Hmmmm James . . . I detect road rage from here !

No matter the level of provocation, a safe driver is a calm one . . . :)

How do you stay calm after the 54th person that day has done something to wind you up though? I must admit I get road rage, and of course instantly regret it, it hasn't been as bad recently (since moving away from a notorious road and into an overall calmer environment) but still at least once a week I'll be raging at someone on the road. But I also get pedestrian rage...5 minutes walking round town is more than enough to get me making comments about peoples lack of concideration.

It's a higher, relaxed, controlled state of mind Tom

I simply decline / refuse to allow these idiots to frustrate or annoy me & as a result my driving life is happier, more enjoyable & crucially - safer

I usually have a quick verbal vent then move on from it when people annoy me on the road. (Unless I am stuck behind someone going stupidly slow).

It is difficult if you get multiple instances on a journey as it can build up on you, especially if you are already stressed due to other factors (such as being late).

My biggest hate is people not saying thank you when you make an effort to stop and allow them through. I just think it is courtesy. Or they barge through when it is your right of way forcing you to stop and don't bother saying thanks, some seem to fixate on looking forward like you were never there!

High and relaxed? I'm pretty sure driving under the influence is illegal...

Seriously though, I clearly don't have the patience you do lol, patience may be a virtue but it's not one of mine.

I try to treat people as I'd like to be treated, particularly on the road, but it never seems to be reciprocated so I lose any respect for those people when it happens. I don't get wound up by genuine mistakes, we all make them and they're easy to spot, but, for example, when someone can't wait a few seconds to save causing a domino effect through 50 other cars I just see red I'm afraid!

Some very wise words & advice that I was offered many moons ago . . .

When shopping - put your shopping head on

When drinking - put your drinking head on

etc . .

etc . .

When driving - put your driving head on . . . & take all the others off . . . which basically means 100% concentration on driving & be distracted by nothing else

The idiots referred to in this thread are driving with anything but their driving head on

What bugs me is when someone barges in and then does the cheeky flash of the hazards to say thank you.

Like I had any choice in the matter.

A fine example of the incorrect use of hazard warning lights too . . .

Indeed.

Like coach/hgv drivers on motorways that do the jaunty alternating indicator thing after they chop you into the hard shoulder.

How can you say thanks (or sorry!) from the back though? With rear tints they can't see a 'wave' from inside. I do the hazard thing if someone flashes me in lol...

Mmmmm . . . more incorrect use of the direction indicators & yes Clive - are they intending to turn or move to right or left is what I wonder . . . & always scarier on a motorway where there are no right / left turns :(

The rear screen on my TXS is practically Limo black Tom . . I simply acknowledge a considerate act with a flat palm of my right hand facing up out of the drivers window, or a quick friendly wave through the drivers side window as I'm being passed - if it safe to do so

I dislike taxis that automatically assume they have right of way on any narrow road and barge on regardless of whether you stop for them or not.

In fact I have a particular aversion for all taxi drivers.

Ignorant #####.

Some Taxi drivers, for some odd reason, seem to think that they are exempt and / or above the laws that apply to the rest of us . . . & yet they have a duty of care to their paying passengers . .

Black cabs '' manoeuvring '' in central London are a fine example

Phil, driving to the obstacle and merging is indeed correct, but its these ignorant so and so's who see a line of traffic heading the direction they are going, and decide to skip the five mile queues, driving along down the rest of the road, and then play the "oops, this is my turn" *BARGE* move, which is what really annoys me.

Like I said, 22 minutes yesterday by these irritating bell pieces just took the biscuit for me. The mentality of "if you can't beat them, join them" is just one thing I cannot bring myself to though. I will be sneaky now and then - like if there is a small queue of cars to go to a roundabout, and I am in an hurry (normally when something is wrong at home, kids are ill, or I have an hospital appointment etc) then I will do a full lap of a roundabout and head through - few and very far between, but its when you see just car after car after car doing this, that it really winds me up.

I must admit, I use hazards to say thank you from the rear, only if the driver is not looking at the back of my car as I do a wave.

Im with Tom though, patience is a virtue, and I do possess it, but after its been urinated on by multiple people, it blooms into an anger.

