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Hello and welcome to another episode of the

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self-initiative project podcast i’m your host jim o’brien hey hey and welcome

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back uh this episode we’re going to be talking about road rage but before that

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i wanted to take a minute out because i don’t think i ever had across all of

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these podcasts that I’ve done. This will be.

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Podcast number 53 for us. So almost nearly four and a half years of doing podcasts,

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we turn these out about once a month or try to.

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And, you know, the self-initiative project generally was founded on the premise

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that we’re all responsible for our personal safety and preparedness.

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And so this podcast was created to focus in those areas of personal safety and preparedness.

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And I’ve said it many times over the course of doing these podcasts.

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And if you’ve listened to us before now, you know that, you know,

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my philosophy is, is I can’t teach anything to anyone, but maybe I can make someone think.

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So if you are able or someone’s able to take away one nugget of information

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that maybe makes them think about things differently or do something different

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for their personal safety or preparedness that they had not thought of or done

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before, then that’s great.

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I’ve done my job. But if this is your first time listening to us,

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I wanted to take a moment to welcome you and say thanks for listening.

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You have a lot of choices out there in podcast land, and I’m grateful that you

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decided to take a listen to the Self-Initiative Project podcast.

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And so, yeah, today we want to talk about road rage.

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It’s a topic that is, I think, on everyone’s mind, at least at some given point

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in time, depending on where you look.

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Statistics say that 80 plus percent of us have experienced road rage at some point in time.

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And I bet, you know, depending on where the definition of road rage you get,

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where you get your definition of road rage,

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I bet even a large portion of us have been guilty of some degree of road rage in our lifetimes.

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So what is road rage?

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Well, it’s different from aggressive driving, right? I’m sure we’ve all been

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guilty at one point in time in our lives of being an intentional, aggressive driver.

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That might look like excessive speeding at points and times,

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you know, going faster than most of traffic. I admit that I’m a spirited driver myself.

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But it also may be, you know, weaving in and out of traffic as well.

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Road rage, on the other hand, takes that to a whole new level.

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And so, you know, depending on

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the source, I’ll give you a handful of definitions of what road rage is.

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And, you know, you already have some sense.

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Oxford Languages describes it as violent anger caused by the stress and frustration

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involved in driving a motor vehicle in difficult conditions. Okay.

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Merriam-Webster describes it as a motorist’s uncontrolled anger that is usually

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provoked by another motorist’s irritating act and is expressed in aggressive or violent behavior.

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That’s a pretty solid definition.

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Bank rate describes it as extreme deliberate, unsafe driving that poses an immediate

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and significant risk to property or, you know, another person, obviously.

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So what are the three reasons for, three causes for road rage?

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One is congested roadways, right? Traffic.

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We all know traffic can be extremely stressful and, you know,

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it’s easy to get pissed off in traffic with some of the stuff that goes on out there.

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So just heavy, heavy traffic, heavy volumes of traffic.

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And then the other two main cited reasons are displaced anger.

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You know, some people just don’t have control of their emotions,

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their anger, and they don’t have the ability to control timing or place when

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they express that anger.

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And then lastly is just all different types of stress, right?

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In addition to what’s going on out there in traffic directly, you know.

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Folks have a lot of things going on in their life, whether it’s, you know,

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relationship issues or, you know, maybe working remote at least a good deal

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of the time now, the way things are, you know, being cooped up,

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suffering cabin fever might cause you to be quicker to anger than you might normally would.

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You know, there’s a lot of things. And I’ve said it a lot over the years,

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too, that, you know, it seems like there’s a tremendous amount of prescription

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medications, certainly advertised and promoted, and people are looking for quick fixes.

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So I got to think that prescription medication is playing some sort a role to

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some degree out there in as far as people having stronger emotions than what they.

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Might normally have, but certainly altered mental states to varying degrees,

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right? I think that’s legit.

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And then I’ve had the conversation recently with some folks about,

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I feel like mental illness now in general is a real thing.

