Why Does Driving Make People Crazy?

Driving is the most stressful thing many people do on a regular basis since one wrong move from you or somebody else can result in grievous injury or death.

I forget the name of the phenomenon but essentially when you do a questionable act, you had a perfectly valid reason. If someone else does the exact same act, they're a selfish asshole with no respect for other people.

This leads to people doing things that upset others because those other people then think, "well that's a selfish asshole..."

Also zipper merging brings out the worst fucking line monitors that don't understand the world they live in.

Imo it's because people don't treat driving as dangerously as they should.

You're driving a multi ton death machine. You should act like it. Be attentive of your surroundings and follow the fuckin rules.

I'm not saying that's the only reason. Crazy people gonna be crazy but I'd bet it's one of the biggest causes of road rage.

My theory is that humans aren't wired to be piloting heavy machinery at high speeds but we do it with such frequency that it causes the stress signals to be suppressed and so we are prone to lash out and act unpredictably.

I’ve read somewhere, it was when an older driver entered illegally a cyclist path and killed the cyclist that kick his hood, that car is a symbol of your social status. Anyone attacking your status is attacking your place in society and thus your life

There's a study linking road rage to the level of authoritarianism in a country's government. It's also tightly linked to machismo.

I personally think that it has a lot to do with inadequate infrastructure that requires people to communicate while restricting possibilities for communication (i.e. multi lane roads with high speed limits), combined with lacking drivers' ed and a fragmented highly individualistic society.

Like all tools, the human mind actively views the tool as an extension of the human body. When you use a hammer, your mind sees it as an extension of your arm in order to be able to use it effectively.

When you spend too much time in your car, you begin to really treat it as an extension of yourself, and stop treating it as the two ton death machine on wheels that it obviously is.

I've also read that the more you personalize your car, with bumper stickers and such, the more you view it as a deeply personal part of who you are, and think of the inside of your vehicle as a deeply personal space, and as such, also view an invasion of your cars "personal space" as an invasion of your personal space.

Short story: humans are fucking dumb and we built a society where we spend entirely too much time inside our cars to the point that we form emotional fucking attachments to them.

How did he break the window with his fist?! Windows are strong!

I bet a lot of those people are equally crazy when they aren't driving as well. Some people are just arseholes.

I honestly think driving and League of Legends brings this out of people for the same reason but I have no evidence.

There must be something about relying on the actions of strangers and participating in an activity with measurable and communal “right ways to do things” that brings out so much vitriol.

Perceived slights, overestimating one’s own ability, shared misfortune on mistakes, I could go on forever.

It doesn't. This is a case of crazy people doing crazy things - same as elsewhere in society.

I hate cars and Dodge Rams, but man, that looks rude.