Okay, I finally lost it tonight. I drive a Matiz, and it just don’t go that fast. I was in the far right lane (the SLOW lane), the only car in sight and some asshole in a truck barrels up behind and starts flashing his lights and blowing his horn. I slowed down and the sonofabitch passed and tried to run me off the road. At that point I made a decision to NOT let it go, and drive by the jackass whipping him the bird. Well, he decided to follow me at my exit and eventually found a place where traffic was stopped. Three little ganster pricks got out (I am less than impressed, and even less intimidated by the little bastards). I got out and asked very matter of factly “Three of you, eh? Which one wants to die, which one wants to go to the hospital for a few months, and which one should I let go?” All three took a step back (weren’t expecting a 105Kg 200cm tall pierced foreigner). The words started, and I told 'em to shut up unless they wanted to be hospitalized, read 'em the riot act, got in the car, and started to drive away. One of the pricks wanted the last word and kicked the car, but they all scattered as the Matiz barreled backward at 'em (at that point, I don’t think there was any doubt in their minds that I WOULD have hurt them very seriously). As I watched from the red light, they got back in the truck slowly and slowly drove away. THIS REALLY PISSES ME OFF! It is the THIRD time in a year that some little pissant has tried to run me off the road on the freeway. The other two times I went to the police with licence numbers and they did NOTHING (hence I will now do something about it).
Amazing how the .1% of the road population that are complete imbeciles can make driving such a goddamed headache.
I feel your pain. I, too, suffer from bouts of road rage, to the point that I can no longer drive on the freeway during rush hour, because the idiots that are passing me on the shoulder at 50 kms/h while I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic make the vein in my temple throb. :tic: One time I snapped and steered my car just a little to the right so that nobody could pass on the shoulder. I had 20 cars lined up on the shoulder behind me, and they were mad as hornets. I just kept my speed with the rest of traffic and waggled my finger in a xiang-dou-bie-xiang gesture (don’t even think about it). I recognize the futility of what I was doing, so I now drive through the city if I have to tackle rush hour in a car. In Taipei, people still follow basic rules, stopping for red lights and not passing on the sidewalks, etc.
You didn’t really ask for advice, so I’m not going to offer any. But I sympathize 100%.
Oh yea, I can feel you on that one. I have some what a similar story.
I was driving my scooter some where on Roosevelt rd out of Xindian. As you pass over this little bridge, this car just speeds like a demon out of hell by me. I swear, maybe a foot over to my left, and I would have been outta here. So, I pull up to the green light at the foot of the brigde. I wasn;t gonna bother with this fool. Too busy thankin god! No sooner than the light turn green this guy is trying to run me off the road. Im like okay, this man is a fool, so, I pull up to see who is the person who is trying to kill me. He rolls down his tinted window, tryin to give me words and chewin his betelnut, I look at him like he’s crazy and do my gansta thing, arms open like ‘you wanna go there? feelin froggy huh?’ His girlfriend had the common sense to see that I wasnt no shrinkin violet and put the window up and the speed off.
Then another time, a taxi driver jumped out his cab with a hoe-yes a looooong metal hoe, ready to beat my head in cause I gave him the bird after he cut me off, cussin me out in Taiwanese.
Part of the problem is that you are driving something small…
The “might is right” is still very much in effect in Taiwan, and now that I drive an SUV I notice I get cut off far less than when I was driving a passenger car. Must have shocked the hell out of them when you first hopped out…Threw their preconceived notions of the middle-aged petite woman Matiz driver right out the window.
Every time my wife gets in the car she takes a deep breath and will mumble something like “Don’t yell at anyone today ok?” Of course within 5 minutes I’ll be saying something to the effect of “Did you see that, what a dumb motherf$#$er!”. I’ve made a promise to myself that I would desist from giving the finger, but there are times I have to slap it down with my right hand.