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And I don’t know that it’s on the rise, but I think that it’s out there more

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than we’re willing to talk about and address.

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So those three reasons, traffic.

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Displacement of anger and then general stressors, plus all those other things,

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I think could culminate to generate some of the road rage that we know that goes on out there.

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Generally, cutting someone off in traffic is supposed to be the number one cause

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of road rage, or at least one of the top reasons causing of road rage.

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But tailgating is one of the top signs that road rage is happening, right?

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And I know I can think of many times that I’ve been in traffic and have someone

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get right up on my bumper.

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And yeah, there’s probably been a few times where I know I’ve cut someone off

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and I’m not saying intentionally, right?

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Just not paying attention to there being enough distance or whatever.

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But I’ve been tailgated before, you know, and then of course,

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yelling and profanity, honking your horn.

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And I can say right now that if honking horns is a form of road rage,

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I think it’s safe to say probably everyone that’s ever honked their horn has

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been guilty of road rage at some point in time.

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I don’t know that I agree with that because if they’re defining road rage or

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honking of one’s horn as road rage, then why do they have horns on vehicles in the first place?

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But tailgating, yelling in profanity, honking one’s horn,

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and of course, cutting them off or running them off the road in the most extreme

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cases are all signs of road rage, right? It’s more about the response.

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Seeing someone driving fast through traffic or, you know, changing lanes abruptly

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in traffic, that’s aggressive driving, certainly.

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And perhaps someone that’s been slighted or feels slighted is trying to catch

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up to the individual that slighted them, and you’ll see that manifest itself

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as road But those are just some signs to be on the lookout for.

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And, you know, with 80 plus percent of the population having experienced it

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in one shape, form or fashion, I am more than certain you can probably think

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back to a time you were out driving.

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Where something happened. Either you did something, either intentionally or

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maybe by accident, maybe you weren’t paying attention as best as you should have been.

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But I bet it’s safe to assume that we’ve all experienced some form of road rage,

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even if we haven’t been the immediate instigators.

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And with that being said, we’ve probably, or a large portion of us,

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have probably seen road rage going down right beside us or nearby.

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I know I’ve seen some people get out of cars and confront others at stoplights

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or stop signs, certainly.

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Is road rage on the rise? Some say that it is, and I think that it’s completely

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plausible that it could very well be.

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Again, I think prescription medications or drugs or alcohol could play a part in it.

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I certainly think with the propensity of prescription medications out there

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in the world and being promoted left and right and doctors prescribing them left and right.

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I think medication could be a large contributor to people not being able to

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keep themselves in check or just not being in the right state of mind to begin with.

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There are certainly people that struggle with keeping their anger in check and

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having issues with anger and not being able to temper themselves when confronted

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with aggression or a perceived threat, no matter how small.

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And then the stress of daily life, whether it’s work, home life.

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Maybe we’re just tired, I think, of possible contribution today because the

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world has changed with this quote-unquote pandemic.

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You know, a lot of folks are working from home remotely. And that’s great because

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it has potentially reduced the volume of traffic and cut down emissions and

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the amount of gas we consume.

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But with that being said, there’s still a lot of people on the road today.

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I see it all the time when I go out.

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And I think working remote and being home all the time is fantastic for a lot of folks.

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But for a lot of folks, it can be stressful because they get cabin fever or

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they’re tired of feeling pent up all the time.

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And so they get out for an escape. They get out for a release.

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But the reality of it is they’re stressed the day to day. And then there’s a

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lot going on in the world, too.

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You know, there’s a war going on right now.

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Our government is changing things rapidly, it would seem.

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Inflation is up while they’ve redefined supposedly what a recession is.

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Are we really in a recession right now? Don’t know. Can’t say gas prices have been up.

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Of course, they’re come back down a little bit now again, but gas prices have been up.

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My point is, is that there’s a lot of outside stress factors in addition to

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internal stress factors, all that could be contributing to road rage.

