Road Rage at such a Mature Age

What has our society come to when the elderly sitting behind the wheels of a car, curses and gesturing obscenities at others.

23rd August 2007
I was on my way home, driving 10mph under the speed limit, and keeping to the slower right most lane. Upon approaching a round about, I slowed down and stopped, there were three cars in front of me, each attempting to speed off as soon an opening revealed itself.

I heard the vigorous honking of a car, so I turned to my left; I saw an elderly man in a Volkswagen, smacking at his horn, looking at the car in front of him and gesturing, with his hand, to the driver sitting patiently in the car in front of him, to hurry up and move.

‘Move where’ I thought, they too were stuck at the round about waiting for an opening.
So I turned around, looking forward, and ignored his persistent honking, waiting patiently until the cars in front of me passes on and I was able to drive past the roundabout, and towards the right.

I drove on, on the straight road and turned into the left most ‘high speed’ lane, a minute later I reached the end of the road and in front of me was another round about; there were at least four cars in front of me, so I slowed down to a halt, and prepared to wait patiently for my turn to pass.

I heard a honking from the car behind, so I looked up into the ‘rear view mirror’ and I was stumped to see the same old geezer behind me, angrily blowing his horn at me and gesturing with his hand. I could only laugh… he continued to honk on….when my turn came, I passed the round about and drove into the middle ‘medium speed lane’.

I head yet another all too familiar honking, this time from my right, coming from the left most ‘slow speed lane’. I turn and look, and what do I see, the old man had performed a sharp right turn from behind, trying to get into the slower land, and almost crashing into a four wheel drive jeep, and again he was gesturing and screaming at the driver. This time, the driver, a much younger man, was screaming and gesturing back.

I’d understand had it occurred once, maybe the second time could have been my fault, but it wasn’t; three straight incidents, the same old man, there is no way to explain it other than that our society is changing for the worst.

The roads of Bahrain are not safe, and have not been for a long time now, only now but I can confirm without a doubt, that there is no age limit that is excluded; we are all potential ‘ROAD RAGE MANIACS’; from the young speedsters, to the mature law breaking vigilant drivers, and now, not excluding the old timers, whom once were considered patent and law abiding, are now no better than the worst of us.

I blame society; the stress is catching up to everyone. No one seems to know the ‘Driver’s code of conduct’ anymore. It’s everyone for himself, speed into the opening before the other driver, speed past the traffic light just as it turns red, turn into the car in the adjacent lane without using you signal indicators, do not give the right of way to others, It’s your road, to Hell with the others.

I hope new regulations are implemented by the Traffic Directorate; the lame excuse of an awareness campaign is not enough. They must get tougher on the law breakers and hooligans, road rage must not be condoned by reprimanded.

I wondering when in the world, will our government build a freaking monorail/metro system? I need to stop driving a cars.

...I need to get off the roads…………….they are getting worse by the minute…they …re….not…..SAFE...from...anyone.