Dreaded Road Rage: Hartsel to Denver & In-Between

Hey guys and gals, I haven't been around in awhile, hope everyone is hanging in there with such a turbulent culture/society these days. I got a huge promotion at my job last May and it took and flipped my working hours a complete one eighty so yea, it's interesting but pretty great. I was working till late at night and now I work really early in the day and am off by mid afternoon. It allows me to spend more time with my wife and get errands done so I can't really complain. Well, at least not about work, money or what have you. That brings me to the root of this thread, and I'll be blunt. The road rage I'm becoming a victim of seems worse than ever, and now even my wife is being targeted regularly on 285 and others and I'm not even close to kidding when I say that she's a model driver. I may have my shortcomings sometimes, and I have the humility to say that I've pulled some jerk moves once in awhile, but I'll be damned you guys, my wife told me a story the other day about a guy in a Jeep basically trying to kill her. What the hell is going on? Am I exaggerating? Has the road rage always been this bad? Feel free to reply with your own encounters (minus too much identifying info for legal reasons), or just spit ball with me about possible reasons, solutions etc. Is it the mass influx of out of staters? A good friend of mine that I made over the fall that moved here from "Philly" thinks that's a good one, but yea man, what's up? Stay safe out there and calm down a little bit! Work, groceries, your newborn grand kids or whatever will be there whenever you get there.

-Smokey

One thing I find that works is turning all three of my mirrors "out" so I'm not hyper sensitive. Keep a steady pace and only adjust my side mirrors before I get to bottlenecks.

Coincidental you mention calling the five oh, I've only done that once in my life I think cause most of the time I figure they'll get pulled over after they finally find a way to get around, and that's happened. I've pulled off onto the shoulder n whatnot too. It's a gamble.

My new friend from Philly was really stuck on the idea that so many people from different states makes the driving here really harsh. There's no medium to anything, it's an extreme on one side or the other on the spectrum. I just know it really, really really really sucks!

-Smokey

Witnessed a Subaru get into a "debate" with a Swift truck at the bottle neck leading down to the Loaf across from the cemetery (more or less). Needless to say the Suby probably has brake fade from avoiding the merging semi lol.

Saw a guy in a Silverado jerk the wheel towards a Jeep Liberty in the straight away towards the old Green Valley Bar. Guy in the Jeep was parked on his rear bumper in the left lane and went to go around in the right and Chevy wasn't having it. No accident but close.

Had a guy parked on me from Pine Junction to Shaffers Crossing, couldn't even see his headlights he was so close. Doing sixty (it's 45-50 through there) and got the single finger salute when he finally went screaming by me at the two lane split.

HELL YEA!: Going to work at four o'clock in the morning the other day and had the above happen (it's really an every day affair on that stretch) and at the split dude/gal/whoever went screaming by just to get lit up red and blue where the giant rooster is just around the corner. They pulled over at Kings Valley. Not sure how much I woulda spent on that entertainment but it woulda been worth every penny.

-Smokey

Recent incidents and this article had me thinking....

www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news...n-aggressive-driving

-Smokey