Road Rage

[charlessummers]

Thank goodness for open carry. Had a guy follow me to work this morning to "confront me" about the way I was driving. Of course I didn't go straight to work once I figured out he was following me, but rather stopped in at the West Nashville Police Station. He was pretty pissed until he saw how calm I was... and that I had my Glock on my hip. I told him I was going to work now and he needed to "have nice day" (FPSRussia).

 

I don't usually open carry, but when I do... I carry a Glock! No seriously, I don't usually open carry, but this morning I had to play dress up for work and wear a button down shirt, neatly tucked in. So, I carried my Glock this morning on my side and removed it promptly before entering my building. Felt good though...

 

[wipfel]

Glad to hear things didn't get out of hand.  Carrying has pretty much eliminated road rage for me.  Can't afford the luxury.  That and the realization that you never know who's strapped. ;)

 

What did you do that caused him to follow you?  Or at least what did you do that made him so angry?

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Did he change his whole demeanor once he seen your gun? I would think it got a bit calmer and deescalated once he seen the gun?

 

 

TBH... sometimes I get soo stinking mad at people how they drive and act (texting is one of them)that I can understand people get roadrage.

Not saying its ok but there are days I would love to drive a Abrahams tank into people..:(

[Poor_Dog]

A couple of weeks ago I had a young guy, maybe 19 years old, run up to my open truck window and flashed/flicked a knife in my face. I had a Glock 23, Colt 45 and a Bersa 380 within reach. If he only knew how close he came. If he had reached inside that window it would have ended badly for him. 

[Guest MilitiaMan]

Did he change his whole demeanor once he seen your gun? I would think it got a bit calmer and deescalated once he seen the gun?

 

 

That's typically how it goes. Atleast in my experience.

[charlessummers]

He was tailgating me and I wouldn't let him pass. I was already doing over the speed limit, and truthfully, there wasn't much I could have done anyway. Yes, he toned down rather quickly... although I never acted as though I was going to unholster my gun or even pretend it was there. When I saw that, that's when I told him I was going to work and for him to stop following me. He drove off the other way, thank goodness.

 

I just don't understand why people get so bent out of shape about driving. It's a fact that Nashville traffic can be carzy at times, but that's when you need to relax and crank the radio up or something... geeze, no sense it letting it get your blood pressure up. You'll eventually get to where you're going, right?

[TMF]

I'm done with unsafe drivers tailgating me. I used to brake check them, but now that I have kids I slow down to about 10mph below the posted speed limit. Near my home there are several winding roads where it is impossible to pass or pull over. If folks want to drive in an unsafe manner then I'm going to adjust my speed to reduce risk. The last guy I did this to about had an aneurism as I watched in the rear view. To me I just don't understand it. Riding my ass will not cause me to break the law and go faster. It will only piss me off and look for ways to undermine your ability to get to where you're going.

[Poor_Dog]

300+ million folks in this country now, chances are you will be sharing the road with somebody. 

[piercedan]

I'm done with unsafe drivers tailgating me. I used to brake check them, but now that I have kids I slow down to about 10mph below the posted speed limit. Near my home there are several winding roads where it is impossible to pass or pull over. If folks want to drive in an unsafe manner then I'm going to adjust my speed to reduce risk. The last guy I did this to about had an aneurism as I watched in the rear view. To me I just don't understand it. Riding my ass will not cause me to break the law and go faster. It will only piss me off and look for ways to undermine your ability to get to where you're going.

 

I take a similar tact.  Residential areas, I'm pretty strict on the speed limit.  Around town and on the interstate, I push it a bit.  If someone is riding my butt, I find the speed limit and set my cruise, relax and enjoy the ride.  :0)  I don't even worry about how pissed the idiot behind me is getting.  It's satisfying, really.

[TMF]

I don't even worry about how pissed the idiot behind me is getting. It's satisfying, really.

Hell yeah it is.

[2.ooohhh]

I stopped fast enough for a changing yellow/red light on 21st last week the guy tailgating's face impacted his steering wheel when he panic stopped, he wasn't too happy about it but he left me some decent space from then on.   :woohoo:

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Ohh Tailgaters piss me off..especially when I am hauling 2 horses behind me..I drive speed limit..never got aticket in 30 years or into a wreck yet..

 

One thing that I can not tolerate is people pulling out in front of me ..Seems they wait  just long enough so I have to hit my brakes or change lanes real fast.(and I try to be in the other lane anyways)

Dont they see I am pulling a huge horsetrailer behind me ?helloooo? idiots...I just cant stop or swerve fast...

 

Other than that..nothing bothers me..lol..

