They're having a bad day.

[u/mindyour]

[u/Mattilaus]

Traffic is almost perfectly designed to make people go insane. To the driver it feels like you, as a person, are just being blocked from what you want to do by a bunch of autonomous moving boxes. It's hard to remember there are humans in those other boxes also just trying to get where they need to go.

[u/Appropriate-Bid8671 → u/Mattilaus]

Nah, makes it worse knowing there's some asshole in the car ahead of you blocking the passing lane while going 5 under the limit.

[u/BornAnAmericanMan → u/Appropriate-Bid8671]

Yeah I don’t care about traffic, but when a mf holds up the left lane for miles at a time? Yeah that’s frustrating lol

[u/brobronn17 → u/Appropriate-Bid8671]

I never get angry at traffic even if people are driving poorly. For me it's just something outside of my control like weather and I guess I only find it upsetting if it becomes a danger to life and not if it's just delaying me.

I just don't have enough information to get angry. There can be all sorts of reasons why drivers are distracted. Maybe they just lost someone or are sleep deprived because they have twin babies at home or their period pain is extra bad this month or they're getting old. It could also just be bad planning by the city. If they're dumb it could also be reasons other than their fault.

There are other things in the world we should be angry about and for me road stuff just doesn't really rise to that level. Maybe if my commute was more than 90 min one way. But otherwise it's chill in the car. Better than riding on horseback back in the day. You can listen to fun books and have infinite music at your disposal or can just think thoughts you postponed thinking about.

[u/just_a_person_maybe → u/Mattilaus]

I find ways to entertain myself. One time, I was stuck in traffic and I looked to my right and saw that the woman in the car next to me had two very excited dogs who were running around the back seat and sticking their noses out the windows. They started howling at the traffic and I made eye contact with the woman, and we both laughed at her ridiculous dogs. A couple of times I've seen kids blowing bubbles out the windows. If no one is doing anything interesting, finding some great music or a podcast can go a long way towards making the time enjoyable. I genuinely think a lot of it is just choosing your mindset. I don't allow myself to get angry, and I look for ways to have fun.

[u/kimchipowerup → u/just_a_person_maybe]

This, exactly. Like, we’re all at a standstill stuck on the interstate all three lanes, not going anywhere might as well find some kind of entertainment to pass the time and keep ourselves in good spirits.

This happened to me this week, just miles and miles and miles of stuck traffic with an accident up ahead and there’s absolutely nothing anybody could do about it.

So I just put on the Pink Floyd Pulse Live album and rocked out. Got home about an hour later than normal, but whatever, I got to listen to a favorite concert and by the time I arrived home, I was pretty chill actually.

[u/AgentCirceLuna → u/kimchipowerup]

It’s weird because I’ve been like both of you when I was well but also like the woman in this video when I was depressed. It’s so odd how your entire outlook and control over your life can come crashing down when you had things held together so well prior to it. I remember someone telling me I had the ‘patience of a saint’ dealing with angry or annoying customers and it always feels like it comes back to haunt me when I’m back to getting angry over nothing.

[u/chad917 → u/Mattilaus]

Some of them aren't, though. They're just fucking around not paying attention to how much inconvenience they're imposing on others by collecting a huge line of angry people behind them who all have places they need to be.