the public in general being angry, I hope this isn't a trend we are just becoming aware of.😳

for quite a while, now. They've always been out there, but there do seem to be more of them in recent years. Around here, the local cops generate revenues by giving tickets to people who exceed the speed limit, especially in our suburbs. So, I drive at the speed limit on local streets. I have no interest in paying for traffic tickets.

I'm an exception, I guess, because my speed limit driving sure seems to piss off a lot of people, who ride my bumper, instead of simply shifting lanes to pass me. Then, when they finally do pass, they're at full throttle to let me know they're pissed off. I just shrug.

in your position, honestly usually after I get a ticket. I certainly know how the other drivers feel as well, especially during snowbird season.

Part of that is sheer luck, of course, but part of it is also my commitment to driving safely. I have also never had a traffic accident.

I got my first driver's licence in 1962.

one. I haven't had one in 7 years(they weren't all speeding tickets, I have my share of parking tickets) I was pretty proud of myself for that.
That is great, I'm happy there are people like you out there. I do try, but fail at times.

In snow season, we have odd/even parking. She parked on the even side by mistake. Got a ticket. She moved to the other side. Got a second ticket since it was 31st. the 1st. of the month.

I've had so many speeding tickets I couldn't begin to count them.

Without my ESCORT radar detector it would be much. much worse.
Many fewer as I get older.. By now the Escort is more or less a safety....,just in case...

I think a lot variables factor in. Yes, speed detectors❤

If your on I95 in PBC and see a blue Subaru in the far right lane doing just the speed limit, that's me, the rare and endangered new Florida Democrat surveying my new habitat.

We are retired so we are in no rush to get anywhere. Just wave your Glock at my rear view mirror and I'll get out of the way.

I just retired here from Elizabeth Warren country (screw the snow), so that makes me a straight Democratic ticket voter now here to help turn Florida blue. I only wish I got here before you guys made red-tide Rick a senator.

Traffic on I95 in Palm Beach County is insane. I'm from Indian River County(Vero Beach), lived there my whole life and hate driving down there. Right now I'm in Fort Walton Beach, until summer it's like a whole other country up here.

This is called "whip-around" passing in my driver's manual when I learned to drive. I've never heard of anyone ticketed for it, which gets into my pet peeve ... police would do more for public safety by being on the road and targeting aggressive drivers than setting speed traps, ticketing for stop/turning violations, or even DUI checkpoints. But I guess that's another story.

blanket of hostilities across the world. Many are trapped, pissed off and don't know what to do. Fortunately in the US, we can vote the creepy criminal F'er out of office.

After the orange one is gone. Im scared actually.

I think it is the constant social media on line affect. I think it is making us a meaner person. We are all just becoming this person where we are more willing to go to anger, that we would not have even considered a couple decades ago. Not that we still do not have our niceness. I see it all the time. But we so easily go to that ugly self and are comfortable in that. Our younger generation is only seeing that person. We at least knew a different time so we can contrast and compare.

on a residential street with a 25mph speed limit. So, he road my ass about one foot off my bumper and glared at me as he finally went by. A total WTF!!! ... doesn't even belong here, was clearly taking a shortcut.

I even use my turn signals to turn into my own driveway. But, I'm delaying someone for a few seconds, so the anger comes out. Weird. I don't get it. I really don't.

Explanation, because there is no way to make a safe right turn at a high rate of speed, and these jerks are losing at most 10 seconds even if there were.

But she’s an angry driver - always has been.

I really don’t think politics plays much of a part in our driving habits.

I remember once back in the seventies before “road rage” was a thing, thinking, “Dang, he’s gonna get us killed.”

We have Trump and some campaigns fomenting anger.

that for years. There is a seriously planned anger initiative out there, let by the right-wingers. I don't doubt that for a minute.

That won't be satisfied no matter who is in charge. Conservatives won a super majority in the 2016 election, they got two seats on SCOTUS, yet they've been constantly unhappy and angry ever since. I just for the life of me cannot figure it out.

maybe before there were as many angry drivers, took place on US 52, northbound from Rochester, MN. It's a four-lane highway, not a freeway, but the speed limit on most of it is 65. So I'm driving along, probably at a bit more than 65 like everybody else, and this guy comes up fast behind me, rode my tail for a bit and as soon as he could, accelerated and shot by me in the left lane at something far in excess of 65. I'd be surprised if he was doing less than 80, considering how quickly he disappeared beyond the far horizon. I thought some bad thoughts about him ("Asshole!" ) and proceeded on my way. I got to see him again, though, a few miles down the road. He wasn't going so fast any more. In fact, he was stopped at the side of the road. Stopped behind his car was a maroon vehicle belonging to the Minnesota Highway Patrol, and a trooper was standing at the driver's window, ticket pad in hand.

