Road Rage

An article in today's Chicago Tribune (click on it if you like, it's not really that exciting) reminded me of my own personal experience with road rage. My sister and I were in a car in Chicago when my sister (who was driving) became confused and brought the car to a stop at an intersection where the light was green. The car behind us, to our good fortune, comes to a screeching halt. My sister was obviously in the wrong, but what happened next was not warranted. The driver of the car behind us gets out and comes up to the driver side window. She starts screaming and gesturing and stomping her feet. So we ignore her with the hopes of not escalating the situation. She then starts pounding on the window! The light changed, we took off, and the guy behind the raging woman's car laid on the horn. Ah, sweet justice.

It was freaky, to say the least, and I can only imagine what might have happened had she had some sort of weapon or blunt object in her car. I suppose we would have tried to drive away. Some people, I think, just aren't meant to drive. There are those who shouldn't drive for obvious physical handicaps, such as blindness. Then there are those who really just never get the hang of it--inherently unable to master the skills needed to drive. And then there are those people who are just a bit too high strung for driving.

I had an idea the other day--fortunes handed out at toll booths. Maybe we also need mandatory "sounds of the ocean" playing in automobiles, as well. Yeah, that'd go over well--as well as the ignition-lock seatbelts went.