Culture

@#%! Miami Worst for Road Rage

by babblingdweeb | May 15, 2007 at 07:24 am | 917 views | 1 comment | 5 recommendations

You are on a long commute home -well it's only long because of the rush hour traffic. A 20 minute drive takes you 2 hours and it's 90 degrees outside. No one is moving and there is no accident ahead. "What is going on?" you ask yourself. Every minute that passes you move two inches forward and slam on the brakes. You look next to you at the guy that has been using his tongue to hunt for rouge water droplets in his empty bottle for the last half hour (or one car length if you're counting). You crane your neck, inch closer to the line...still you can't see anything ahead of you. "What is going on?!" you ask yourself.
You can feel the blood rushing from your white knuckled hands to your red face -you might pass out if you hold your breath any longer. Then it happens, a few cars move and you can see an opening -you can get off at this exit! You are not that far from home! The guy next to you is still making out with the water bottle -he hasn't moved forward yet. GO GO GO...noooo. He pulled forward. You're stuck. That's the last straw -you hock the horn and give Mr. Frenchy the one finger solute.

That will teach him.

Miami makes the headlines today not for immigration issues, public protests or the next tropical storm -they are the worst road rage city in the U.S. -for the second year. Following Miami were New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The most frequent cause of road rage cited in the survey was impatient motorists. Drivers also said road rage can stem from poor driving in fast lanes and driving while stressed, frustrated or angry.

Is there even a solution to road rage? Well some psychologists think the answer lies in compassion. How did they determine that? With a little research and a spin-off from studies with domestic abusers, a Maryland psychologist thinks so hit the nail on the horn -err, hit the nail on the head.

Stosny proposed a treatment program for aggressive drivers modeled on his program for violent offenders, those who engage in domestic violence or child abuse (often one and the same person). But he suggested that before he implement a trial of his aggressive-driving program, at considerable taxpayer expense, the NHSTA should just "run some numbers" on graduates of his domestic violence program.