I got where I was going a whole lot faster than he did, I think. Made my day.

There have always been angry asshole drivers, but there might be more of them now.

On major highways, I drive at the prevailing speed, even if it's a bit higher than the speed limit. But, I always make sure there are people passing me in the left lane. They're my insurance that they'll get the speeding ticket, not me.

The speed limit in Minnesota, as you know, on major Interstates is 70 mph. Frankly, that's plenty fast for me, so I normally have the cruise control set to that speed, and use lane changes to the left lane to maintain that speed, mostly. Where there are three lanes, you'll almost always find me in the middle lane, with the other 70 mph cruise control drivers.

I never hog the left lane, though, but do use it to pass slower drivers on the right, but without accelerating in most cases.

he was exceeding the limit even more egregiously. I wish he could have seen my smug, gloating smile, but he was kind of busy.

I just shine all of that on. I let people do what they think they need to do. If they're foolish, so be it. There's no sense in letting their anger get to you. Eventually, they'll pay for it when the accident they have kicks their insurance rates through the roof. And they will have that accident, especially in Minnesota, the "Land of Auto Body Shops."

To have this happen where I slow down near the stopped car, roll down my window and do a Nelson from the Simpsons "Ha Ha" as I continue on my merry way

As in, they will get pulled and keep the state troopers busy as the rest of the traffic proceeds at a bit over the speed limit.

Sadly, that attitude is not compatible with polite society. That's unfortunate.

other human properties that make life pleasant are slowly being eroded by capitalism's push for more and more profits and higher efficiencies to take us...........where? It's making more and more people cold and mean. What exactly is the end game?

That process is amplified 10X by the right-wing's 30-or-so years of dividing our nation into two distinct camps so they can control every aspect of our lives.

At 72, I worry daily as to what our future will be......

PS: You've reminded me to finally try out our new Mediterranean restaurant not far away. I am grateful we're snow-free for now.

At 74, I don't have time to be angry all the time. It interferes with my life too much.

As for the restaurant thing, I find that a good gyro every couple of weeks is a good thing. That counter service deli near me is funny, though. It's definitely a Mediterranean place, but the cooks are Hispanic and the counter worker is a Hmong woman. I'm the only person I've ever seen drop a dollar bill and my change in the tip jar at the counter. Maybe that's why they start making my order as I'm coming in the door.

These days, sadly, I have to fight off the Door Dash and other delivery people when I go in.

Revoke corporate personhood.

Corporations are the only non-human entity to have Constitutional rights just like We the People. All other non-living entities, such as labor unions, non-incorporated businesses, churches, civics groups, and governments, only have the privileges that WE grant them.

In the 1880s, corporate attorneys used the 14th Amendment to argue that corporations should have Constitutional rights like living, breathing human beings. But corporations don't need things like clean air, fresh water, healthy food, health care, child/elder care, education, or even an environment that supports them. Corporations can "live" forever. Their longevity, wealth, and power amplify their rights and their only loyalty is to the bottom line, not the betterment of the communities they reside in. The founders never meant for corporations to have Constitutional rights just like people. Unfortunately, these are the entities that a number of Congress now serves, not We the People.

Slavery is the fiction that people are property.
Corporate personhood is the fiction that corporations are people.

Reclaim Democracy's Corporate Personhood page There's some really good reading here.

There's so many these days we need to support just to counter the flood of influence of corporate and high-wealth money.....money that originally came from us (a paradox that never ceases to amaze me).

You make a good point about the perpetual existence of corporations, while us humans are lucky to make it to 80 or so years. And they can become larger and larger with time, seen to by Republican elimination of regulations limiting M&A activity.

The wealthy also have a very unfair advantage of being able to protect and grow their wealth through shelters, hedge funds and off-shoring. And, they can afford to hire smart people to do those things for them. Us street people have not such luxuries.

It is a completely rigged system hidden that exists in a hidden world above our heads. I think their goal is to keep us just slightly below the point of mass revolt.

KY............

You are right that it is a rigged system that is hidden. I think the personhood issue is an issue that even right wingers could get behind. I sent what I wrote above to the one right winger in my family who is not totally toxic and his response was, "I didn't know corporations had Constitutional rights like people. That's not right."

Here's another good link that a DUer shared with me that I forgot about. Sierra Club Meet the Corporation

Spread these links far and wide!

Your whole take on the corporate climate hits more at the heart of this than any character flaws in angry people.

Sometimes anger is the only normal reaction to abnormal conditions that have little to do with weather.

Knowing that some entity stresses their work lives, and not knowing who or where they are -- since many corporate owners are actually abroad -- bad weather can be a catalyst for already stressed people to displace onto others the stresses they can't control about their lives.

