Driving in the DC and Baltimore areas, I find offers very clear examples of the law of cause and effect almost immediately. Typically, whenever I am cut off by another driver, it is usually only a moment or two before that driver is then cut off by someone else. I can honestly say that as I learned to accept that nothing I do, say or think will change the (sometimes horrible, but mostly just selfish) driving habits of others, I became more relaxed and less concerned by the sometimes very irresponsible behavior of others.

Yes Zach, sure does. Other than attending to my driving, I enjoy helping other drivers as much as I possibly can. On many occasions I go way beyond necessary to do this. The surprised look on the other drivers faces is enough for me to say, yes, I have enjoyed my drive today. and great to feel that I have treated other drivers, as I would wish them to treat me........

I just try to minimize my impatience and to have consideration for the rights and feelings of other drivers.

Yes, it seems pretty easy to get tossed asunder by threatening events that catch us off guard! I find that I must constantly work to bring myself back to center...compassion, patience and above all...preserve my integrity!

i am driving as a european in australia - that in itself is quite a challenge in patience, humor & forgiveness. i think i passed the test, moving amongst the folks with entitlement to drive freely in whichever direction without indicating. ... & i keep passing it...

i learned patience on the freeways out there. I use to drive for a living out there. I would drive from San Clemente to Orange at like five o'clock five days a week for months. the 5 to the 405 just past the 55, maybe 57 interchange. I sat there and I would just get so frustrated, and then I stopped caring. I found if I kept several car lengths be hind the car in front of me I wouldn't be so tense. I started buying cassette tapes to listen to. Sit there listening to the radio. Now its a rather fond memory.

Being an L.A. native, born and raised, I'm still working on tolerance; haven't got to compassion, yet, when it comes to traffic, anyway. But, when it comes to compassion, the homeless community there deserves an ocean of it. There's a place to start.

Definitely something to aspire to! Traffic's pretty bad on the east coast too...especially here in the Baltimore/DC area.

My version of the same thing: Make a game of "Describe a scenario that would legitimately make someone become that a-hole." Those scenarios usually involve alien abduction, lousy sex life, racing to visit a dying child in the hospital, or severe diarrhea cramping.

LA traffic certainly does require patience! It also requires courtesy -- letting someone merge in, yielding the right of way often, and so on.

But if compassion requires that I make favorable assumptions about why my fellow Los Angeles drivers do the things they do, well, let's just say my compassion is imperfect.

Bigtime. Buddhist, here: compassion is my jam.