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And, you know, the thing with road rage, like a lot of things that happen to

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us, if we’re not paying attention or if we’re not working and doing our due

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diligence to avoid them,

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You don’t know how far someone’s willing to go. You don’t know really how out

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of control their anger is or what frame of mind there is.

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So it’s really important that we work to avoid these situations.

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So that’s really what I wanted to talk about. And so what should we be doing

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when we’re out on the roads,

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out in traffic, or we observe others that are maybe engaging in aggressive behaviors

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or maybe escalated to road rage?

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And, you know, much like any other situation, our personal safety adventures

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is we want to do our best to avoid or stay away.

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So if we want to see if we see something, we want to steer clear of it.

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But what happens if you find yourself in a situation?

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Well, first of all, let’s back up for a minute.

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Let’s work really hard to be conscientious of others on the on the road.

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself that the person in front

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of me or whatever is driving like they own the place and they’re the only ones

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out here and they’re completely oblivious to any others around them,

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whether they pull out in front of you or run a stoplight or stop sign,

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whatever it is, change lanes right

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in front of you, almost taking off your front bumper, whatever it is.

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Because, you know, when we witness behaviors like this or we feel that it shouldn’t

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have happened or that it’s upset you, it’s important that we’re able to keep

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that feeling of being angered in control and just let it go.

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Now, again, if they’re considering honking horn road rage, I don’t know what to say about that.

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But in my mind, there’s nothing wrong with blowing my horn at someone that’s

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doing something up ahead that’s out of line or needs to get their attention,

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if nothing else, sitting through a green light.

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Is that aggression? I don’t know. I guess some would say it is.

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I wouldn’t. But the point is, is that when things happen to us,

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we need to do our best to keep our emotions and our egos in check so it doesn’t

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escalate to a point that we may not be able to get back out of again.

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So that’s first and foremost. It’s kind of the.

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We want to be situationally aware at all times, but that means also being aware

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of ourselves and our own emotions and our own thoughts and then taking the extra

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step to keep ourselves in check so we don’t engage and potentially cause a situation

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that otherwise would have gone by.

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I assure the other person is a numbskull because they’re not paying attention

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and they’re doing their thing and, you know, causing havoc or whatever.

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But that doesn’t give us the right to engage and, you know, respond in kind, so to speak.

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So that’s first and foremost.

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But what happens if you find yourself in a situation?

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Well, first of all, do your best not to further it.

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In other words, if you’re being tailgated, which again is a top sign of road

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rage, don’t try to break check them and engage in that behavior.

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You might want to consider speeding up a little bit more than what you normally

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did, not to be breaking any speed records or speed limits or anything like that,

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but just furthering the distance between you and them.

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If you think that you’re being followed the

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last thing you want to do is go home because you

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don’t want this crazy person that’s in incensed enraged

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following you to your place of residence that’s first

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and foremost so especially if it’s after dark or you’re by yourself whatever

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it might be you want to find if you do believe that the person that’s tailgating

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you or otherwise you just think that you’re being followed because you’ve noticed

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they’ve made the same last three turns as you have, whatever it might be,

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what you want to do is drive to a police station or a fire station or just a

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well-lit, if it’s after dark, a well-lit,

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very public, very busy place. Usually people don’t want to be seen or get caught

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when they’re acting like an idiot.

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So that should get you out of that situation.

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But what if it’s up from there? What if you find yourself stopped at a stoplight

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or a stop sign and you notice the person’s getting out of their car?

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Well, if you have an opportunity to get out of there, that’s what you want to

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do. You want to go ahead and move forward and drive on. That’s first.

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But if they get up to your car and hopefully you’re situationally aware when

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you’re at stop lights and stop signs.

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You don’t want to crack the window. You don’t want to engage in verbal whatever.

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You don’t want to crack the window because you shouldn’t be worried about engaging

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with them verbally, but you also don’t want to put a crack in your window because

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it gives them the opportunity potentially to reach through the window.

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But when you roll down your window even a little bit, it makes it ever so slightly

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easier to break that glass and that’s what you don’t want.

