Great article. Here’s another point. From time to time, we all react to a jerk like a jerk. But it affects your own driving and that of more people than the original jerk affected when you lean on the horn in protest. The adrenalin rush caused by the abrupt, loud sound affected everyone in hearing, while the original jerk behavior probably irritated only you. Adrenalin energizes all muscle groups of the body, and it doesn't take much energizing to make the foot heavier on the gas. You probably were driving faster than normal after this incident, or if the traffic didn't permit that, you were probably tailgating, as were a few of the people who heard your horn blasts.

I used to lead aggressive driving classes. Nearly everyone who had been arrested for aggressive driving had seen themselves as victims of a similar incident just before their arrest. Aggressive driving passes car by car down the road.

I found a solution that worked well for me to stop being such an aggressive driver. I hung a fairly noticeable, green, plastic peace sign in my rear-view mirror. Since my biggest pet-peeve in life, even worse than others' inconsiderate driving, is being a hypocrite, this acts as a gentle reminder to chill out and let others' ignorance be what it is and should be: their problem, not mine.

A nice side effect is that people in other cars occasionally give me the peace sign (this beats flipping me the bird).

I used to drive like a bat out of hell, and the change for me was not immediate, but after one year, I'm so well-trained now, that my pulse doesn't even seem to raise at all even if someone blatantly cuts me off or slams on the brakes right in front of me.

And this sounds really cheesy, but everytime I'm in a traffic jam (and I live in Los Angeles, so this is frequently), and I can tell I'm starting to get irritated, I just think, "This is an opportunity for me to work on patience". Yes, it sounds like bull-crap, but I'm probably not going to die from a heart attack now which is what I was looking at before.

The way I stop myself getting upset by other drivers--which often has to do with 'them' being too slow or inconsiderate--is to imagine that teh 'offending driver' is in fact my mother, or sister. They are two of the worst drivers in the world...but if ever i found someone hooting at them, i'd be the first to protect them!

Nevertheless, the article makes for interesting discussions on the whole anonymity issue of online teaching and learning, and I’m looking forward to hearing my students’ responses to this.

obviously, email communication is not anonymous. However, in email communication, I think people tend to act more like they would in anonymous communication. I have been CC'd on some pretty nasty email conversations that never would have occurred face-to-face (it was a frustratingly/hilariously passive-aggressive workplace).

I don't know - seems relevant. Nice article.

Think how Green Nissan might have felt. "Some guy has been following me. I'm sure he's following me. No matter where I turn, there he is again. This is creepy. What kind of pervert is he, following me in broad daylight? No way am I stopping at the party and making my daughter and me vulnerable to this whacko." Maybe.
But I've chilled out by assuming that aggressive drivers are trying to get an unseen passenger to the emergency room. Or that it's my boss's spouse.