Currently cars are used as a tool for:

• commuting/work
• shopping
• recreation (vacation, Sunday drive, visiting friends)

These are some factors (you can add some of your own) that determine our enjoyment of the time spent in the automobile:

• Beauty of scenery (city, suburban multi-lanes, rural, highway)
• Time stuck in traffic (waiting at lights or in slow/congested traffic)
• Joy brought by the final destination/activity

Using the above scale, try assigning each factor a scale of -3 to 3, where positive 3 is the best score and negative 3 is the worst.  For each journey in your vehicle you can assign a score to these three areas.

Examples:

• Driving into the city for a concert/baseball game through thick traffic is usually worth it.
  • (destination: 3, traffic: -2, scenery: 1)
• For one year of my life I commuted an hour (each way) through San Francisco traffic across the Bay Bridge to get to work.  I vowed to never again commute in this way.  Given the equation this one was a negative for me every day, so I needed to change it.
  • (destination: 0, traffic: -2, scenery: 1)
• I go hiking in my spare time, almost always a positive driving experience.
  • (destination: 3, traffic: 3, scenery: 3).

A journey in an automobile should be an overall positive or zero sum experience.  Road rage comes from journeys that are clearly in the negative territory.  If you have consistent trips that dip into the negative territory, consider changing one of the three factors.  It may save your life.