Have you heard of barrier aggression in dogs?

TLDR: Dogs use body language. smell etc to gauge wether another dog is friend or foe. When a barrier (like a fence etc) stops this assessment, they go straight to aggression as a defence/protection measure.

My guess is it a similar thing in humans.

We are stripped of our usual communication and threat assessment of the other person we would have in a normal encounter. We can’t see their face, their body language etc etc. So if someone is prone to anxiety and/or aggression (two sides of the same coin), they jump straight to “That driver is a cunt who did that on purpose and to spite me”.

Edit: This is also why I think online discussions so often turn into insult ridden shit fests.

BECAUSE YOU WON’T MOVE OVER TO THE RIGHT FUCKING LANE!!!

Because you perceive your car as your own private space. But in traffic, others constantly “invade” that privacy and force you to react to them.
Additionally, going at least the speed limit is perceived as the “normal” mode in a car. When someone in front of you forces you to stop, it feels like they’re trapping you, cause you actually want to move, but can’t.

Basically, our lizard brains aren’t wired right for car traffic, and some people can’t deal with that.

I think a big part of it is that driving is inherently dangerous (you’re in a metal box going much faster than you’re capabale of going yourself, your health and finances are at stake) and frustrating (waiting in traffic, people making mistakes).

All those things put people on edge and cause them to act out

You see, most people (myself included) subliminally think that their car is an extension of their personal space. You can see this by looking at your nearest neighboring car during a red light stop. The amount of people doing things usually reserved for their bedrooms are astronomical because our subconscious thought we’re in a safe when we’re inside our cars except for everybody can see that you’re picking your nose in all of its glory.

So when you merge a little bit too late or you use your high beam several times, the person on the receiving end might interpret that as an encroachment of their personal space and react accordingly. During my experience as a road user, you can predict how ragey a person is based on the personalization that a person does to their car. The isolation wrought by the recent pandemic doesn’t really help because it made some people forget how to empathize with another human being.

Because I can’t see through these god damn LED headlights this F150/Silverado is using to blind the fuck out of my as it barrels down the road to hang out on my ass in the right lane because someone in the left lane is going to slow.

Because either the person they’re raging at is a moron that doesn’t know how to drive, or they’re a moron that doesn’t know how to drive and nothing is ever their fault.

Lots of good suggestions here, including the difficulty in communicating inherent to being in a car.

I think another important factor is that driving itself is stressful. Surveys of commuters consistently show that people who walk or cycle have the highest satisfaction with their commute, while motorists ranks somewhere from the middle to the bottom (i.e., either ahead of or behind people who use public transport), depending on the study.

When you put people in a stressful situation where it’s difficult to communicate, inevitably some people lose their temper.

Back when I had this issue, it was because I had a stressful job, and all I want to do is go home but you get people on these winding ass country roads who don’t know them so they go 20 under!!

Now I just get mad if someone is stupid and almost hits me.

Some people are just permanently about to lose it.

• seeing your car as an extension of yourself – it’s not “your car hit my car”, it’s “you hit me!”
• disassociation – not seeing the other drivers as humans, just seeing their cars
• willingness to conflate minor inconveniences with being the victim, being oppressed

This is an interesting discussion. I’ve had a few loonies rage at me. How do you handle when drivers follow you way too close, like if you have to brake they might rear-end your car? I’ve had this happen a few times and it’s never because I’m driving under the limit, I usually speed moderately at 20% over. My solution has been to ease my foot off the accelerator to slowly slow down to give them a hint. Some catch on and back off, others get aggressive.

Edit: I should note that speeding up isn’t always possible because in some cases I’m behind someone else at a safe distance.

For me its when I see a driver who is driving unexpectedly. Like speeding in areas with kids. Or driving at high speeds anywhere.

roadways are build for a certain speed so we can anticipate oncoming traffic. Like lights are programmed to allow a block of traffic to go then a break so cars turning can complete the turn between the break. if some asshole fucks it up by hammering the gas they will end up in between the blocks making it harder for all the cars to complete their turn since they now have to wait.

Someone said ‘reading intention’ which is a big part too. I can’t read intention of drivers who are selfishly doing what they want.

it’s the realization that traffic could be better and safer if it wasn’t for certain drivers

i mean a big part of it is just the fact that cars are so inherently bad as a form of transport that 5 of them meeting at an intersection results in people having to stop and wait, which obviously results in frustration because you’re constantly blocked with no way of even turning around.

compare this to a bike where you’re never really blocked unless you’re in a pedestrian area, and even then you can just turn around and leave and pick a different route.

Entitlement and a lack of empathy.