Every once in a while I’ll get REALLY riled up over this crap. Yeah Elwood, sometimes unleashing a storm of swearing inside my helmet is enough, but sometimes it’s just SO BAD.
I was at my all-time worst last summer. In the span of about a week, I’d had the same experience three times: some asshole in an adjacent lane starts changing into my lane…or more specifically, into ME. Each time, the same thing happened. No big surprise; I expect that crap from drivers. I laid on the horn, pulsed it, held it, shouted, waved…nothing. As the cars crept into my lane, I’d keep out of their way, hoping that at some point, the dickwads would realize their mistake and get out of my way. No dice.
So at the end of that week, I made the ultimate error: I acted on anger. I was lucky that it had no consequences, but in retrospect it’s done a lot to make me realize how foolishly emotional I’ve let myself become on the road. I was mid-right-turn at an intersection (with traffic signals, I had a green light), but had to wait for some pedestrians crossing the street at the adjacent crosswalk. While I’m waiting, a minivan goes AROUND me, pushes through the pedestrians in the adjacent lane, then, as I then started to go forward with the pedestrians cleared, changed lanes into me. Same thing. Honked. Yelled. Waved. I lost it. He HAD to have seen me to realize he had to go around me. He made an illegal turn. He nearly ran over a few pedestrians. And on top of that, the idiot tries to run me over by suddenly switching back to the lane he was supposed to be in? I was so furious that I punched the back of the van with my titanium-knuckled gauntlet. Nothing. The occupants of the car didn’t notice at all.
I’m incredibly lucky that a) they didn’t notice, b) I didn’t damage the car (hmm…what does that say about my punch, c) the driver wasn’t a trigger-happy crazy with a sawed-off shottie under the dash, d) the ol’ LEO didn’t see it, e) I didn’t sabotage my riding mid-punch, etc. Don’t let this happen to you. Control your anger, and don’t risk your life in a multitude of ways by stupidly letting rage get the best of you.
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