal.
5) This again has got to do with slow drivers. From the above points you would have understood how much I hate it when these slow drivers block the traffic behind them by driving on the left lane. You know what irritates me even more? While driving, these drivers talking on the cell phone. This is probably the heights. By nature, these folks are slow drivers and on top of that, talking on their cell phone, makes them drive even more slower and no points for guessing my reaction on seeing this unfold before my eyes.
6) The other thing that irritates me (this one is not on the road) is the way people park. When I see a compact car like Hyundai Accent/ Toyota Corolla/ Dodge Neon, parked in the most irresponsible of ways, my anger level just shoots up. I mean, one of the 4 tires would be in the adjacent parking lot or so close to the dividing line, that the person from the adjacent car can not open their doors properly. I mean, how callous can they be. It is not the fact that they have not parked correctly that irks me the most. Nobody is expecting them to park their cars perfectly at the first try. They see that they have not parked properly but they do not take the effort to spend a few extra seconds and park it correctly. Most of the times, if my car is cordoned off by such an improperly parked car, I need to be extra careful and go out of my way to take my car out of the parking lot without inflicting damage to both my car and the other car. Sometimes I am so enraged that I say to myself 'Let me just take my car out of the parking lot the normal way and if it results in a damage, I am fine with it'. But then the state of my new car pegs me back from actually doing so.
So, there goes my reasons for a road rage. I am sure each one of us have their own reasons like this which ticks us off while driving. Would be ears to listen to them.
posted by Filbert at 4:30 PM
2 Comments:
hello maams unga kodaikanal scene yellam banaglore maari roads leh daily nadakkum...itheh yellam paarthu paarthu pazhahi pochu....at th emost the best we can do is hone up ur driving skills to drive or squeeze thru every posibl space u get...road RAGE will be too soft a word for our kinda situations....
Very well said, Naren :) The thing is when I come to India, I don't complain like the way I have done in my post but I rather choose to adjust to the traffic system in our place. But even given that, Bangalore is pathetic. The traffic in even a city like Madurai is far better when you compare it to Bangalore. When I was there last year, 2-3 kms long lines were just a routine sight.
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