It's not just about our not being angry, it's about not taking others' reactions personally, because they hardly notice us as but one more frustrating obstacle to their next goal, of the many they're scheduled to meet all day. And still go home to deal with their families' stress stories.

I imagine that when we stop working we lose perspective on our own past time/work stresses.

But they're all around us. It's not personal. It's not just literal climate, but the economic/social climate caused by globalists whose insurgency politics and money leave this country's people feeling sidelined, with no voice.

I see their overreactions everywhere. A sign that there's always something else burdening them. And sometimes anger is the only thing that can drive them forward to keep from breaking down, a means of forcing a better future for themselves because "no one's coming for us."

The corporate networks that don't give a f**k about us create this unstable austerity climate.

Anger is not just the weather. Anger is not about we ourselves. We need to see their hurt, exhaustion, or desperation, not just our supposed virtue by contrast.

that their problems are the fault of the angry left, the demoRATS, the libtards. We need to educate these people as to who is really selling them out, and to me it seems that revoking corporate personhood is an issue that we can all get behind, a way to break the impasse and get some dialog going, get them beyond name calling.

Here's another good link that a DUer shared with me that I forgot about. Sierra Club Meet the Corporation

Share these links far and wide!

explicitly that corporations are persons.

We can do this.

One of the first 100-day changes the next president should make -- only with a majority Democratic Senate, of course -- is to expand the SCOTUS to at least 11 judges. The next thing is to appoint an AG who will pursue any and all corporate lawsuits that want 14th Amendment protections against humans, and make sure the govt team gets the court to explicitly rule against personhood.

Those two steps will almost stop all lobbying, along with anti-lobbying legislation, and put elections and lawmaking back into the hands of the HUMAN electorate.

The next president must restore the Founders' intentions for the US Constitution to preserve and defend HUMAN rights as prior to any and all corporate rights.

This corporate campus must be dissolved into its proper status. This is a nation of laws, not corporations.

Thanks for the links!

Give thanks you were already pulled over. The best thing to do when confronted by aggressive driving behavior is to let them pass as safely as possible. Get out of the way and enjoy the rest of the day. Use the incident to do a kind act of your own to balance the planet.

is always a losing battle. I don't do it. I also keep my middle finger to myself on the road.

Minnesota residential street drivers all seem to want to drive down the middle of the road. Even when there's room for two cars to pass each other safely, a lot of drivers won't move to the right from the center of the street. I wondered why that was for a long time, and then finally realized that a lot of drivers don't really know where the right side of their car is exactly, so they want plenty of room on the right.

That's also why so many drivers hug the left side of their lane. They don't know where the right side of their car is, exactly.

That's a different issue, though.

into some lunatic taking a shot at you. I don't even use the horn unless it's necessary to warn someone of an impending collision - never as an expression of annoyance.

I just love the folks who straddle the middle of the lane so you can't quite get by them to make a right turn on a red light. They're oblivious, and often on their phones, even though that's now illegal.

"parking rage" incident over a handicapped spot in a grocery store here over Christmas! SMH!!!

in which they had two professional drivers drive on the freeways into downtown LA. One drove obeying all the traffic laws. The other drove breaking the speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, and driving rudely. The difference in arrival time was somewhere around three or four minutes.

I'm very familiar with the freeways, so I get in the lane I will need to be in to do the next thing and just stay there. The traffic goes past me and then I pass those who passed me, again and again. But, I don't have to change lanes, which is the most dangerous thing on busy freeways. Then, when I get to the next freeway I have to take, I'm already in the correct lane to merge onto it.

If I have a right exit to take, I move to the right lane one or two exits before mine, so I don't have to change lanes at the last minute. That way, I can pick my lane change time for the safest possible switch.

That, of course, requires familiarity with your route. In unfamiliar territory, I'm using Google directions these days, and the voice always alerts you to exists a couple of miles before your exit, so you can change lanes safely. Before Google, I used to identify two exits before mine on the map, and used that to tell me when to shift to the right or exit lane.

and so often it's exhibited by people driving those too tall pickup trucks to their office jobs. Headlites hit the rear view mirror just right enough to blind a person and you can't see around them at any speed.

When did those "work" trucks become mandatory for paper pushers? They never see a bit of dirt, manure, lumber, mulch?

Does it have something to do with the lease or 72 month payments afterwhich they have nothing.

Jeez, 72 months of payments for a farking truck.......no wonder they're pissed off.

a third of my adult life as a driver for hire all over the highways and byways of the US, I had plenty of time to come up with several claims and observations about the drivers and their habits as they travel in this country.

"Some people are so desperate that they will endanger themselves and everyone around them to be the first one to get to the red light ahead."

