West Michigan, We Need to Take A Deep Breath When Driving

Has anyone else noticed an increase in road rage incidents happening?  I haven’t read about it in the news or anything but as I’ve been driving along running errands the last few days, I’ve seen three different times of road rage happening.

Saturday along 131 north around 28^th Street, I saw two drivers racing into downtown, each trying to cut off the other one over and over until one driver took the Wealthy St exit.  Then Monday night on the way home from work, two cars almost side-swiped each other turning from Scribner onto Leonard west. The driver who ended up following the other car was in the wrong and tried to turn left from a lane that isn’t a turn lane at all. She was then angry that the driver in the “right” had almost hit her. I ended up following them and saw the two drivers scream at each other, before the driver that turn illegally just sped off with her middle finger in the air.

Last night was the third event.  On Alpine at Alpenhorn, just north of downtown,  I was at the stoplight, waiting to turn left, when I see a pickup driving really slow in front of an SUV, when the SUV decided to go around the slow-moving pickup, that driver then floored it and started following the SUV really closely. I’m not sure how it turned out, because my stoplight changed and I drove off the other way.

It’s crazy to have witnessed three different incidents in less than a week, which I think is a sure sign that as a society, we all need to just take a breath.  Getting into a fight or even worse, being killed all because you were trying to “hold your own” isn’t worth it.

Obviously, as we’ve witnessed all across the country, tensions are high right now, so let’s remember as we’re all humans on this crazy ride together, to practice compassion, even if you really want to prove a point. Sometimes it isn’t worth it.  Take a deep breath, it will get better.