(WXYZ) — Ramez Haidar, Franchesca Stacks and Gio Bronco all have the same thing in common: They are drivers and, like many of us, have witnessed road rage.
“There’s so much anger right now. Somehow you see people driving crazy,” Haidar said.
Incidents of road rage in Michigan aren't slowing down. In fact, Michigan State Police says it's a constant problem.
“This guy comes flying through the red light. The lady, she stops and blew her horn, and he pulled out a gun on her. And all she could do was put her hands up. And he made a comment saying something like, 'yeah, now what’s up,'” Stacks said.
With the end of construction season quickly approaching, experts say that may add to the frustration.
“And you see the guy that was literally cussing out the first guy that was cutting off people, get out and I think he’s literally just trying to get into the driver door,” Bronco said. “Road rage is wild, especially nowadays. You got people getting crazier and crazier every day.”
Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw says road rage happens every day in the state on all roads and remains steady.
MSP says they’re getting a lot of calls. However, at the same time, people are not stopping to speak with police and don’t want to file a police report.
“People get this road rage when they feel like their space or their rights have been infringed upon by somebody, aggressively maybe even, and it feels like a moral violation or a social violation,” said Stephanie Preston, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Michigan.
Preston says perpetrators of road rage lack empathy often because they aren’t face-to-face with the other driver. And they’re angry because traffic or a stoplight is slowing them down between point A and point B.
“I think there’s a lot of features that can make the situation worse. For example, there’s a lot of construction happening right now because they basically finish every project they started before the frost comes,” Preston said.
It's another barrier on top of other life stressors that’s intensifying their underlying anger issues.
Preston says one way people can avoid or minimize the situation from becoming worse is to not match the negative energy of the road rage driver.
“Really simply, cues of social forgives like (a wave) or (saying) sorry can do a lot of good in terms of alleviating people’s stress because they’re feeling disrespected or mistreated,” Preston said.
She says a little acknowledgement can go a long way.
“My advice, the way I do it or tell my kids to do is stay out of it. Stay away from people. Give yourself some space. Don’t be like right behind them,” Haidar said.
Stacks said, “Nowadays, everybody is in such a rush. People just need to slow down. Just slow down. It’s not worth your life, it’s not worth an accident. It’s not worth you going to jail.”
Bronco said, “I counter just road rage in general. I counter that by kind of remembering who I am and like, what do I got to lose.”
