I'm so happy today to not be a person who makes my living driving a company car throughout a geographic territory calling on everybody or anybody that ... is a doctor, owns a hardware store ... buys space or time ... you get the picture. The reason why I'm happy is that 78% of people who drive "company cars" state that at some time or another a driver has verbally abused them. Over 20% also said that they have been forcibly ridden off the road by another driver. From 1990 to 1998 (sorry, not all stats are updated) the reported violent incidents between two drivers had increased by 51%!! So, do you think the trend has subsided since '98?
Road rage is the next pandemic. It is now the number one cause of death in Israel. Even the ... "milder form of Americans" ... the Canadians, see it as a critical social issue.
I started paying attention to road rage and what is more often called in the reports as, "aggressive driving" about 10 years ago, when I saw a research report that said over two thirds of Americans admit to running red lights.
This is a major social cue about a significant change in attitudes. We are becoming so full of ourselves that we feel like we do not have to obey laws that we do not feel like obeying.
"Authority" is in play. By the time it reaches our driving style ... how many other things in society have rules that no longer cause people to perceive that there are consequences for ignoring them, (read Duke lacrosse here)??
What is road rage? The best definition I could find is ... "an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of another vehicle or the assault perpetrated by an incident that occurred on a roadway"!!
Aggressive drivers by definition ... "follow a progression of unlawful driving actions such as, speeding, improper or excessive lane changes, failure to signal intent or ignoring stop lights and signs". Aggressive drivers know that you do not know who they are, so they feel like they have more power and can do as they please. They do not believe there will be consequences for their actions. This is important because there is a high correlation, and I'd bet casualty, between moving from an "aggressive driver" to a "road rager".
Psychological experts are now debating whether road rage is a mental disorder. The facts are alarming, especially since 64% of people say that they are driving less courteously than last year and view driving circumstances as "my car vs. your car". There is a "territoriality" around our cars.
The state of Indiana has published that between 77-95% of accidents in the state are the result of the drivers ... not the vehicles. If you can believe ... people take more time leaving a parking spot if they notice somebody is waiting for it.
Most material I read said that road rage is the result of ignorance and bad manners, and to make matters worse only 35% of people today take drivers-ed before applying for a license, it was about 90% in 1970.
Between the cognitive and behavioral "models" used to evaluate how to change this "driving psychology" lies the combination of ... risk ... utility ... decision ... and game ... that, drive us. Somehow, the complex relationships between 'subjective risk' and 'expected utility' has resulted in making us believe we have little to fear in consequences from aggressive driving.
The defensive driving philosophy actually does not help. This school of thought does not teach a cooperative and supportive philosophy. Aggressive drivers who "rage" against other drivers often see themselves as defensive drivers. Road rage is a cultural problem not an individual one. Our culture now supports uninhibited aggressiveness ... this is no mental disorder. But, this is a big due to how a new culture is being built that has less respect for others.
About two and a half years ago they put a three-way stop sign at the "T" intersection where the FirstMatter offices are located here in Westport, CT. Our driveway comes smack down to the middle of the top of the "T" making our porch (it is an 1886 Victorian) a perfect place to conduct my own 'kitchen research'. As to my kitchen research, for every 100 cars I counted at "my" stop sign ... 15 cars stopped, 35 cars "rolled through" the stop sign "not quite" stopping ... 24 cars tapped their brakes ... 20 had to stop because of other traffic at the intersection ... and 6 cars made no attempt to stop at all.
 | Become a Smarter Driver |
| Dr. Driving |
| Personal Attack System |
| Rage is Afoot in New York, Or Should Be |
| Road Rage Questionnaire |
| Slower Traffic Keep Right |
| The Face On Your Car |
| The Simpsons |
JR in Portland, Oregon, USA - 5/22/2006 2:36:29 AM DST (GMT-4)
I think another component of road rage is revenge. Example: When I see someone who is offended by the first aggressive driver start following too close, passing, then hitting the b brakes, etc.
I was taught, in the late 60's to keep one car length per 10 mph between myself and the car ahead. They said that space comprises my right-of-way. So when someone cuts in front of somebody, they violate that right of way. Ditto red-light runners, right-lane sneakers, etc.
I do think we have an issue with authority and selfishness on the part of the first driver, but another issue indignation and frustration at scofflaws on the part of the second.
Bottom line, this whole country needs a wake-up call re/the illusion of self-importance.
-JR
WW - 5/22/2006 12:22:21 PM DST (GMT-4)
In my opinion, there may be another reason people ignore stop signs and occasionally red lights than your proposition that "I'm too important to obey the law." In many cases, under certain circumstances stop signs and red lights perform no usefule purpose.
In my community, there is a stop sign placed at an intersection at the bottom of a gravitational well solely to deter speeding through the community. I don't speed through my neighborhood and, at today's gasoline prices, it really burns me to waste carbon bond energy heating up my brake shoes unnecessarily. Which is all this stop sign accomplishes for me.
Similarly in a nearby neighborhood is a stoplight. When I return home around 11:00PM, there is never any traffic on the cross street and the stoplight only serves to ensure that I hit the next stoplight as it is turning red.
The county might at least time the two lights, but they don't because "we don't have the funds." Yet we do have the funds to build shelters for illegal immigrants...
Bottom line: These traffic signals make me feel that the (county) government would rather increase my bill at the pump than respect MY rights as a citizen.
Bill - 6/8/2006 3:04:56 PM DST (GMT-4)
Interesting Stat about Drivers Ed. My daughters took it through the local high school, but now it was my direct cost and not thru the (very high) school tax I paid. Insurance companies "penalize" youth and inexperience- not the dangerous rudeness on the roads unless it becomes an actual accident. NY has pushed the 6 hour Defensive Driving courses, but the instructors are not taking it seriously.
Risk Homeostasis - vicnapier 5/22/2006 11:30:52 AM DST (GMT-4)
You might be interested to know that there has been a lot of traffic research addressing the idea that drivers are compelled to maintain a preferred level of risk. If this is true – and there is compelling research in support of the idea – it would mean that the safer people perceive driving the more dangerous and discourteous their driving becomes.
-Vic Napier
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