[Guest SWirish24]

This is my first post, but I feel compelled to reply. Intentionally reducing your speed below the speed limit/ brake checking, although potentially personally satisfying, does not reduce your individual risk or deescalate the situation. It will merely serve to embolden and further enrage the other driver, even if that individual is "in the wrong."
If road conditions permit, attempt to move over and allow the individual to pass. Dovetailing with this, the furthest left lane of highways is intended to be the fast lane. You should only enter this lane if you are willing to be the fastest vehicle on the roadway, regardless of whether or not you are traveling at the posted speed limit. Again, merely move over, allow the tailgating vehicle(s) to pass, and resume your position.
These are basic rules of the road that form fundamental principles of defensive driving. Thinking "I'll show him" and slamming on the brakes does not make the situation any better. Worst case scenario, other other vehicle collides with your own. Another alternative is you end up having a confrontation like that of the OP. Would you really want to have to use your carry weapon on someone and know later on that you had perhaps stoked the fire? The old adage applies: "If you carry, you automatically lose every argument and become the nicest guy/gal around." This includes disagreements between drivers.

[Guest MilitiaMan]

:popcorn:

[Raoul]

I was inspecting a foreclosure a couple of years back. I was inside on the second floor working on a repair list...clipboard in hand and Sig on the hip. I always OC when I look at foreclosures.

So anyway I hear this big noise and I step out of the bedroom into the hall and there's 2 fellas running up the steps and when they see me they start hollering...GD this and GD that.

I just stepped back and transferred the clipboard to my left hand and since they had stopped a reasonable distance from me I just let them holler. Went on a couple of minutes until the guy in front (ex homeowner) sees the Sig.

He was the nicest guy after that.

[piercedan]

Left lane hogs are a pet peave and I definitely move over for faster traffic. I also set my cruise at the speed limit when tail gated.

[homeagain]

 Intentionally reducing your speed below the speed limit/ brake checking, although potentially personally satisfying, does not reduce your individual risk or deescalate the situation.

 

I'm with ya on the brake check.  Not prudent.  I agree on left lane for passing.  If I'm in a 2-lane and being tailgated, I reduce to a bit slower speed to let them around at the first chance they get.  It is a speed 'limit,' not a speed 'requirement.'

[peejman]

I take a similar tact.  Residential areas, I'm pretty strict on the speed limit.  Around town and on the interstate, I push it a bit.  If someone is riding my butt, I find the speed limit and set my cruise, relax and enjoy the ride.  :0)  I don't even worry about how pissed the idiot behind me is getting.  It's satisfying, really.

 

 

Heh... I do it for entertainment.  Watching them go completely bonkers in the rear view is hilarious. 

 

And yes, I make and effort to keep up with the traffic and will get out of the way when practical.  But when there's 20 cars stacked up in front of me and nobody's going anywhere, riding my arse isn't gonna help.  If you're in such a damn hurry, you should've left 10 minutes earlier.  Not my problem.

 

The best thing ever... and I've had this happen twice.... is toot the horn and wave when they're pulled over a few miles after finally roaring past.  I feel kinda bad that the cop has to deal with a pissed off moron, but maybe I'll get to watch the dash cam video on "Cops" later.  :)

 

And the above instances clearly illustrate, an armed society is a polite society. 

Edited April 17, 2013 by peejman

[wewoapsiak]

A couple of weeks ago I had a young guy, maybe 19 years old, run up to my open truck window and flashed/flicked a knife in my face. I had a Glock 23, Colt 45 and a Bersa 380 within reach. If he only knew how close he came. If he had reached inside that window it would have ended badly for him. 

Holy crap, people are freaking ridiculous.  Calm down and carry on, but someone is tailgating me I like to spray my windshield wiper fluid.  "Yeah, take that, you're totally inconvenienced by having to turn on your wipers too."  Works best with people with their top down.

[dralarms]

Had a trucker riding my arse flashing light and the whole gambit. Funny thing is I was running almost 80mph. Followed me up the exit ramp, only problem was I chose that exit for a reason. Its up hill and hard to get more than one car at a time through the intersection. So I got a head start up the hill where he was slowing down due to having to climb the hill, shot out between 2 cars and was gone before he could get up the ramp. In the rear view I could see him go across the road and get back on the interstate. Never did figure out what I did to piss him off but he had it to deal with not me.

