EDITORIAL - Road rage never happens on foot

Why is road rage - getting angry on the road while driving - so much easier than, say, getting angry while walking, for example, on a sidewalk? Driving and walking both involve physical activity and mental concentration that, while dissimilar on the level of effort and execution, are equally irritating if disturbed or disrupted. Yet it is the driver on the road who tends to react more violently than the man on foot on a sidewalk when disturbed or disrupted.

Is it because the roads are stressfully busy? But incidents of road rage also happen even on almost deserted streets. Besides, city sidewalks are often more congested than roads when based purely on the number of users. Is it because a road accident is more injurious or fatal that a driver is prone to fly into rage when his concentration or safety gets tested? But then again, a slip on the sidewalk or curb can be just as deadly.

Is it because a certain status attaches to a person behind the wheel than when he is just foot? If so, does this feeling of self-importance translates into a tendency to be less courteous, respectful or forgiving of others? But then, even on the sidewalk where everyone is supposed to be on equal footing, there are those who expect people in front of them to part like the Red Sea. And yet tempers do not as readily soar on the sidewalk than as they easily would on the road.

Maybe it has something to do with being enclosed in a car or in being in control of a machine that has more quickness and power than an ordinary human being. To be enclosed in a car is to give the person so enclosed some feeling of protection or invincibility and, to a certain extent, some anonymity. A person on foot, on the other hand, is just on foot as with the rest of the pedestrians. He is unprotected, vulnerable and, also to a certain extent, easily recognizable.

A person behind the wheel is also a person in charge of something of value and becomes protective and resentful of any accident that might cause damage. A man on foot, while just as protective and resentful of any harm on his person, is nevertheless aware of the extent to which he can absorb and take any hurt or damage. A man behind the wheel is therefore less likely to take a dent on his car than a person walking would take a bump from behind or an elbow to his side.

Besides, there is the possibility of a successful escape for a person behind the wheel who figures in a road rage incident than a man on foot who confronts another in a sidewalk encounter. A man behind the wheel has a shield or a quick getaway, as the case may be. A man on foot cannot just punch another man in the nose on a sidewalk and expect to go home unscathed.