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Road Rage

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Road Rage
Road rage is a major problem in the United States, anger causes stress, fear, and accidents to our roadways everyday. In this essay we will define road rage, look at the causes and effects, and come up with solutions on how to avoid an altercation with an aggressive driver who has road rage and how to avoid being the cause yourself. Anger is a large part of being human, it is an emotion just like any other and therefore it is hard to overcome. What people need to realize though, is that just like any other emotion, it causes you to focus on it, which in turn causes you to lose focus on whatever you may be doing at the time, which in this case is driving. Since driving is one of the most dangerous things a person can do, losing focus is a very bad thing. The specific definition of road rage is Violent behavior exhibited by drivers in traffic, often as a manifestation of stress. But what is road rage really? Is it just being angry at another driver after they do something wrong or irritating? No, there is much more to it than that. It isn’t just the emotion, although that is part of it, but it is your or whoever is driving’s reaction to their anger. Therein lies the problem, when a person is in the heat of the moment, tensions are high and people are riled, it becomes difficult to control yourself. When that happens people release the tension by going into tantrums, using obscene gestures to portray their disdain, or using violence toward their own vehicle like breaking something or punching the steering wheel. All these things can be very dangerous when you are trying to drive. But these are just my opinion from my experiences with driving . Road rage covers a multitude of hostile acts committed by angry or frustrated drivers, from deliberate tailgating to vehicular homicide. The prevalence of road rage has increased so much in the past decade that psychologists have actually classified it as a mental disorder. Many drivers who are prone to sudden emotional


Cited: Britt, Robert Roy. "Road Rage: Why We Lose It." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. "Main Factor of Road Rage - Stress." TheMedGuru. Ed. Smrity Sharma. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. Pollick, Michael, and Niki Foster. "What Is Road Rage?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. Shure, Olivea. "The Effects of Road Rage." EHow. Demand Media, 07 May 2011. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. "Top 10 Tips To Prevent Road Rage." Edmunds. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013.
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