Most New Yorkers (myself included) have a hard time walking down the sidewalk in a patient manner, and the other half of us probably shouldn’t be allowed on bikes. So it should come as little surprise that the city’s residents have clinched the No. 1 slot of the In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey, commissioned by national auto club, AutoVantage.
Other top cities full of road rage — behavior typified by angry, over-reactive drivers, who among other things, text, talk, eat, tailgate, speed and honk — were Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis. Miami, last year’s worst offender, fell to the No. 7 spot. But Baltimore, last year’s fourth worst city, cleaned up its act and slid into this year’s third best. The survey finds the driving in Portland to be the best in the country.
So how did Miami and Baltimore get so Zen in a year’s time? Psychologist Anne O’Dwyer tells the Daily News that New Yorkers are generally in a rush, a state of mind that predicates most incidents of road rage. She suggests that angry drivers try to put it in perspective. “Ask yourself, is it really worth injuring myself and getting into an accident,” she said. (Go on New Yorkers, insert obscene gesture here.)
For those who do want to learn how to chill out on the road, O’Dwyer also suggests avoiding listening to the news, and instead listening to books on tape (or anything more soothing than sounds of global financial crisis). Others suggest adopting a calming mantra such as “be my guest” or “the universe loves you” to be repeated while sitting in traffic or when feeling disturbed by the lunatic who just nearly drove you off the road.
Suite101.com offers a detailed meditation exercise to help combat highway insanity. It might feel a little new-agey, but it might also save your life.