Google me: Shout, scream - there, that feels better

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Blame yesterday's Sideswipe column - the one where a certain brunette woman driving a red BMW Z3 became so gripped with road rage she deliberately vomited on the bonnet of the car that had offended her. People possessed by road rage do some odd things, but a technicolor chuck on the car itself is a new one to us.

Perhaps she needs some help, Singapore style. According to this Ananova story, learner drivers there now have to pass a "practical" - a confrontation with a mad, red-faced bulging-eyed "motorist" - to check how they handle verbal abuse and physical intimidation during road rage incidents.

They are taught how to behave under road rage conditions, how not to react, and advised to count to 10 if they feel the red mist of fury descending.

According to the United States magazine Atlantic Monthly, Arnold Nerenberg, a clinical psychologist in Whittier, California, says that "competitiveness on the road is similar to what you see in all social mammals. There is this 'I will not let you get ahead of me'." Nerenberg dubs himself "America's Road-Rage Therapist" (only in America ... ) . The BBC tells us that Leon James, a professor of traffic psychology at the University of Hawaii, has found that the initial aggressive stimulation of road rage is harmful to the body - especially if it happens often. (Bet road rage-induced vomiting isn't too healthy, either.)

"When you are angry," he says, "you are pouring stress hormones into your blood system, which are harmful to your heart and other functioning of the body."

At The Road Rage Quotient, you can do a quiz to see if you are at risk of becoming outrageous. The advice for those who fail: "You are a truly sick individual. Move to the country immediately, become a vegetarian; take up yoga; quit your job and buy a farm; grow vegetables; denounce the consumer society; join Greenpeace; donate all your motorised vehicles to a worthy cause."

And, presumably, vent your rage elsewhere, maybe on The Simpsons: Road Rage, an arcade-style racing game made by PlayStation 2 (yes, it's that Simpson family).

But more seriously, William E. Snell jnr and Michael W. Dorris of Southeast Missouri State University's psychology department are doing an online survey delving into people's perceptions of road rage.

If you are a victim of rude roadusers, try this instead of losing your cool. At roadragers.com, you can list the details of incidents that have annoyed you on the road - and the offenders' licence plate numbers. Or just wear it. You can buy a t-shirt which reads: Road Rage Makes You Ugly.