[2.ooohhh]

This is my first post, but I feel compelled to reply. Intentionally reducing your speed below the speed limit/ brake checking, although potentially personally satisfying, does not reduce your individual risk or deescalate the situation. It will merely serve to embolden and further enrage the other driver, even if that individual is "in the wrong."
If road conditions permit, attempt to move over and allow the individual to pass. Dovetailing with this, the furthest left lane of highways is intended to be the fast lane. You should only enter this lane if you are willing to be the fastest vehicle on the roadway, regardless of whether or not you are traveling at the posted speed limit. Again, merely move over, allow the tailgating vehicle(s) to pass, and resume your position.
These are basic rules of the road that form fundamental principles of defensive driving. Thinking "I'll show him" and slamming on the brakes does not make the situation any better. Worst case scenario, other other vehicle collides with your own. Another alternative is you end up having a confrontation like that of the OP. Would you really want to have to use your carry weapon on someone and know later on that you had perhaps stoked the fire? The old adage applies: "If you carry, you automatically lose every argument and become the nicest guy/gal around." This includes disagreements between drivers.

 

There is a difference between braking very swiftly at a changing light in the city and brake checking someone on the interstate. In my case the other driver had assumed that I would run the light if he pushed me when in fact I stopped just short of the line in record time. I wouldn't brake check anyone in most of my cars b/c it would nearly guarantee that I ended up a hood ornament on their vehicle.  :ugh:

[RobertNashville]

Rant on...

City and residential streets...yes...speed limit or less; there is no excuse for speeding or unsafe driving on those streets.

Interstate/multi-lane highways; there is ZERO reason to be in the passing lane unless you are passing (that's why they call it that - in some states you can be ticketed for not yielding and moving over out of the passing lane).

I'm not suggesting that is justifies someone else getting their hackles up to the point of looking for a fight but it shouldn't be difficult to understand why not getting over (when you can) is going to piss off other people.

 

Two of the things I find most irritating here (in TN) compared to other states I live in is...

1. almost habitual running of red lights, and
2. drivers purposely just "sitting" in the passing" even when there is no other traffic around them at all (in other words, just because they are too damn lazy or stupid to move over).

Rant off

[TMF]

This is my first post, but I feel compelled to reply. Intentionally reducing your speed below the speed limit/ brake checking, although potentially personally satisfying, does not reduce your individual risk or deescalate the situation. It will merely serve to embolden and further enrage the other driver, even if that individual is "in the wrong."

If road conditions permit, attempt to move over and allow the individual to pass. Dovetailing with this, the furthest left lane of highways is intended to be the fast lane. You should only enter this lane if you are willing to be the fastest vehicle on the roadway, regardless of whether or not you are traveling at the posted speed limit. Again, merely move over, allow the tailgating vehicle(s) to pass, and resume your position.

These are basic rules of the road that form fundamental principles of defensive driving. Thinking "I'll show him" and slamming on the brakes does not make the situation any better. Worst case scenario, other other vehicle collides with your own. Another alternative is you end up having a confrontation like that of the OP. Would you really want to have to use your carry weapon on someone and know later on that you had perhaps stoked the fire? The old adage applies: "If you carry, you automatically lose every argument and become the nicest guy/gal around." This includes disagreements between drivers.

You're making the assumption here that we're talking about multi lane roads. I don't go on the interstate and block traffic by hanging out in the passing lane. If someone gets on my ass I'm reducing speed until they pass of back off. If you're the type of person that is bothered by that, too effing bad. If you feel like that is escalating the situation too effing bad. I don't have to be subjected to unsafe driving tactics if I don't want. Being rear ended at 20 mph by a tailgater is better than being hit at higher speeds. I don't see how reducing speed somehow creates an unsafe situation unless the individual decides to so something violent, but I can't control the actions of others and whether or not they decide to break the law; that is for them to decide and me to react to.

[BigK]

I have too many "other driver" pet peeves and y'all covered most of them, but maybe someone can tell me why holding a phone to one's ear makes idiots drive 10 miles slower than the flow of traffic?

 

One more...I was driving home from Franklin yesterday on a curvy, hilly, narrow road and found traffic putting along at 20 mph as far as the eye could see. As some turned off or passed, I found the problem. Some jackass in shiny underwear and a space helmet is riding a $1200 bicycle in commuter traffic on what could be the most dangerous road in all of Williamson county (Clovercroft Rd b/w Cool Springs Blvd and Wilson Pike). I found myself wishing this self-absorbed prick would hit a bump and disappear down the low shoulder.

[jphillips63]

My pet peeve is also with interstate drivers in the fast lane or so called passing lane for no other reason than to what? Hold back traffic or cause lane changes to get around them? Typically when I come up on them and they don't move over I'll change lanes pass and as soon as my truck clears them I'm in front and dropped one to two gears without ever hitting the brakes. Now talking about getting there attention when they run up under my truck before they hit it I'm sure they have change there pants at there destination.
Before its mentioned anytime you hit a person in the rear you're at fault unless one the driver is driving intoxicated or has no insurance or license. Otherwise you're at fault and your insurance pays.
So guys really move over when you can rural roads I understand but the interstate really?

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