There is no cure, no magic elixir, no way to vent your frustration at such driving stupidity…Unless of course, you want to fight 3 times a week. It’s been a couple of years since I last got into it…I figure I’m due again soon.
The Matiz from the back looks so strange that some family fun is derived from trying to describe it…My daughter had the best one so far when she explained it as “a surprised guppy”.
Be a good buddhist or something and don’t get angry.
Being angry will only put me in a bad mood.
Anger comes from yourself, not other people.
Reacting will only make the situation worse.
Play it safe, and don’t get stabbed.
You need to stand up to arseholes and bullies.
Don’t let the pricks get away with it.
If everyone lets it slide, it’ll just continue.
Peer pressure. Societal pressure.
Sometimes it’s good to let people know you’re angry.
I wonder how I’d do in a real fight?
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I’m always torn between two schools of thought.
Be a good buddhist or something and don’t get angry.
Being angry will only put me in a bad mood.
Anger comes from yourself, not other people.
Reacting will only make the situation worse.
Play it safe, and don’t get stabbed.
You need to stand up to arseholes and bullies.
Don’t let the pricks get away with it.
If everyone lets it slide, it’ll just continue.
Peer pressure. Societal pressure.
Sometimes it’s good to let people know you’re angry.
I wonder how I’d do in a real fight?
Brian[/quote]
[quote=“Michael J Botti”]Part of the problem is that you are driving something small…
The “might is right” is still very much in effect in Taiwan, and now that I drive an SUV I notice I get cut off far less than when I was driving a passenger car.[/quote]
Yup! That’s the issue in Taiwan! Size matters! In fact it’s almost the only thing that matters.
I accept it’s a perverse product of my cultural background and philoisophical outlook, but I still kind of expect more from professional drivers and the drivers of those expensive big black monster cars. Of course, the truth is that they are thinking in a diametrically opposite fashion. In my mind I still have some kind of silly notions along the lines of ‘noblesse oblige’.
When it comes to driving, I often reflect how people would get killed in road rage attacks if they drove in the United States or Northern Europe as they drive here.
I think Europeans will often be very ‘courteous’ and let a driver into a stream of traffic (something that rarely happens here). But woe betide you if you cut a someone up, or pull out in apparent disregard for another driver’s right of way or safety.
It seems to be the opposite here. You could wait weeks at a junction for someone to give way. But if you just push in other drivers accept it.
Ahhh… the many splendoured phenomenon of cultural difference. Pity it’s accompanied by a stratospheric rate of road deaths and injuries too! :s
I’ve driven three vehicles which were pretty much immune to getting pushed around. One was a friend’s taxi. One was a 1.5 ton blue-truck-of-death. By far the best was a military Hummer, but that’s a bit out of most people’s budget, including mine. Paint your Matiz yellow, and put a camoflage sign on the roof like “TOXIC” Add ‘Vitalon’ decals to the rear window for the full effect.
A truck coming up behind you blasting their horn and flashing their lights is simply following the road rules which state we should blast our horns and flash our lights before overtaking. Not only that we can over take you with a minimum distance of one meter from your rear bumper.
Hsiadogah, your tank looks ideal for Taiwan traffic conditions. Can I borrow it?
ToeSave, where’s your take on this thread?
I would recommend a Landrover Defender for the obnoxious traffic conditions in Taiwan.
Aluminum body - easy to kick the dents out so you dont care if you knock the odd Merc who decides to pull infront of you, or bludgen the odd scooter going the wrong way down the one way street.
Besides, Landrovers look great with dents in. Perhaps driving at expensive cars or knocking the odd scooter mafia off balance should be encouraged.
[quote=“Dangermouse”]
Hsiadogah, your tank looks ideal for Taiwan traffic conditions.[/quote]
But in Taiwan, the tank would have just run the guy over without blinking rather than trying to go around him.
