Heaven help me: I tend to be a passive person, I tend to get afraid easily, I tend toward stress in interactions with other people.

All these tendencies skyrocket when I and everyone around me are operating several tons of metal and gas.

Here are some thoughts I'd like to non-directly say into the void to my fellow drivers (maybe in particular the aggressive ones?):

1. You aren't the only good driver in the world.

It's like that quote: "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." If literally everyone else on the road is a stupid idiot: you might be the problem.

2. No one is out to get you.

If you feel anywhere from purposefully inconvenienced to full-on attacked, that's actually probably not what's happening. You're focused on your life; they're focused on theirs. No one is focused enough on you to purposefully ruin your drive.

3. Calm down.

You don't have to be angry.

4. Don't get angry.

You're in control of a very big machine. At best, you will scare other, non-angry people. At worst, you might accidentally seriously hurt someone.

5. Please don't make me feel bad for driving safely.

It's awful to get aggressively passed while you're going the speed limit on a curvy two-lane highway.

6. You aren't the good guy for disobeying four-way intersection rules!

If you were there first, go. I don't want you to try to do the polite thing. I want you to make this straightforward.

7. Pedestrians don't get the right-of-way at a green light.

Eek, don't stop! Then all the other lanes of traffic feel obligated to stop! And then I, as the pedestrian, feel wildly embarrassed and the whole thing is terrible!

8. Use your horn if someone needs to know where you are.

There are few other situations where you should use a horn. Particularly not while you're in the back of a row of cars stopped at a red light.

10. Merging lanes is difficult.

But only when you make it difficult. Let people through. Driving works better when we work together.

9. Drive defensively.

Stay aware. Other people will make mistakes driving. You will make mistakes driving. Watch out for the mistakes and avoid them instead of getting irrational when it happens. Make sure everyone's safe. We'd all appreciate it.