"Some drivers drive like wannabe graduates from the California School of Stunt Driving."

"Some drivers drive like it's a hanging offense to use their brakes/turn signals."

"Most drivers only use their rear-view mirrors once every other Sunday whether they need to or not."

Things I say to or about other drivers as they endanger my life with their displays of unskillful driving techniques:

"If you don't like this speed, I have another one that you're really not gonna like." (Said to tailgaters)

"You have to wait your turn." Said at 4 way stops or stop lights/controlled intersections,etc.

"Americans are often at their worst when behind the wheel/on vacation."

I've got a million of 'em...



I will also, on a two lane, slow way down when in a passing zone so whomever it is on my bumper can easily pass but half of them will slow down to a dead stop behind me before they consider passing... some people seem to be unable to drive unless there is someone five feet in front of them, even out in wide open Montana, Wyoming, Idaho when there are only those two vehicles on the road for miles.

as a field service technician all over the country.

One I recall was in northern Ohio in a town with lots of well-spaced red lights where they all acted as if the road between each red light was a drag race track with pedal to the metal between lights.

A couple of others I remember........
* In the Carolinas on four-lane highways, many drivers get in the fast lane and just stay there at much less than speed limit, and when some drivers are trying to pull out onto those roads, they pull their car about half way out into the slow lane of traffic and just sit there until they can get out. US 17 was horrible with those habits.
* In many small towns I worked in with a large factory such as a paper mill, during shift change all drivers go into maniac mode and drive extremely fast for no reason at all. I guess that's a "freedom" thing.

Thanks for sharing.......

but, yes, it is noticeable.

President Trump Stress Disorder.

I grew up in L.A. and lived there from the mid-50's until the early 2010's. When I was in high school, driver training was part of the LAUSD curriculum. Thanks to gas prices and Prop 13, it was cut decades ago, and the quality of drivers show its result.

Thirty years ago, I worked mid-Wilshire and lived in the Valley, and one of my routes home would take me right past Universal Studios, where the three lanes of the frontage road had two lanes that had to turn right at Lankershim, and one that could either turn left or go straight. I was nearly killed one day when some jackass decided the line in the left lane was too long, so he made an illegal left turn from a right-turn-only lane at the same moment I was legally trying to go straight.

A couple of decades ago, on more than one occasion I would be waiting in line to make a right turn at a stop sign, and someone would decide they were too good to have to wait. One time when it was my turn and I was nearly clipped by one of these a-holes, I honked at him, and he started pacing me, signaling he wanted me to pull over and fight. I merely pulled out my cellphone (they were still relatively new at the time), mimed the words "Hello, police," and he sped off.

In my last years before moving, I made a point of avoiding the streets that had freeway on-ramps, as they would back up for several lights, and it not unusual for many jerks to use the painted islands for passing, going right through intersections from the left-turn-only lane.

Now I live in the northern Oregon coast, where the biggest dangers are pickup trucks, logging trucks, and any vehicle with Washington plates (Where one time I saw a guy in a shiny red sportscar who decided that all of the people on the windy road from the coast into Portland were going too slow, so he passed a bunch of us at speed in a no-passing zone. I saw him again a few miles later, when he was by the side of the road, having a talk with a gentleman in uniform who was writing something).

I learned to drive and spent most of my early adult years in Nashville. Nice people for the most part until they get behind the wheel. Then they try their damnedest to kill you in order to gain milliseconds in their commute. I once saw a guy, at interstate speed, go onto the grassy median, passing cars in the left lane...not once...but 4 freaking times. The old town has changed by leaps and bounds now and I rarely if ever visit anymore, but back in the day the inbound 40, 24 and 65, the downtown loop and 440 were all good places to get killed. I once had a pretty heavy foot, but have lived rural since the mid 90's and have mellowed significantly with age. If I'm driving too slow on our 2 lanes up here, give me a minute to find a turn off and I'll be happy to pull over.

We are on residential streets that folks seems to treat like highways sometimes.

Next cannibilism, as the newest plague hits from the rat's fleas. Keep pumping out the babies, like Romnies and Santorums and then outlaw birth control. God said breed, so we Are breedin'. Never desobey the word of God. Carrying capacity is the defining factor of any ecosystem. When it is exceeded, nature will fix it. With death to the species that is the most destructive. But, you know, that is just Science, lies from the gates of hell, as a GOP leader once so eliquitely stated. And now, use that anger for political power and greed, set back and watch the little people eat their on. Fox will give you 24/7 of the end. Not realizing when all the little rats are gone, the next course will be the big rat's that where enjoying to show. Bon appetite, rats. Stock up on ketchup and tenderizers. Who gonna eat Hannity and Carlson?😝🐒🐒😖😱