You probably agree that there’s an increasing level of anger out there on the roads as you commute through your own personal gridlocks. It’s making it really tough on the rest of us that there are so many bad-tempered people currently behind the wheels of their motor cars.

It IS all them, right?

Well ...

Look, maybe you, or me, are part of the problem. After all, getting angry at OTHER people who are angry could well be its own indicator, eh?

Hmm. Checking out your own road stress indicators might be a salutary thing to do. It might even save your life, or someone else’s.

There are four areas of our own behaviour to look at: they involve anger, impatience, competing, and punishing.

Ask yourself - and you might as well answer honestly, otherwise you’re fooling only yourself - a few key questions. For instance, do you get angry at drivers generally, at fast drivers, at slow drivers, or when another driver cuts you off in moving traffic?

How do you handle your temper when traffic lights are out of action, or when someone taligates you? Do you ever, occasionally, or regularly get angry with your passengers? Do your friends or spouse ever have to tell you to calm down?

What about your patience factor? Do you get impatient with passengers slow to get into your car, or, as a passenger, do you get impatient with the person driving you? What’s your attitude to pedestrians crossing the street in front of you ... do you find yourself telling them (unheard) to ‘get on with it’?

Don’t tell ME. Answer yourself.

Are you constantly straining at the leash at traffic lights? Or getting fussed when a car ahead of you slows down. What happens to your behaviour if you get behind schedule on a trip? And does waiting in line at a car wash, or for a parking space, get your fingers tapping fast on the steering wheel?

What about the competitive instinct ... are you the kind who is constantly competing for best position on the road, or to get away first from the traffic lights? Do you ever challenge other drivers, overtly or subtly, in something like a traffic lights derby?

Do you actually race other drivers? Either regularly or occasionally, maybe when you’re bored?

The road is not a race track, Jim.

Finally, judge and jury syndrome. Do you curse at other drivers, or make obscene gestures when they get on your wick? Have you ever deliberately blocked other cars trying to pass, or trying to change lanes? Do you ride on another car’s tail because you think it’s slowing you down, or have you braked suddenly to ‘punish’ a tailgater? What about the high-beam ‘flick’ to get at what you consider a bad driver.

Finally, have you ever got out of your car to try and have it out personally with a ‘bad’ driver? Really dangerous one, that. You don’t know who, or what, they’re carrying.

This has been a lot of questions. Asking them honestly of yourself is half the battle of making sure that you’re not one of the causes of a high level of stress out there on your road. Maybe even on mine.

Me, I reckon I have to answer ‘yes’ to a good number of the above. At one time or another.

And I don’t suffer from road rage. Honest.