That's how my e-mail exchanges have been going since last week's column on road rage and the tie between swearing, rude driving gestures and eruptions of violence.

Maybe it's because school is closing and what we used to call the open road lies before us.

People aiming to see the U.S.A. in their Chevrolet, Volvo or van are apparently worried sick.

My own family will drive all the way from Seattle to "Low Cal," otherwise known as Southern California, next month. And I know it won't be the kind of road cruise I relished as a kid with stops for two-headed snake attractions and historical points of interest.

These days we literally hit the road. Hard.

Maybe what I've been hearing from readers will help.

A dozen readers wished cars had friendlier-sounding horns for when you just want to say "watch out" or "yo, the light is green."

Her Acura has such a wimpy horn she rarely uses it. But she wishes there was a gesture she could use to let other drivers know when she's done something stupid.

Buzz and another reader named Janet thought a special light or horn tone could say, "Sorry I cut you off or didn't signal."

His nickname is DrDriving.

In a survey over the Internet between September 1998 and January 1999, 1,095 people told him:

Participants not only responded, they confessed secrets.

And some survey participants got so mad at each other, they succumbed to Internet rage.

"Sorry but that's the biggest load of (bleep) I've heard in ages," one SUV driver shot back at a small car driver who blamed big rides for crushing small ones.

"Get over it! Ever see what happens to a car hit by an 18-wheeler?"

Another participant really lost it. "You'd be just as dead if I hit you with my mother-in-law's Bonneville doing 70 as with my truck," he wrote. "I'm glad I just bought a bigger truck. Maybe now I can crush your dumb (bleep) when i hit you!"

So, as you pack the trunk, remember what ol' Sgt. Esterhaus used to tell the troops on TV's "Hill Street Blues." Be careful out there.

Susan Paynter's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call her at 206-448-8392 or send e-mail to: susanpaynter@seattle-pi.com