To be embarrassed by my behaviour- road rage incident

[Newmum1998]

I am absolutely mortified this morning...

When I was driving home there was busy traffic on the main road and there were cars trying to join the main road from a side road. I was on the main road and the people in front of me were letting all the cars from the side road in in front of us so I was stuck still in traffic for ages behind them all . To make matters worse my child was screaming in back of car whole time as wasn’t happy the car wasn’t moving. I know obviously you need to let cars from the side road in but it was literally every car so it meant when the traffic did start to move a bit they were just letting another car in and so I wasn’t getting to move forward at all for ages.

anyway when I finally reached the point in the road where other cars from the side road were trying to join I decided I wasn’t going to let anyone in as I had been waiting for a long time as everyone in front of me had been letting them all in.
However there was a man with who I’m guessing was with his wife and teenage son in the car trying to join in front of me and he was having none of it.
there wasn’t much room between me and the car In front but this man just kept coming forward and forward and trying to get in front of my car and I could see he was laughing as he was doing it. He actually forced me to break as otherwise he was just going to go in into my car he got that close.
he managed to squeeze just a bit of the very front of his car in between mine and the car in front of me.
This is where I am really embarrassed I all of a sudden was so angry and I beeped my horn and stuck my finger up at him and shouted (I doubt he would have heard me shout as the windows were shut) but he then proceeded to sit in the car and him and his teenage son looked at me and laughed hysterically. They looked and laughed at me for a while it was ridiculous .
I was absolutely furious at a grown man who looked to be in his 50’s acting so childish.
when the traffic moved forward a bit in front of me he was then able to properly pull out and I beeped at him again as I was so wound up at this point because they had just been sitting laughing at me.

I’ve never done that before and now that I’ve calmed down I’m really embarrassed somebody that I know might have seen me. I also feel like such a bad mum as I had just had a great night with my son and I feel so bad ruining it because I got so angry at some idiot and shouted in front of him. I know I reacted badly to quite a minor incident, I’m under a lot of stress and pressure at the moment. I’ve been going through court with an abusive ex who used to abuse me and wind me up and then laugh at me reacting to his abuse and so this just kind of stuck a nerve with me.

Has anyone else just lost their temper and then totally regretted it afterwards?

They sound like they were petrified 🙄

They both acted childishly

You made a bad situation (for everyone) worse.

You are part of a major problem at the moment. Road rage is scary and the way you behaved was totally responsible, and yes, set a bad example to multiple children.

They laughed, good for them! How else for you want them to respond to your aggression? Cry? Scream?

Get a grip and grow up. It's people like you that make my older parents scared to use the road now.

Why did he beep you?

I think because it was a really confusing roundabout so I dithered for a couple of seconds before driving off. When he spoke to me he said "the beeping was to help you" 🫤

I know it’s different
The point is everyone’s queuing would it of killed you to let someone out
unless people let people in no one would of got out of the joining rd
was it with making a twat of yourself to save a few seconds
and yes everyone queuing could of seen a driver trying to get out and you refusing to let anyone out

I’ve done similar. Was trying to get home from work one night. I’d been moved from a base 7 minutes drive away to a base 30 minutes drive away with no traffic - during rush hour this was 1 hour drive or more so I was already angry. Same situation as you, stuck on a main road a bloke in front letting every fucker in from the side road. What annoyed me the most is the stupid smile on his dopey face as he was doing it. Id been in a standstill for 20 minutes, my back was killing me, I was hungry and I just lost it and started bibbing to fucking move. He might have had all the time in the world to sit there but the rest of us wanted to get home. It still makes me angry when I think about it.

OP, you're getting a very hard time on here. I understand how frustrated you must have been and the people in the other car made it worse by laughing at you. Just let it go now and put it out of your mind.

The best response to road rage wether you are in the right or in the wrong is just to laugh, this infuriates the other road user even more, which is why he did it.

Who do we think " won" in this scenario?

I doubt the other driver is scanning the internet for support.

Please remember cars are dangerous machines which can easily kill or maim.
You do not play silly games , and you.do not escalate situations where someone has pissed you off.
when you wind yourself and other road users up, you increase the chance of an accident exponentially.
I think you need to think how you are going to manage your anger issues

So very obvious the OP thought her reaction was not at all OTT and expected a chorus of “good on you OP, totally reasonable of you”

But she didn’t post about her frustration or being laugh at.

She posted about her road rage (her words) and fact she was “mortified”

and then when posters yes - and so you should be, the OP didn’t like that one bit

Oh honestly OP it doesn't sound too bad just forget about it. And the other car were absolute tossers

I know I was wrong I’ve accepted that

what I don’t like is people acting like the other driver didn’t do anything wrong at all, that’s what I don’t like

ive already said I know I was wrong and I was worse than him

He was the one fully prepared to hit my car by forcing himself out in front of me
I braked to avoid an accident

We were also going about 2mph in slow traffic it’s hardly like anyone was going to die ...
I’ve had people do all sorts of stupid stuff like cut in front of me on the motorway and nearly kill me and my child and other people and I didn’t react like I did yesterday

I have posted about being laughed at many times in this thread honestly if you’re not going to read my posts don’t bother posting

Mainly because many of us don’t see him as having done anything wrong. He didn’t know the context that car in front of you had let loads of cars in and you were…. Somewhat pissed off already. To him… you hadn’t let any in so 🤷‍♀️ why not be a touch persistent.

and laughing at you was spot on. No abuse, no middle finger, no mouthed obscenity, just chuckling at a driver having a rude adult/toddler tantrum

“Be a touch persistent”... he forced his car in front of mine I had to break to avoid an accident.. I had right of way he had no right to that he was in the wrong

You have misinterpreted me

your OP was not about people laughing about you

It was about feeling mortified for having road rage and… acting on it

You had to brake? Surely you were going at a snail’s speed if on gridlock?

He was not going to stop he kept edging his car in so yes I had to break he was extremely close to hitting my car

He was…. Inconsiderate

you were rude and abusive and lost your temper

Given your history op with your ex (I recal your user name), I would have thought you more than most would know how unpleasant abusive behaviour is to be on the receiving end

You had to brake because… you didn’t want to let him in so YOU were pushing on

He drove badly OP and compounded it by laughing at you for being frustrated. Honestly, he sounds like a complete twat and, if it’s any consolation, someone like that will act like that in his life generally and will get his comeuppance at some point. Forgive yourself for rising to the bait and move on .

He was totally in the wrong. He had no right of way at all. It is nice to let people out from a side road and is usually appreciated but it is absolutely not required and he was being very dangerous pushing in.

It's got sod all to do with zip merging which is a totally different and unrelated situation.