Five Tips to Avoid Having Road Rage

The light turns green. You start across the intersection just as a car flies in front of you from the cross street ignoring the red light. You hammer at your horn and slam on the brakes. You are tempted to broadside his car and shove him down the street to teach him a lesson. At the very least, you want to follow him until you can give him the tongue lashing that is rattling in your brain. Road rage is building. You know that this is not the way to go. Avoiding giving in to road rage is difficult, but it can be done.

Start by realizing that your bad behavior will not make the other driver’s bad behavior go away.

The other driver was definitely wrong. However, you will be just as wrong if you decide to adopt a vigilante approach as a solution. Obviously, this is a conscious choice that you make to overcome the urge to give in to road rage. It is unlikely that you will get the other driver to change by taking matters into your own hands.

Use a few standard anger management techniques.

Give the situation a moment or two before you react. Counting to 10 slowly can be a simple but effective way to let the adrenaline rush begin to subside. If no one or no property was actually harmed, put the event in the perspective that this is good news to consider. Take a deep breath and blow it out a few times to take your anger down a notch or two. If all else fails, park the car and take a short walk until you can turn loose of the rage within.

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Leave early for your destination.

This will not help after you are already in the situation. However, by leaving early, you will be able to drive slower and not become so frustrated by minor delays. You will have enough time that you will not need to make quick starts from stop lights to make it on time. It will also keep you from going ballistic over slow drivers or traffic jams. Just this one good decision may be enough to keep road rage out of your day.

Leave work problems at work.

If road rage is a problem on the drive home from your job, it is probably made worse by the problems that you faced at work. If you are upset about your job, you will be much less tolerant of other drivers. If you have to dwell on your job issues, put it off until you arrive at home. If you do not do this, you will find yourself taking the anger out on other drivers that should be directed toward coworkers, your boss, or some work related issue.

Do not argue or fight with other people in your car.

Having a fight with someone in your car will raise your anger before you even consider the pressures of driving. Delay fights or disagreements with passengers until you are both out of the car at your destination. Discourage passengers from bringing up controversial subjects to help keep the peace inside and outside of the vehicle.