I grew up in a small town where driving was never stressful. But since I’ve started going to school in Raleigh, I’ve noticed how stressful it is to drive here. I know, to people that have always lived in big cities, it sounds strange. But trust me: It’s stressful driving down the highway with people cutting in and out, not to mention figuring out those stupid one-way streets.

My brother and I have a running joke when we’re heading back to Raleigh. We always say the people on the highway, once we get to Apex, need to go to a small town and learn how to drive.

For comparison’s sake, my hometown, Sanford, as of 2010, had a population of 28,094 people.  Raleigh, at the same time, had a population of 403,892, according to the Census Bureau. That equates out to Raleigh having just over 14 times as many people as my hometown.

According to the University Planning and Analysis, N.C. State has a population–including students who are both full-time and part-time, undergraduate and graduate, as well as staff and faculty—of 42,763, as of fall 2011. That equates out to N.C. State alone having roughly 1.5 times as many people as my hometown.

Because of its high population, Raleigh has at least 14 times as many drivers and cars on the road as my hometown–that’s a lot more cars.

The fact there are more cars really doesn’t seem to be the major problem though. The roads here are larger than they are at home.  Back home, our “main drag” through town is only four lanes wide, and is never—I mean, never—crowded.  I’ve driven that road enough times to know the only time it gets any semblance of crowded is at about 5:00 p.m. when everyone is getting off work. And, even then, it’s not bad.

In Raleigh, I have yet to find a time when the roads aren’t crowded, except for about 6:30 a.m. on Centennial Parkway. But even then, crossing I-40 on Lake Wheeler Road, the only thing I see is a sea of brake lights.

The real issue with big city driving is the road rage. Everyone is guilty of it.  As Blake Shelton put it, when a fancy foreign car driver yells at you and flips you the bird on the interstate or a Mercedes Benz sneaks into a parking spot you were waiting for, it’s really hard not to lose your temper.

It’s tempting to speed up and cut off the car that yelled at you, or yell at the driver who stole your parking space.  But at the same time, everyone has to remember that you are not the only person driving. Starting a conflict with the people that make you mad will only serve to make you madder and, therefore, create a hazard for other drivers.

Just last weekend while driving home, I was passed on the highway by two cars that were going at least 90 miles an hour. Now, I don’t know the whole story behind why they were speeding, but it was obvious that one car was chasing the other. No, neither were policemen, but I sure would have enjoyed seeing one right behind them.

Attitudes like this one are completely and totally unacceptable. The fact that people drive like that in the first place is a testament to how different it is to live in a big city compared to a small town. If something like that happened at home, more than likely another driver would have known at least one of the drivers and the police would have visited them as a warning.

Driving on N.C. State campus is almost as bad as driving on the highway in Raleigh. Whether it’s at the corner of Dan Allen and Western Boulevard where cars are constantly blocking the intersection causing a problem for buses, or people not following the 4-way stop sign rule at Varsity Drive and Sullivan Drive, there are numerous near-accidents that could easily be avoided by everyone staying calm while driving.