I bet they are too, the last time someone pulled a knife on me I ended up taking it away from them and would have used it on them if I hadn’t been restrained (one thing I learned from my father: “If you are going to pull a weapon on me, you had BETTER use it quickly and I had BETTER be dead, because you will NEVER get a second chance.”)
[quote=“TaiwanPsycho”]Strange how Taiwanese take serious offence to “the bird”.
In Australia, it’s almost become a traditional form of waving hello. [/quote]
ROTFLMFAO!!! (where is my bird emoticon :lol ). Yeah, I don’t think many of these truck driving pinheads actually know what it means, but they know it ain’t “You’re #1!.”
I suppose I oughtta explain where I disapeared to for a couple of weeks…took 'em off and calmed down (Taiwan is much safer for it too).
[quote=“Michael J Botti”]Part of the problem is that you are driving something small…
The “might is right” is still very much in effect in Taiwan, and now that I drive an SUV I notice I get cut off far less than when I was driving a passenger car. Must have shocked the hell out of them when you first hopped out…Threw their preconceived notions of the middle-aged petite woman Matiz driver right out the window.
Every time my wife gets in the car she takes a deep breath and will mumble something like “Don’t yell at anyone today ok?” Of course within 5 minutes I’ll be saying something to the effect of “Did you see that, what a dumb motherf$#$er!”. I’ve made a promise to myself that I would desist from giving the finger, but there are times I have to slap it down with my right hand.
There is no cure, no magic elixir, no way to vent your frustration at such driving stupidity…Unless of course, you want to fight 3 times a week. It’s been a couple of years since I last got into it…I figure I’m due again soon.
The Matiz from the back looks so strange that some family fun is derived from trying to describe it…My daughter had the best one so far when she explained it as “a surprised guppy”.
Drive something bigger…[/quote]
Surprised guppy I love it, and I wanna paint it across the bumper! Yeah, might is right. And it applies when the little f**** gets out of the truck and I turn him into a pretzel. When in rome, do as the Taiwanese. I dislike living under these social rules, but I didn’t make 'em, I just follow 'em. And in reality, this happens rarely (3 times in a year, vs. 3 times in an hour in 1990)(I think the stupid ones are dying, Darwin at work).
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I’m always torn between two schools of thought.
Be a good buddhist or something and don’t get angry.
Being angry will only put me in a bad mood.
Anger comes from yourself, not other people.
Reacting will only make the situation worse.
Play it safe, and don’t get stabbed.
You need to stand up to arseholes and bullies.
Don’t let the pricks get away with it.
If everyone lets it slide, it’ll just continue.
Peer pressure. Societal pressure.
Sometimes it’s good to let people know you’re angry.
I wonder how I’d do in a real fight?
Brian[/quote]
Brian, very cool post. I agree in principle with #1 and wish that everyone would practice it, but I made a conscious decision to suspend principle (intentional attempts on my life, the life of my wife, and the life of my son tend to trigger this). I dunno how you would do, but those who have seen me in the real thing say it is really scary (my wife has seen it three times and says that in all cases, the instigators will probably think twice about making trouble with someone who may snap from nice guy to homicidal maniac when the fists/knives come out).
… but I’m glad they weren’t packing.
Im like okay, this man is a fool, so, I pull up to see who is the person who is trying to kill me. He rolls down his tinted window, tryin to give me words and chewin his betelnut, I look at him like he’s crazy and do my gansta thing, arms open like ‘you wanna go there? feelin froggy huh?’ His girlfriend had the common sense to see that I wasnt no shrinkin violet and put the window up and the speed off.
Add ‘Vitalon’ decals to the rear window for the full effect.
I love it, and I wanna paint it across the bumper! Yeah, might is right. And it applies when the little f**** gets out of the truck and I turn him into a pretzel. When in rome, do as the Taiwanese. I dislike living under these social rules, but I didn’t make 'em, I just follow 'em. And in reality, this happens rarely (3 times in a year, vs. 3 times in an hour in 1990)(I think the stupid ones are dying, Darwin at work).