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And you can go online anytime and see plenty of incidents recorded by smartphones

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and whatever inside vehicles of people banging on people’s windows.

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Incensed, you know, just completely angered at whatever they think happened

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in traffic or whatever they think happened.

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The victim, so to speak, did to them to slight them in traffic.

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And then most recently, I watched a video with a guy,

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I think it was in Australia, in fact, where a guy was beating on the glass and

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hit it, did a palm strike on the side window and then punched it again and shattered the window.

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So, you know, things can escalate quickly and you can’t know what their intent

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is. Because maybe they’re just weak and intimidating the driver that they think

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slighted them because they realize it’s a female, right?

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And it’s a man just knowing that he can probably get away being a complete jerk

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and yelling and cussing at her because she’s less likely to respond in a negative fashion.

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You just don’t know. You don’t know what’s in the hearts of men,

00:16:49.403 –> 00:16:50.623
right? That’s something you’ve heard.

00:16:50.743 –> 00:16:54.663
You don’t know where the intent is, so you want to try to get yourself out of

00:16:54.663 –> 00:16:57.723
there, and then you certainly don’t want to find yourself engaging.

00:16:57.903 –> 00:17:01.603
Now, if there’s an immediate threat, I’m not going to tell you what to do legally

00:17:01.603 –> 00:17:04.483
or otherwise, but if there’s immediate threat with a weapon,

00:17:04.723 –> 00:17:09.203
you may have to make some different decisions for yourself that only you can do that.

00:17:09.583 –> 00:17:15.243
Otherwise, you definitely want to first try to get out of there and then secondly, not engage.

00:17:16.343 –> 00:17:20.963
So some of the things that we can be doing ahead of time to make sure that we’re

00:17:20.963 –> 00:17:25.103
on point for responding appropriately should we see something happening,

00:17:25.403 –> 00:17:28.823
should we see that person walking up from behind us in traffic,

00:17:28.823 –> 00:17:32.063
is that, as I’ve already mentioned, you want to be paying attention.

00:17:32.063 –> 00:17:36.003
Yes, even when you’re in your car with your windows up and your doors locked,

00:17:36.103 –> 00:17:40.003
you want to be paying attention to things that are going on around you,

00:17:40.183 –> 00:17:46.983
especially in crowded traffic and especially if you think you have been involved

00:17:46.983 –> 00:17:49.143
in a situation of road rage, right?

00:17:49.143 –> 00:17:53.163
You know you’ve cut someone off either intentionally or even by accident.

00:17:53.163 –> 00:17:56.563
They’ve been telegating you for the last half mile, whatever it is.

00:17:56.763 –> 00:18:02.363
You certainly, your alert should definitely remain on high when you come to

00:18:02.363 –> 00:18:06.023
a stoplight or a stop sign. So that’s first and foremost, paying attention.

00:18:06.283 –> 00:18:09.903
And this is another argument why you shouldn’t pick up that smartphone when

00:18:09.903 –> 00:18:14.823
you’re at a stoplight or a stop sign because you need to be paying attention at all times.

00:18:14.823 –> 00:18:19.163
And as we’ve talked about in past podcasts the

00:18:19.163 –> 00:18:22.043
other thing that you want to do in traffic regardless of whether

00:18:22.043 –> 00:18:26.343
you think you’re you might be a victim of road rage or not is you want to keep

00:18:26.343 –> 00:18:30.943
distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you and what that means

00:18:30.943 –> 00:18:36.463
is the general rule of thumb is is that you want to stay back far enough where

00:18:36.463 –> 00:18:41.163
you can just see their rear tires now you don’t have to see the entire rear.

00:18:41.883 –> 00:18:45.603
Their entire, the entirety of their rear tires, if I can talk,

00:18:45.743 –> 00:18:50.483
but you would want to make sure that you see a good chunk of their rear tires.

