Road rage with an unexpected twist

Apparently "Use your blinker!" are fighting words for some easily afflicted with road rage these days.

Being an ex- New Yorker, I am often not shy about sharing my opinions though I tend to be polite and I try to avoid confrontations. You never know who you will encounter. Obviously with the amount of road rage reaching epidemic proportions fueled no doubt by a perception of entitlement and anonymity, this is not so easy. I once had an aggressive young guy flip me off because he mistook my gesture indicating for him to go ahead of me (open hand palm side up and parallel to the ground) as menacing. Yet another young guy once challenged me to a fight because he assumed I was honking my horn at him incessantly when in fact it was the car behind me. No matter.

Yesterday I barked "use your blinker" at a miscreant driver in a black PT Cruiser. It wasn't really aggressive nor friendly; just matter of fact. I will accept some responsibility here. I am less than enthusiastic about the quality of driving here. Speed limits and stop signs are ignored. Drivers often seem preoccupied with their cell phones or ipods. California is becoming more like Brazil where people go on the red and stop on the green. Then again I am not the guardian of the highways so perhaps my comment was gratuitous.

Here are the circumstances: I was at the top of Mar Vista Hill here in Los Angeles. Cars were lined up two or three deep at each street leading to a four way intersection. For the most part, people were respectful, waiting their turn and moving on.

But Mr. PT Cruiser,the car to my immediate right, decided he didn't have to wait. In his self absorbed mind, it was completely his right to cut in front of others because he is somehow more important than the rest of us mere mortals. I really didn't really care because I was almost at my destination and I had other things on my mind. As he pulled through the intersection, I eased my foot off the brake and my car slowly started to roll forward, edging out but traveling perhaps no more than two or three feet. I had fully expected that he would continue to go straight. Mr. PT Cruiser turned towards me and glared. And then he slowed in the middle of the intersection, as if uncertain what to do.

Then the miscreant decided to turn left onto my street. There was no indication via his blinkers or hand signal. I immediately hit the brake and there no contact whatsoever. But the guy continued glare at me and muttered something that I could not hear. As he passed my car, I looked at him through the open window and literally said "Try using your blinker". Now for some those might be fighting words but for me it was an admonition fueled by frustration. But I thought nothing more about it.

His visage reflected some confusion. Perhaps he could not hear or misunderstood what I said.

When it came to my turn at the intersection, I pulled through and headed down the hill towards Venice Boulevard.

Something did catch my eye in the rear view mirror. Apparently Mr. PT Cruiser wanted to address this issue in person. So the miscreant executed a fully illegal u-turn. Clearly he was bent out of shape and intent on venting to me in person. However there were other cars behind me and Mr. PT Cruiser would have to wait his turn once again to get through the intersection. I proceeded down the street, stopping completely at yet another stop sign at the next major cross street.

At this point I checked my mirror again and the PT Cruiser was racing down the hill, absolutely obsessed with catching up to me which he did... just as I employed my right hand turn signal and pulled into the parking lot of my karate dojo.

Now I study karate and am a martial artist or at least someone who aspires to be one. I started late, about five years ago and am now preparing for my brown belt test in kenpo, one of the most aggressive forms of karate. I do not wear my gi on the street nor do I look to use my newly learned skills. Being a martial artist means many things including one really big one: you do NOT need to fight.

So Mr. PT Cruiser pulled into the parking lot behind me. The lot was full of my fellow students heading into the dojo for the Saturday afternoon class. I saw the driver with another look of confusion which quickly turned to surprise as I collected my gear.

By the time I got out of my car he was gone. Apparently his zeal for addressing the situation mano a mano changed dramatically when he realized where he was. My guess is that the hot head had no interest in picking a fight with someone who could AND would fight back.

I do wonder what all this rage is about and from where it comes. My sense is that civility is slipping by the way side as Americans mirror what is happening in the zeitgeist. People are angry, perhaps over the lack of control that they exercise over their own lives. And god knows we have plenty of examples of people behaving badly. We have an administration that thinks nothing of politicizing everything and lying and sending innocent men and women off to war to perpetuate their lies. We have corporations stealing from their share holders and from their clients. We have a media which is not doing its job. So if there is a breakdown of civility and social order on grand scale, where the greater good is ignored to the benefit of a greedy few, why no sense of entitlement on a more personal scale?

My guess is that this guy learned nothing from this encounter. For the rest of us, the lesson remains: better to err on the side of civility and avoid confrontation. You never know who you will encounter and what skills (or weapons) they possess.