10 Effective Strategies for Dealing With Road Rage
Getting angry while driving can put you at risk for serious consequences. Road rage is a form of aggressive driving that includes actions like cutting off another vehicle, tailgating or attacking someone.
It’s best to prevent these situations from happening in the first place. The key to this is being prepared.
1. Stay Calm
It can be difficult to keep your cool when someone pulls a stupid move on the road, but staying calm is essential. Stress breathing techniques can help you relax, as well as listening to relaxing music or books on tape.
Remember, the person who’s driving aggressively may have a personal emergency, be responding to a medical or fire alarm at their home, be a police officer or even a doctor who needs to get somewhere quickly. It’s best to avoid engaging with them and give them a safe distance.
If they continue to follow you, consider driving to a busy location with lots of people (like a school or shopping center), where they’ll likely lose track of your vehicle as they pass by. This will discourage them from following you and possibly escalating the situation into an unsafe physical confrontation.
2. Stay in Your Lane
Many drivers become angry when they see someone driving irresponsibly. This is especially true if the driver is speeding or weaving between lanes recklessly.
While it is easy to get frustrated with other drivers, you shouldn’t let your anger escalate into road rage. Aggressive driving is a problem that affects everyone on the road and can lead to dangerous situations. Lanarkshire’s road rage statistics show the angriest drivers you must take caution on.
To help keep yourself calm, try to avoid eye contact and stay in your lane. You should also try to listen to music, read a book or focus on the scenery outside your car. Research shows that attentional strategies can reduce road rage behaviors. You can also change your route or slow down to prevent a confrontation. If you’re unable to do these things, you should call the police. They may be able to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand.
3. Avoid Eye Contact
Anger and frustration can quickly escalate on the road. If you encounter an enraged driver, try not to make eye contact with them. Looking or staring at a driver can turn an impersonal encounter into a duel and could even lead to a physical confrontation.
Honking the horn, flashing the lights and tailgating only serve to aggravate an already angry driver. Angry drivers also often throw insults or make rude gestures. If you encounter a raging driver, pull over into a safe place and call the police.
To help you stay calm while driving, listen to upbeat or relaxing music, play a driving game or enjoy the scenery. You can also try to avoid stressful situations by scheduling extra time for your errands and commute. Also, be sure to get enough sleep. Research shows that lack of sleep contributes to feelings of stress and irritability while driving.
4. Don’t Get Out of Your Car
The road is a dangerous place to be angry. Last year, 100 people in Colorado were killed by aggressive drivers and many more were injured. Experts say a combination of environmental and life stresses has exacerbated aggression behind the wheel.
People who drive with high anger levels are more likely to go over the speed limit, tailgate, make erratic lane changes and block traffic lanes. They may also shout at other drivers, make rude gestures and exit their vehicle to confront them.
Psychologists recommend avoiding confrontations and instead focusing on your driving. Louise still gets irritated by the reckless behaviors of other drivers, but she says zapping her road rage is as easy as listening to a podcast. She has learned that her rage was usually a symptom of buried anger. A therapist helped her understand that she needed to address the root cause of the problem.
5. Don’t Start a Fight
When you are confronted by another driver’s aggression, remember that their anger is not about you. Instead of responding with your own anger, try to avoid any interaction and drive away from the person who is following you aggressively. This could mean changing lanes, slowing down, pulling into a public place (like a police station or convenience store), or simply exiting the car and walking away.
If you are feeling a bout of road rage coming on, practice relaxation techniques like breathing deeply and listening to music that makes you happy to calm yourself down. Also, consider the fact that you have no idea how much combative training your opponent has or whether they are armed. You should never put yourself in a dangerous situation.
6. Call the Police
If you feel that you are being followed or if an angry driver is trying to start a fight, call the police right away. If possible, use a cell phone to report the incident. If you can’t do that, drive to a public place, such as a police station, convenience store or shopping center where people are around. This will discourage an aggressive driver and keep you safe.
If you are able to do so, write down the license plate number and make, model and color of the vehicle. Also, if you can safely do so, get a general visual impression of the driver, too. This information will be very helpful to the responding officers. They will need it to identify and track the dangerous driver. Also, be prepared to give a detailed description of the situation.
7. Keep a Safe Distance
Keeping a safe distance is essential for staying calm and avoiding road rage. An aggressor may glare at you, make rude hand gestures, or scream obscenities in your direction. They may even try to force their vehicle in front of yours or tailgate you.
If they are following you, stay on the phone with 911 and drive to a police or fire station, convenience store, or other public location where you will be safe from further confrontation. Calling the police will help discourage a would-be perpetrator of road rage from continuing to follow you and can prevent an accident.
Louise still gets irritated by the irresponsible behavior of other drivers, but she knows that they are probably having a rough day. She also tries to practice compassion and imagine what they might be going through in their life.
8. Avoid Aggressive Hand Gestures
One of the biggest ways you can enrage another driver is with offensive hand gestures. These can turn a normal encounter into a fight. To avoid these, keep your hands on the wheel and don’t reach over to touch other drivers.
If an aggressive driver begins following you, call 911 and drive to a police station, convenience store, or other public place. This will often deter the aggressor from following you home.
Road rage is a serious problem that can lead to deadly consequences. To help prevent road rage, obey the speed limit and don’t antagonize other drivers by switching lanes quickly or getting too close behind another vehicle. Don’t honk or make rude hand gestures, and be sure to learn how road rage can impact your car insurance premium. To further reduce your risk of road rage, learn to cope with stress and anger outside the vehicle by practicing mindfulness.
9. Don’t Text and Drive
If you’re a texter, it can be tempting to respond to messages or browse online when you get behind the wheel. However, doing so is dangerous and illegal. Turn your phone off and stash it in a cupholder or glove compartment until you can safely stop driving.
Some people can experience road rage even if they’re usually mild-mannered. This may be due to environmental factors, high life stress or displaced anger.
Counseling psychologists often use “attentional” strategies to impact road rage behaviors. These include shifting drivers’ attention to different aspects of the driving situation, such as listening to music or enjoying the scenery. These types of interventions have been shown to decrease road rage in driving simulator studies. However, they require practice to determine when and how to apply them. Moreover, they don’t address the underlying emotional regulation issues that cause road rage.
10. Change Lanes
The risk of road rage increases during rush hour traffic, and aggressive driving can lead to fatal accidents. Using these strategies to avoid conflict may help you keep yourself and your loved ones safe on the road.
Road rage typically involves extreme and dangerous behaviors that are hard to control, such as speeding in heavy traffic, changing lanes without signaling, tailgating, or obstructing vehicles that want to pass. It can also include verbal aggression, such as profanity and rude hand gestures.
To prevent road rage, you can start by planning ahead for your commute and giving yourself plenty of time to get where you need to go. You can also reduce your stress while driving by listening to soothing music or audiobooks. Also, be considerate and give other drivers space by checking all the blind spots before changing lanes to ensure you’re not cutting anyone off.
