What is road rage

There are many forms of road rage brought upon by a number of factors. Our airport transfers drivers at Rockingham FIFO Shuttles have witnessed it on so many occasions. The following is a list of things that constitute road rage.

• Tail-gaiting
• Rude hand jesters
• Cutting off others
• Brake checking
• Horn blasting
• Getting out to confront motorists
• Chasing vehicles
• Yelling at motorists

What causes road rage

• People have stress at home
• Not giving enough time to get to the destination in time
• people hogging the road
• selfish motorists not thinking of others
• Traffic jams
• Bad road systems

How can I stay safe and avoid road rage.

There are many ways and tactics to keep yourself as safe as possible and avoid the dangerous road rage incidents.

Leave home earlier

Give yourself more time to get to your destination. This will take the pressure off you and you will be more relaxed during the journey. Rushing is only going to get you in a position of making mistakes, which could in itself create a road rage incident.

Don’t tailgate

Stay away from other vehicles, most importantly don’t sit close behind others and tailgate. You may not see an issue with it, but stressed aggravated drivers will see it as an act of aggression. 

Avoid eye contact

If you feel you are potentially in a situation that could escalate, the worst thing you can do is respond. Avoid eye contact and stay calm. In most cases this will ease the situation. What you are really doing is not giving the aggressor an audience and you are potentially acting as if you haven’t even seen the person or ant bad behaviour.

Slow down and allow the aggressor to get some distance from you. Don’t slow down they are sat behind you tailgating. This will make it worse. In this situation, try to move to another lane without giving them attention

Take another route

One way is to get away from the aggressor. Perhaps go off a at freeway off ramp or take a turn. If they continue to follow, continue to drive without showing attention and head for a police station. Meanwhile contact police if you can.

Don’t drive stressed

We all have times when we are upset or stressed about some issue in our life. If your driving with that stress its more likely that you could display anger yourself to others on the roads. Perhaps its best to make alternate plans. Is it really worth the implications it can cause?

Apologise if you make a mistake

We’re only human, so yes we do make mistakes. If you make a mistake on the road like accidently cut someone up and they blast the horn. Try responding with an apology wave. Not the great old aussie one finger salute, commonly known as “the bird“, as is so popular on the roads today.

Avoid using the horn 

Someone else that makes a mistake. Have you ever been in a situation when horns are blaring for no real end result. It’s pure anger and comes across as such. small taps on the horn instead of long blasts is less likely to cause anger with others.

Conclusion

So as you can see there are many things that can incite road rage, and there are many things that you can do to avoid road rage. Lets all try and stay safe on the roads and be the better person and use safe and healthy driving practices.