Every car comes with an anger monster.

After many years of careful observations from a bias sample pool of Singapore drivers (consisting my dad, my friends and cab drivers), I can safely conclude that…

This conclusion is obvious. Because only with the constant exposure to the anger monster does the most meek and soft-spoken people lose themselves over time and morph into fiery, emotionally charged individuals when they are in the driver seat. To illustrate, take a look at the anger levels of the drivers below: 

An interesting thing to note in the above illustration is that the anger monster has weak influence on the learner driver cause he or she is new to the driver seat. Instead, the anger monster chooses to exert its influence on the driving instructor beside the learner driver.

What are some situations that makes a driver angry? Find any of the following situations familiar?

Seeing white…

Jaywalkers…

Tailgater…

Last Minute Lane Changers…

Indeed in the situations above, the other party may do you wrong. But beware, does the situation warrant your fiery reaction or is it the anger monster that is causing you to over-react.

Consider this: If it is an acquaintance or friend who did you wrong for situations above, would you be yelling or cursing at them? Also, if you were back in the days when you are a learner or provisional driver, would you have the same reactions? If you don’t, then most likely it is the anger monster that is making you over-react. Block out its influence!

A side note on the first situation. If an acquaintance or a friend do crap on your windscreen, they do have serious issues with you that should not be ignored.

Judging by the number of cars on the road and the high frequency of the above situations, can you imagine the amount of anger and frustration on the road each day? And it is worst if the anger monster decides to leave the car and stalks you to your office or home and spread its influence there.

Thankfully for me, my dad is so protective of his car, (cough) I meant me, that I don’t get to drive even after I got my licence. So I am not affected by the anger monster in the car. Unfortunately, even if you stop driving, it appears anger monsters now reside at public transport areas too.  For instance, the anger monster can be found at train areas taunting passengers during peak hours, long waiting time or service break downs. I too am a victim of its influence in such situations. 

To curb the powers of the anger monster, my recommendation is to block channels on pop music, political & economy news and football discussion from being played on the car’s radio. These items have shown to trigger an exponential increase in the anger levels of test subjects. In place, drivers should listen to classical, relaxing and soothing music to negate the effects of the anger monster.

And that is how Rusty sees it! 🙂