Men and road rage

[glovely]

I was driving my car today. Lights went green so I proceeded across the junction. In the road ahead a car reversed out of a parallel park space on the side of the road, so me and a couple of cars behind me ended up blocking the junction. It wasn't a big deal and probably caused a delay of about 20 seconds max. I happened to be the one whose window was close to the car coming from the other side of the junction. Nowhere I could move. Instead of just waiting, the man in the car rolled his window down and shouted 'what the fuck are you doing you stupid fucking bitch!'. Literally, gobsmacked that he was so angry about being delayed by approx 20 seconds, and spoke so violently towards me. Like, he was literally spitting. I wound my window down and looked at him and he refused to even look at me (likely because I made things incredibly awkward by winding my window down when he probably expected me to be scared and ignore him). What I wanted to do was turn my engine off and block the junction completely until he apologised but I have not got ovaries that big! I do not understand what it is with men in cars who have so much anger. It happens semi regularly (not always towards me but I see regular road rage and it's always the same type of person). Just, horrid!

Sorry this happened to you op.

Driving makes me hate (some ) men

Tonight I was driving up a narrow, winding, uphill country lane in the dark. I am unfamiliar with the road and in a new car which is bigger than my old car.
It was 5.30pm so lots of cars coming the other way.

I wasn’t going stupidly slowly but I wasn’t speeding along. Idiot in van behind me blasting his horn at me the whole way up the hill.

Makes me question my driving, even though I know he is the idiot. I have low self-esteem.

Yes, i sometimes ask if they have read the highway code recently why they are kicking off, completely OTT. It can be very intimidating though.

I had one incident were, the man wound down the window and repeatedly said, "What do you think you are doing missy, what do you think you are doing?" His wife/partner/friend looked mortified and was smiling with gritted teeth. He was collecting her from the station, following him a nice cab driver wound down his window and told me to ignore him as he had just been an arse to him as well!

Where not were.

A car at a roundabout pulled out in front of me suddenly and dangerously when it was my right of way, I beeped my horn to alert them I was there (and because tbh I was annoyed), the car then stopped at a point I couldn’t get round them and the male driver got out of the car and started shouting at me and approaching the car. I’d got my toddler son in the back and was heavily pregnant so I just stayed still and looked straight ahead and turned up the music in the car. Thankfully he shouted a bit then got back in and as he started to drive away a police car came along the other side. How I wished it had been a few minutes earlier…

I’ve never really thought about but you’re right it is mostly men. I always give them a mouthful back!

I got shouted at by a man in a car for literally just being on the road he wanted to turn into (single lane). I wasn’t doing anything wrong and he just had to wait for a few seconds before getting on with his day but he chose to be abusive and angry. Shook me up a bit if I’m honest and I was very glad he had gone when I returned

Men seem to get angry more than women & I am noticing it more as I get older. Some of the stories I see about them being unable to control their rage. It seems they don’t mature beyond being a toddler (not all men - but then not all toddlers are hard to handle). It would be interesting to observe the boys that push in & snatch toys & grab other children & see how they behave as grown ups. I bet it’s the ones who can’t wait their turn at toddler group who get uncontrollable rage behind the wheel!

Yes, I think it is younger men as well, I once got followed by a youngish man on a motorbike due to some perceived offense to him, my DC were very young at the time so I drove to where my DH worked and called him to come and meet me and when he came out with his boss the bloke drove off!

I witnessed something myself today, a woman with her child in the car, trying to do a 3 point turn (unfortunately not very well) on a tight road during the school run. Man driver waiting and edging closer to her with every turn she made. When she completed the manoeuvre, she indicated to park up on the pavement. I'd already walked past her with my DC by this point. I then turned round as I heard shouting and the other driver had pulled up alongside her spitting feathers about how she doesn't own the fucking road and that she should learn how to fucking drive - while there are kids in the car. He drove off, I then walked back to see if she was ok and she was shell shocked at the level of rage. These scumbags are so offended at being delayed by 30 seconds, yet have all the time in the world to shout abuse at women. Not in such a rush then, are you, dickhead😡

Pretty much always men. I live in an area where most roads have a 20mph limit now and invariably there's some man who doesn't like this and gets aggressive, tailgates, hoots and tries to get me to speed up. It makes driving very stressful.

