As I was riding to work this morning, about to pass a big Ryder truck that was parked in the street, a motorist came up behind me and honked. Horns are ambiguous, but this one seemed to be saying, “Get out of my way.” I was pissed, but I braked and waved the car past me.
Actually, I was already pissed because I was running late and there were some server problems at work that I was not relishing. This little encounter just made me more pissed.
I poured on the speed, and sure enough, in a block or so I’d caught up with the honker. Now the car was blocking my path, trying to parallel park. I rolled up alongside, saw that the driver’s window was rolled down, and yelled, “You’re blocking traffic!”
As I pedaled off, I raised a middle-finger salute and shouted, “Fucking asshole!”
I’m not proud of this behavior. I’m ashamed. In fact, I regretted losing my temper almost immediately. Now that I’ve cooled down further, what I really regret is the fact that, since I don’t know who I yelled at, I will probably never have a chance to apologize.
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Look, pal, I was taking my wife to the emergency room, so excuse me if I seemed a bit anxious.
Apology accepted.
Hah! I should add that, given the proximity of these events to the university, the driver is probably a student. Maybe even someone I know. I might pass this person on campus tomorrow. I wouldn’t recognize them, but I bet they recognize me.
Road rage is extremely dangerous. The best thing to do is to try to stay cool under pressure. Many states are really cracking down on road rage with aggressive-driver laws.