With Christmas shopping nearing an end there will be a lot of last minute shoppers traveling along roadways and around parking lots. Often the stress of the making time for shopping, post office runs, planning travel and social events leads to tension on the road and in parking lots.
In a recent trip we made to get provisions and do some Christmas shopping we observed numerous incidents of parking lot rage. Cars speeding around parking lots like they're being timed in an obstacle course while families attempt to make safe passage into the store and back again. One driver yelling at another because that driver took the parking space he felt should have been his. That was just one example of many that occurred that day.
Being the kind of guy that I am when we go shopping I will drop my wife off at the front door then drive around like everyone else looking for a nice close parking space close to the door. I don't compete with other drivers for parking spaces. Many people are in just too much of a hurry which is one of the major causes of rage. So, if they seem to want the parking space frightfully more than I do they're welcome to it. There will be others.
There are a number of ways to repress a lot of that anger before you get behind the wheel. Use your time wisely by organizing how you do your shopping and other tasks. Plan your shopping trip before you go so you're not making two or three trips that could have been done in one.
If you plan on traveling this holiday season plan your trip well ahead of time and give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination. It's always a good idea to check weather and traffic conditions before you leave. Make sure you take a winter survival kit in case you get stranded and most importantly make sure everyone in the vehicle is buckled up.
This Ask a Trooper column was pulled out of my archives from when I was a Public Information Officer for the Minnesota State Patrol. It was slightly edited from it's original format.
