We have 425,876 threads with the same 4 people bashing each other. So I figured I would start one that might actually end with some sort of enlightenment. I consider myself a mild mannered person. You have to seriously go out of your way to cause me to lose my temper. My one weakness has always been dangerous drivers. Living in the road rage capital of the universe does not help in this regard. Recognizing this as a weakness, I made it a point to improve my temperament towards people that show no regards towards others. Now it's not the slow drivers or the turn signal crap that everyone bitches about. Even drivers that are rude can be curtailed given that they are identified with enough time. I could give a rat's ass about that stuff. I'm referring to drivers that are downright dangerous on the road. For example, this week, I have seen the following done to others: 1) RX-8 passing on the right hand side emergency lane (left lane was open) 2) Cadillac CTS passing a garbage truck on a curving single lane road (no visibility - fortunately nobody was in the oncoming lane) 3) Honda Pilot squeezing between myself (traveling in the middle lane) and a pickup (traveling in the right lane) at a high rate of speed. While I held my position, the pickup had to merge into the emergency lane to avoid being railed. I think I have done fairly well in managing my temper thus far. Usually only requires a shake of the head and some muttered cursing. But example 3 above just happened again where I was unfortunately on the right hand lane. The car, a small Mercedes in this case, squeezed between an Escalade and myself at over 80 mph, missing me by inches. While I was impressed that I did not show any sort of bad tempered reaction, I must admit that mentally, I wished a slow and agonizing death to the other party. So here's the search for enlightenment part. I believe in Karma. But somehow that just ain't enough. What can be done to make the opposing party's life just a bit more difficult (without resorting to road rage)? Obviously, your only source of information is the tag number and description of the car.
Once I recorded the tag, vehicle description and what I could see of the driver. Then I stopped at the Police Station on the way home to report a dangerous driver. Obviously they couldn't issue a ticket or anything based on my observation, but they did make a note in his file. Perhaps the officer considered that information the next time he got stopped. Maybe he got a ticket when he would have gotten a warning. Neither he nor I will ever know. But it was better for me to report it and let it go than to bottle up rage.
You guys are to be commended for your anger management. I'm afraid I on the other hand have no such compunction about rage. I keep a ball bat in the floor board behind my seat. Aluminum with rubber grips. I figure it will be easier to hold onto after it gets wet from the blood spatter. Fortunately I've never had occasion to use it. But with so many stupid drivers I figure it's only a matter of time. Should you notice that I've suddenly stopped posting, I'm probably in jail.