College Times

Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Blogs

On Sunday, I was out and about for a couple of hours, giving my head a break from homework and laundry.

I was coming back from lunch (please note that I wasn't driving), when the car I was in had to stop for a red light.
I'm would hope that this doesn't come as a shock to you that cars should and oft times do stop on red, but it did to the guy next to us.

We were traveling in an SUV, and while you probably know, those things are not easy to stop on a dime. We were going about 40, when the light turned to yellow, and we were about 150 feet before the intersection. We tried to stop, and were successful at it, for the most part. We did have to back up a little, but all in all, we didn't get flashed by the conspicuous cameras bordering the intersection.

We thought all was well and dandy, until the guy to the left of us actually got out of his car and came up to the driver's window (which was closed at the time) and hit it with his open hand.
What the hell?

The driver of the car I was in, and pretty much everyone else in the car, throws their hands up in the air in an I-don't-know-what-I-did-get-the-hell-away-from-the-car gesture, as he yells some expletive about a shovel and my mother's ass, and then gets back into his car.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a classic example of a phenomenon called Road Rage, which I'm completely in the dark on.
Yes, numerous times I have been following someone who shouldn't be allowed on the road, and yes, I'll admit it, numerous times I've uttered things about shovels and their mother's asses, but I never got so irate to the point where I'd actually act on my irrational feelings.

Call me a sexist, but perhaps it's because I'm not a man. As soon as the light turned green, Road Rage Man went speeding off in his little Chevy POS. And as soon as he was gone and out of any possible earshot, I said, "What is it with men and their outbursts? They bitch about how we have hormone problems. Get a hold of your testosterone, bucko."

So, you tell me, is it a male-centric thing, hence why I have no understanding? Or is it an ego thing? Was this guy's ego somehow bruised because we stopped at a red light?

This guy was scary too. He had orange hair and a goatee to match, and his shirt had a shooting target on it. Seriously, Road Rage Man? You're a walking fire crotch someone can use for target practice. Perhaps you should think twice about approaching someone's car at a red light in a state where guns are legal, if not welcomed by many.

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