I am a late in life learner driver in early 40s. On my second lesson in a car that had learned plastered all over it, I was cautious taking a left turn onto a main road by about 3 seconds and the male behind beeped and beeped, overtook me where he had no right, and went onto the main road nearly causing an accident. So many of them have no control over their emotions and it is so dangerous, not just in the road.

I was crossing a busy roundabout when someone from the junction ahead pulled in front of me meaning I had to stop. They should not have pulled out in front of me as I was already on the roundabout.

Where I was forced to stop meant that I blocked an exit.

A man wanting to use that exit jumped out of his car and banged on my window and hurled abuse at me.

I pointed at the car in front and then gave him the finger.

He was so shocked that I didn't just cower or apologise that he didn't know what to do with himself. He stood there and then got back into his car.

At the time I thought it was very funny but later realised that I could have made things a lot worse.

It's difficult to know what to do.

Similar here but with both sexes.
Lots of traffic heaps of road works being done so doing 30k/h less then normal or less (road works will last till at least mid or late next year) and lots of merging roundabouts etc normal stuff and everyone is fed up about everything so everyone is yelling obscenities or honking their horn i never think to look any more just think one more dickhead on the road but I get annoyed sometimes too especially if someone is reversing on the road with lots of traffic or they stay at the lights for more then 2-3 minutes (our lights change quickly here so if your not off you miss the set and have to wait again which can be 5 minutes or more).
Just a lot of frustration at the moment and it seems a quick obscene gesture or word does it for them.

Yes, I have had screaming abuse from a man at a junction. He was in the wrong.

My ex used to tailgate people he thought has crossed him or were driving badly. One day the police came to visit to tell him off. He wasn’t home unfortunately. He is a dickhead too.

So many angry men around.

Last week I was driving up a road with a 30mph limit. I was just approaching a section with 4 or 5 cars parked on the opposite side. They were spread out so it was quite a long section. As I was just about to pass the first car a bloke in a BMW thundered down on my side of the road causing me to have to stop suddenly. As he passed me I raised my hands in a 'wtf?' gesture. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that he had stopped behind me on my side of the road and reversed right up to my car. He just sat there. Presumably he thought I was quaking with fear. I just drove off. What is it with men?

How awful. As if he couldn’t wait 20 seconds - what an impatient prick.

A fella pulled open my 17 year old dd's car and threatened to kill her, so incensed was he by her perceived bad driving.
This was on a country lane.
He then pulled a manoeuvre that wrote more than one vehicle off 🤦🏻‍♀️

Back.in court next year 😕

I had one of these yesterday. I was driving along a straight road. A man turned right into my road, cutting directly in front of me and forcing me to slam on my brakes. I did the wtf hand gesture and he stopped next to me and started swearing at me. I bet he would have behaved very differently if I was a big bloke in a white van.

Get a dashboard camera. Wear a baseball cap so you are not obviously female. Sit on a cushion so you are bigger.
Obviously you shouldn't need to do that but if it is a problem might avoid reaction and threats.
When DD was learning to drive, she had long blonde hair, and we kept getting men stopping and waving her on, letting her in, dangerous and not what a learner wants.
I'm an oldie but can still get some gestures etc from tosspots - but I never look at the face of the other drivers - if they see you looking at them it gives them the chance to gesticulate, look angry. Just sale along oblivious like me.

Any aggressive drivers/white van man driving up my rear gets granny mode. Sometimes I slow down to almost a stop and put my hazards on just to delay them even further.

The gammon epidemic

It’s one of the reasons I’m separated. Used to witness EXH losing control of his emotions regularly. Speeding pointlessly up to red lights. Stupid manoeuvring to get one more car ahead.
My DC once said it was strange that Dad beeped his horn constantly and they had never seen me do it once.
He always wanted to drive. One time when he had a drink and I was driving us he literally grabbed the wheel to try and get me to change lanes at the last minute when seeing the van in front of us indicate it was stopping and turning.
If you asked him he would say he’s a great driver and I am not. The insurance industry doesn’t agree!

That's awful, I'm wondering if the wife in my example above felt the same. As he just kept repeating and almost spitting his line, "what do you think you are doing missy?" I misy admit I did reply, "driving a car and it's my right of way" but that incensed him more and the wife looked extremely uncomfortable, he then proceeded to do a kind of Mexican stand off with me in the cars as he wouldn't reverse, I had a bit of a audience at this stage though as it was a station and Commuters waiting for lifts were staring at him as so angry, I think that's what he backed down a bit as people looked like they might intervene but he definitely wouldn't have otherwise so I was a bit worried.