Horn or finger?

I love when roadragers get mad at me. They all feel tough thinking I'm a punk kid in my import. I roll the windows down.... And they see me. I am not a punk kid. They usually run.

I like the public humiliation tactic : I point and laugh

Plus I don't reward stupidity.

In reply to mndsm:

The absolute best road rage incident I had occured while I was driving my supercharged 95 Miata.

This kid screams out a gay slur at me in our college parking lot, and starts my way, and I jump out of the Miata to meet him halfway.

I think it created some sort of optical illusion that made me look 7 feet tall, because he RAN back to his car.

Meh, I usually just run them off the road or double tap them in the engine block with the Phalanx gun system mounted on the roof.

at this point in my life I'm not really interested in getting shot in the face so I don't do anything anymore.

seriously, if any of y'all visit AZ and are driving around Phoenix I highly suggest you keep your tough guy hand gestures & kissy faces to yourself.

I have matured from finger to horn and beyond. My current gesture is the sarcastic clap that one would expect from a just wronged into a DNF F1 driver.

Ditchdigger wrote: I am in the camp of "it is just traffic, don't get too worked up about it" but when someone is clearly in the wrong, is doing something stupid or reckless and they make eye contact with me I smile slightly, tilt my head to the side and do that weird "shame on you" finger thing that makes no sense yet everyone knows what it means. Keeping anger out of the situation softens the resolve of a person that just knows they are in the right. Their facial expression usually go to the universal "I'm sorry" look within seconds.

I think that living in the southern Willamette Valley will mellow out most road-ragers. The traffic around here is mellow, the people are mellow, so there is little need to get too hostile...

On the flip side, go to Portland at rush hour, or the Bay Area at any time of day, and you'll see stuff that would make the Pope flip someone the bird.

I tend to use the horn more but in the right situation, the finger appears..

I vary in what i do. Mostly my goal is to make the offender as uncomfortable as possible.

Whether that's blowing a kiss, making deranged faces, or other solutions, some of the reactions are quite amusing to me.

When necessary, I prefer the horn, if it is substantial enough to get the job done.

As I get older the "oh’well; ignore" feels pretty good, and is growing on me.

The finger requires allot more work to be effective. Also, the recipient has got to see it and if they don't, well, then I'm the only one who gets it.

I grew up, married into a Esom Hill Ga/Borden Springs Al, family, There is sometimes a shortened 12ga behind/in the passenger seat depending on what car I am in.

On a daily basis I have to deal with certifiably crazy, idiotic, lunatic morons. I have learned that using the horn can send some of these loons into a full blown rage - I don't want or need that. I also consider anyone on the road to be a possible future boss, maybe dad of my future fiance, or just an off duty cop, so the finger is definitely off limits at all times. My only goal these days is to just stay the hell away from anyone else on the road and get me and my car home in one piece.

In reply to ncjay:

you sir are very wise

Yeah, you never know who's in the other car. There's a famous story about a guy on his way to a job interview who pitched a bitch at someone who cut him off in traffic. When he walked in the office for the interview, guess who was behind the desk?

'The toes you step on today may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.'

One of my most recent ones occurred on a section of four lane interstate that was backed up bumper to bumper at around 5mph. I was in the second to the far left lane. That lane started moving and the guy behind me and to the left failed to keep up, I slid over and filled in the gap. I didn't cut him off but he must of seen it that way because he started honking his horn got two inches from my bumper weaving back and forth while flipping me off. He did this for three or so miles while we were moving 5 mph in traffic with nowhere to go. I got a little fed up but traffic was starting to clear so I just watched him in the mirror. We finally got up to around 45 and this dude was still an inch or two off my bumper. I gave him the bird as traffic opened up and he took out his phone and pretended to make a call, I presume to the cops. I eased over to the right and put my blinker on to get off the exit. He followed behind me, this dude was irate, I debated on getting off the exit even though it wasn't the one I needed. I proceeded in the exit only lane then jumped back on the highway at the last second before the grass. I had plenty of room with traffic. He didn't anticipate the move and the last I saw he was sliding sideways in the grass. I'm sure dude wasn't strapped because as mad as he was he would have pulled it. I know I escalated his anger by flipping him the bird, so I'll chalk that up as a lesson learned.

Curmudgeon wrote: Yeah, you never know who's in the other car.

Used to be you just had to be wary of the guy who got the bottle of Scope in his mailbox.