Turn app off. Get out car. Walk around. Jog. Bird watch. People watch. Breath. You are no good to yourself or Passengers when temper is flared. Take time off if you can. A week. A few days. No sense endangering yourself,your car,Passengers,or the public. What if you run into someone feeling the same way ?
I listen to music that makes me happy. I take naps in the day for about an hour or so. When I’m grumpy, I don’t drive that day. I sing along to songs when no one is in the car (and OCCASIONALLY when someone cool is i. The car). I drive relatively slow and don’t tailgate people and when someone rides my tail I just get over.
Look at the things that are pissing you off. They are likely the actions of people who are doing stupid things, ignorant things, negligent things. You need to change your perspective as you drive. You need to be on the lookout for these things and expect them to happen. There will always be some drivers that will do things that will endanger you and your vehicle and, intentionally or not, piss you off. Ease off the gas, go around them
Don’t bother with the horn. It just escalates and prolongs the situation. Use the energy to concentrate on getting away from the idiot and being safe. Deep breath. Move on. Your passenger will appreciate your patience as well. I am speaking from experience and it took some time and effort to learn how to do it well.
You hit the nail on the head. You dont need to get back at stupid riders. Expect the drivers around you too drive poorly. By driving defensively nothing gets you too high or too low.
Let me tell you all what happened AFTER a LONG stent driving. I was driving my 2 hours TO GET HOME… The person in front of me, mind you it was night, decided to throw his cigarette out the window…
I’m not saying you’re anything at all like she is, but my bat-shit crazy sister is an extreme example of where rage could take a person, if not properly vented, dealt with or kept in check, and I did think of her immediately, when I read how you passed up the slower driver and threw your soft drink at him.
I don’t know why but from the day I started Ubering, I found that things that might annoy me my own time bother me much less when I am working. The guy who just has to be one car ahead of where he was, the double parkers, and the jaywalking pedestrians all matter much less when I think that, regardless of what they do, I still have X number of hours to drive around and watch the world go by.
My grandma and aunt were stopped at a light in the middle of the afternoon when 2 cars who were both in a rage “fighting” each other came barreling down on them. These were 2 professional men one being a doctor. The doctors car hit my aunts car head on. Long story short my grandma spent a year in the hospital before she eventually passed. My aunt 10 years later still suffers from the accident and has trouble walking.
Blow kisses at offending drivers. Develop your shit-eatin’ grin and wave at them in some absurd fashion. Leave them baffled at your buffoonery. Pray for their filthy souls. Have a good laugh at them then move on.
i’ve found my road rage to be lowered with uber. and generally is the case when i have someone else in the car. i don’t want the responsibility of endangering someone else’s life due to my potential overreaction. that and i know with uber, i have eyes on me - both from uber and the pax, as well as everyone else who can see the trade dress.
I’ve had pax in the back get road rage while I’m driving. Someone beside me or in front of me does something stupid and they start “did you see that? OMG it no wonder there are so many accidents.” And then going on about how stupid people can be. I just smile and tell them it happens all the time, and can usually come up with a worse one that we get to be talking about.
I just respond the same way when a get a request to over crowd my UberX. I just simply remember, I got no where I gotta be. I am just here to give rides to nice people.
I the same. Strange, but true. I’ve been a driver for over 16 years and have found that I’m more at ease now than ever before. I think it’s because I expect idiot driving. I expect that driver going 20 mph over the speed limit to cut me off. I expect that driver who’s texting to drift into my lane. I expect that drunk at 2am to run a red light. The more you drive the more predictable situations become.
I try to focus on my job of giving a safe ride, and avoid emotional involvement with traffic. There are a lot of aggressive, incompetent drivers. I don’t have the energy to take them on. My latest pet peeve is when I’m trying to make a left turn onto a busy street, and the driver in the oncoming lane makes a right turn onto my side street, - without signaling until he’s 10 feet away…
In time you will get used to it and it won’t bother u anymore. Some drivers make me want to pull them over so I can fight the. But stupid stuff they do no longer bothers me.