The one thing which made me laugh though throughout this. One car I saw playing leapfrog behind me, tuck in, dive by ten cars, tuck in again. The road positioning of a driver behind me who must have also seen this, meant that he couldnt dive in again, as such, he missed his turn, and had the pleasure of driving a further 20 miles before the next motorway junction, to then have to turn back around, and face the queues the other way.

Karma is great when it works!

the cars that pull in front and turn off , when I was driving a h.g.v do thy know how long it takes a fully loaded h.g.v to pull up and look at you with the two fingers , after you've piped at them total ***** the cars ive missed by inches much run into 100s

How can you say thanks (or sorry!) from the back though? With rear tints they can't see a 'wave' from inside. I do the hazard thing if someone flashes me in lol...

This is my thinking too, although it's not technically what we should be using our hazards for it has become an almost universal signal. I think it means the same thing as the "palm of the hand" jesture i.e. usually thank you but also sorry. I know how frustrating it can be when you go out of your way to let someone in and there is no sign that they are thankful.

This is my thinking too, although it's not technically what we should be using our hazards for it has become an almost universal signal. I think it means the same thing as the "palm of the hand" jesture i.e. usually thank you but also sorry. I know how frustrating it can be when you go out of your way to let someone in and there is no sign that they are thankful.

I think as you said it's fairly universally recognised... Waving out the window is fine....if your window is down...

This sort of goes back to the whole thing about people nowadays who'd fail their test... I think it's a kind of thing that flashing hazards and flashing to say go etc are not things I'd do in a test, however they make the roads a bit more tolerable for people to get on with, motoring is not always able to be viewed as a 'Teutonic rigid everything has its place' activity, people must be fluid on the roads and able to adapt and also use tools at their means in a safe manner, basically with common sense - which is difficult considering the severe lack of common sense on our roads...

The problem with the hazards and also the headlight flashes now, is that they have several different meanings, some of them quite contrary to each other.

Just by where I live, there is a crossroads. It's quite common, for the car going straight across and has priority, to flash the oncoming car (who want's to go right) to go forth. Very often, the right turner will flash back "thanks".

But at other times, the right turner will flash back "Thanks, but you go first, you were here before me" Some confusion can then ensue, as they're both flashing each other, with "no, after you" flashes.

The you get other flashers warning the right turners "Oi I've got priority!" or "I got to give way road markings first, don't cross my path"

Then you've got the commercial traffic with their own codes of flashing (which they all know well) but motorists will mimic, often not getting the right signals for the right action, causing confusion to the commercial traffic and other road users.

Granted if you've got dark tints, the chap behind you, who has just let you in, won't see a hand gesture of acknowledgement. So hazards get flashed. But hazards are also used to warn oncoming other drivers, of a hazard you've just passed: and their heading towards. Not to mention, the illegal (I believe that's correct) use of warning others oncomers of a mobile Police laser/camera unit, behind you.

A headlamp '' flash '' has only one meaning & that is to warn others of your presence - likewise the use of one's horn

A headlamp '' flash '' has only one meaning & that is to warn others of your presence - likewise the use of one's horn

Quite correct, but rarely adhered too :)

When I lived in rural Tuscany, the horn was sounded by everyone prior to going round a hidden bend or approaching a hidden dip There were a lot of hidden bends up the mountainous area I lived in - there was a constant stream of honking all the way up from the valley 5 miles away!

At the end of the day signals are the main method of communication with other road users & that communication will only work effectively if all road users use the same '' language ''

Hence only the correct use of signals is paramount in communication

People who headlamp flash others to mean whatever they mean . . or use hazard warning lights for other than their intended use confuse the issue . . often leading to miscommunication & potential accidents

The example you state Ghana is one that is the correct use of the horn & one I use regularly in the U.K. too

I'm a calm relaxed driver, but I'm not oblivious enough that certain things can't wind me up lol

Also 12 car lengths? Really? I give 2-3 as does pretty much everybody around here, closer you're tail gating- further away you're on a mission to wind someone else up ;)

2 - 3 cars lengths distance was part of your problem in not being able to slow / stop quick enough Laurie - your thinking & braking distance alone is more than that @ 30 m.p.h. in the dry muchless the wet