00:18:50.603 –> 00:18:55.423
And the reason why that is, is because for most vehicles is that’s generally

00:18:55.423 –> 00:19:00.423
enough room for you to work your way around them. So that gives you a way out.

00:19:00.643 –> 00:19:04.623
And that’s really your first course of action. If you find yourself in a situation

00:19:04.623 –> 00:19:08.123
is to get the heck out of there, if you can now in traffic stopped,

00:19:08.123 –> 00:19:12.623
you may not be able to, but the point is, is that as soon as you have that capability,

00:19:12.943 –> 00:19:16.303
that’s where your mind should be, is finding a way out of there.

00:19:16.423 –> 00:19:22.943
The scary part to me is that there seems to be, and again, the numbers aren’t anything staggering.

00:19:23.563 –> 00:19:28.483
Comparatively speaking to past incidents, it would seem that murders are on the rise.

00:19:28.963 –> 00:19:33.903
And so, you know, the extremities of road rage is, is bumping into cars,

00:19:34.143 –> 00:19:35.383
running them off the road.

00:19:35.563 –> 00:19:40.183
I can remember when I was in college, I can’t remember all the situation.

00:19:40.183 –> 00:19:46.343
I may have accidentally cut someone off coming down the highway outside of Atlanta.

00:19:46.343 –> 00:19:51.943
I don’t remember exactly, but I remember this gentleman in a little subcompact

00:19:51.943 –> 00:19:55.563
two-door car, red car. I remember it vividly, red car.

00:19:55.963 –> 00:20:01.743
He pulled up along the side of me and got just edged out in front of me and

00:20:01.743 –> 00:20:06.263
did an immediate swerve into my lane to try to run me off the road.

00:20:06.463 –> 00:20:11.023
I never will forget that. And he did it the first time and then did it another

00:20:11.023 –> 00:20:17.063
one or two times after that, trying to run me off the road for whatever slight he thought I did.

00:20:17.223 –> 00:20:22.043
And I don’t remember having an aggressive thought, not saying I didn’t because

00:20:22.043 –> 00:20:27.483
I was in my early twenties at that point, but I remember that very vividly.

00:20:27.643 –> 00:20:30.783
So, you know, bumping into people, running them off the road.

00:20:31.549 –> 00:20:36.189
Which could be very dangerous for the other driver, right? Or for property as

00:20:36.189 –> 00:20:38.169
well, damaging property, certainly.

00:20:38.529 –> 00:20:42.709
And then last but not least, you know, getting in a fish fight on the side of

00:20:42.709 –> 00:20:47.469
the road or worst case scenario, being shot in the face because the person just

00:20:47.469 –> 00:20:49.749
could not keep themselves in check.

00:20:50.289 –> 00:20:54.869
So this is why avoidance, paying attention and avoidance is so key.

00:20:55.269 –> 00:20:59.949
Just be cognizant of the fact that there are some people out there that can’t

00:20:59.949 –> 00:21:04.189
keep themselves in check and those are the ones we want to try to avoid and

00:21:04.189 –> 00:21:08.509
we can spot them because they’re the ones acting a fool in traffic in the first place.

00:21:09.549 –> 00:21:13.169
And so really that avoidance piece and trying to get out of there safely is

00:21:13.169 –> 00:21:16.029
the best things that we can do for ourselves and not engaging.

00:21:16.389 –> 00:21:19.309
And with that, we’ll wrap things up. Thanks so much for listening.

00:21:19.709 –> 00:21:23.889
If this happens to be your first time listening in to the Self-Initiative Project,

00:21:23.889 –> 00:21:25.289
we appreciate you being here.

00:21:25.529 –> 00:21:29.349
Again, if this is your first time, welcome and we hope you come back and listen again.

00:21:29.709 –> 00:21:34.329
We have 52 other previous episodes. We’d love for you to go back.

00:21:34.569 –> 00:21:39.949
I’m sure you can find something of interest to you within those and we look

00:21:39.949 –> 00:21:42.069
forward to seeing you the next time. Thanks so much.