Road Rage

Over the past few years especially, people have exhibited seriously irrational behavior on the road. It's common for people to have road rage. Drivers can tend to display aggressive or angry behavior which include rude gestures, verbal insults, physical threats or even dangerous driving methods that are targeted towards another driver in an effort to intimidate or release frustration. Although, sometimes road rage can lead to certain altercations and get extremely out of hand. Some have overreacted so badly that it had led to numerous harmful situations. For example, a priest was driving with his wife and daughter when a pickup truck cut him off; he then proceeded to follow the truck for 40 minutes all the way back to the other driver's house. A cell phone video caught the scene that followed – the man started a fight with the people in the pickup truck, then the wife came around the car and handed her husband a gun which he then pointed at the two others and threatened to shoot. He drove off, but later came back in the day to the house and shot at the pickup's windshield. This exemplifies the danger and risk that comes with displaying any sort of negative temperament towards others on the road.  This leads to the question: how can such ordinary people get so angry to the extent of endangering the people around them? A stressed driver’s behavior depends on that driver’s coping abilities. Generally, we could expect drivers with high aggression levels to use direct confrontation strategies while driving when stressed; such strategies would include honks, swerving, tailgating, and fighting the other driver. Driving presents a more or less stressful environment to any person behind the wheel simply due to the high speeds of other drivers and everyone making different decisions – as stress increases, the likelihood of a person having road rage increases as well, and if a person has road rage, their stress levels increase. This could be a very clear reason for how stressful situations can keep drivers from thinking before their potentially harmful actions.