Road Rage

Hubby, Buttons and I were doing some Christmas shopping yesterday (Saturday) so we expected some crowds, cranky retail employees, parking space frenzies and perhaps even a little road rage. We live in a fairly busy area but rage happens*. However, Hubby and I were surprised by this particular incident of RR with a very angry man in a very large pick-up truck (black Dodge with the ram on it).

We were waiting in a left-hand turn lane for a green arrow to join the highway home. Hubby was driving and the light had his focus. We both saw the light change to green and were behind two or three cars waiting our turn when the guy in the pick-up honked. What? Where can we go dude? Are we going to drive over these cars? When we looked behind us the guy was having a total road rage meltdown. His face was red, hands waving in the air, what I imagine to be expletives firing out of his mouth. He was having a freakin' road rage tantrum. Why?

I understand we all have different timers for the horn honk at the car in front of us when the light turns green and we assume the driver has spaced. I've spaced and had the polite beep, the slightly long irritated honk and the person who waited much more patiently than I would have and didn't tap their horn at all (thank you, by the way). I'm more than happy to do the "oops, I spaced and I'm sorry" wave and get my butt (and car) in gear. I've also tapped my horn more than once when people don't see the green. I know I'm a bit more irritated when the person is busy doing their make-up or talking on the phone, but that's not my main irritation on the road.

Hubby and I have different driving styles and tolerances (he being the more tolerant one) but we both agreed that we were the most surprised by this honk-n-rage than any other we've received over our driving lifetimes. This is an honor previously held by a driver in a Ralph's parking lot in San Diego who gave the finger after parking space related issue that was no fault of ours.

If a honk is deserved, feel free to give it to me. I can take it. However Mr. Ram-tough, perhaps you need some anger management classes, driver's etiquette lessons or maybe just a good old-fashioned spanking.



*Hubby and I have driven in places like San Diego, LA, San Francisco, New York City (ok, once), Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Madrid and a few other large cities. We haven't driven in Boston, but we've had our share of crazy, impatient drivers.