Road Rage

Recent studies indicate that South Africa apparently has one of the highest road rage rates in the world.

With taxis (mini-busses) that drive like there's no tomorrow (and for many of them there isn't, as they seem to be the major cause of fatal accidents here), honking huge 4x4's and BMW owners who think that, no matter what, they have right of way, and the little old ladies in fancy cars who don't do more than 20km an hour - can you blame us???

Yesterday I ran into it first hand.

On the way back from the shops, our route takes us past a traffic circle. Driving on the left side of the road as we do, the rule is "give way to the right". There was nothing coming my way, so I carried on. Only to be nearly bashed into by a car full of rough-looking 20-something males, one of whom clearly mouthed "BITCH!!!" at me as he stopped just short of ramming my car.

Like... what??? He was supposed to give way to ME, not me to him. Arrogant brute!

Dunno why, but that's been bugging me ever since. I suspect I have hidden road rage tendancies, as my mind wants to get out and donder (beat up) the bloke every time it rewinds the scene. Barely lasted a split-second, but the brain is still working it over.

It's a good thing I can't actually do that. I'd probably come off second-best - those 3 blokes were both large and vicious. And it would just add one more statistic to our country's table.

Generally, I'm a very good driver - yes, even for a woman. But I tend to get p'd off when others aren't. Unfortunately the percentage of "others" appears to increase daily. Good thing I'm not the gun-toting type.