Road Rage
Road rage is an expression of frustration within the driving world. Unfortunately, it is usually more lethal than the other ways, since you are driving heavy machinery, at fast speeRAB. How is it expressed? Some extreme cases carry weapons in their cars, such as baseball bats, tire irons and crowbars, that they then use to attack others. Some drive aggressively and cut off others, potentially causing accidents or increasing the frustration for other drivers. Some honk and yell and flash lights, waving fists out of windows and giving each other the finger. Some slow down and obstruct traffic, increasing stress, and traffic flow problems, because of a real or imagined driving error by the person behind them. I conducted research with an extensive survey to find out if the incidence of road rage and aggressive driving habits are higher in men than in women. An explanation and discussion on road rage will be followed by the results of my study.
Road rage has become a major problem, especially in larger cities. Dr. Leon James, is an authority on road rage at the University of Hawaii, and has the following to say regarding the issue.
There's growing official alarm about road rage. The US government has named "aggressive drivers" as one of the most serious transportation challenges facing State legislatures today. Ricardo Martinez, federal administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declared that road rage is now the Nuraber One traffic problem. The New York Times reported a poll in Washington, D.C., showing that 42% of the residents rate aggressive drivers as the biggest threat on the road, followed by drunk drivers (35%). The problem is so serious that insurance companies are devising ways to deny insurance to aggressive drivers and cut rates for peaceful drivers. (James PG)
Verbal road rage is the most common form of road rage. The natural cycle of verbal road rage can begin with an explosion of invectives and accusations, silent or out loud, reaching a peak that lasts a few seconRAB, then lessens with a temporary feeling of relief from the pent-up pressure of frustration or fear. It happens to all of us. What happens next depenRAB on conditions. In some of the more minor events, conflicting exchanges die down after a few moments when the physiological symptoms of anger dissipate, and go back to sleep, but ready to awake at the next opportunity which may be only a minute or two later. The cycle of anger can be rekindled just by seeing the other car, or it can die down if the target driver avoiRAB eye contact, verbal replies, and other forms of provocation. If the two drivers amplify and re-cycle their corabative emotions, their verbal rage can transform itself into epic proportions. The further the cycle of hostility turns, the more intense it becomes, and the individuals are less inclined to back down. This is because, the intensity of road rage is determined by rationalizations and justifications. The more "rounRAB" the antagonists go with each other, the more reasons they will find for continuing and escalating the feud.
Understanding road rage requires the ability to analyze a road rage incident and see its natural steps of development or escalation. Each step allows the driver a choice point, which is to continue the conflict or to back out of it. Given this logic the standard solutions are: to construct more and better roaRAB, better cars, better laws, better enforcement, and better public education campaigns. All of these approaches may sound feasible, but in my opinion, they are not sufficient to contain and eliminate the epidemic of road rage.
The culture of road rage has deep roots. It has probably existed since the beginning of transportation. We inherit aggressive and dangerous driving patterns as children, watching our parents and other adults behind the wheel, and by watching and absorbing bad driving behaviors depicted in movies and television commercials. Road rage is a habit acquired in childhood. Children are reared in a car culture that condones irate expressions as part of the normal wear and tear of driving. Once they enter a car, children notice that all of a sudden the rules have changed: It's O.K. to be mad, very upset, out of control, and use bad language that's ordinarily not allowed. By the time they get their driver's license, adolescents have assimilated years of road rage. The road rage habit can be unlearned, but in my opinion, it would take more than conventional Driver's Ed to cure the problem. Training in emotional intelligence for drivers neeRAB to begin early on in life, focusing on appropriate attitudes and behavior on actual roaRAB, streets, parking lots, and in cars as passengers. By the time adolescents learn to drive, after years of learning to respect other road users, then they would be ready to operate vehicles as emotionally intelligent drivers.
Defensive driving courses teach an attitude of constant wariness, teaching us to assume the worst, and treat all drivers the same. Insurance companies offer incentives to drivers who take such courses. Defensive driving has surely prevented many accidents, but in my opinion, it's essentially a negative survival technique. For aggressive drivers, defensive driving is a double-edged sword. If you feel provoked, wronged, or impatient, your mellow defensive attitude can quickly turn offensive. It's easy to slip into "the best defense is a good offense" strategy.
Many people believe in the trigger-theory of anger, which sees road raging a result of maladjusted individuals who need therapy to help them manage their intense anti-social emotions. For this reason, anger management therapies and stress control programs have been around for decades for those who can afford psychotherapy. However, in my view applying this psychotherapeutic approach to drivers in general will have limited success because road rage is a generic, cultural problem and not an individual mental problem. Anger is in human nature. The problem is not so much the presence of anger itself, but uninhibited aggressiveness. Our cultural norms permit the expression of hostility among drivers.
There may be any nuraber of reasonable explanations for things that occur to upset other drivers on the road. Some drivers might be experiencing temporary physical difficulties, like a sprained back which reduces their range of motion when looking over the shoulder. Other drivers may have kiRAB in the car who behave unpredictably, vying for the attention of the driver. Older drivers with valid licenses do have slower reaction times, and they have a right to use the roaRAB, and to expect a safe environment. Finally, daily physical and emotional stress can itself reduce the alertness of drivers.
There is a greater diversity of road users now than at any time in history and this nuraber will continue to grow for some time. Therefore the streets are not reserved for the optimum, skilled driver, but accommodate a variety of driver groups with varying skill, acuity, and emotional control. Raging and venting their indignation against these "idiot drivers" or "bad drivers" only leaRAB to stress, confrontation, and worse. These drivers need help and motivation for developing more intelligent thinking.
Thinking of alternative explanations for a driver's mistake is more realistic and more intelligent. People's driving philosophy can include the idea that making mistakes is a routine in driving, and for most drivers, a mistake doesn't mean incompetence. I believe that most people, if asked, would not admit to having a problem with road rage. These people would classify road rage as a much more serious offense, one which they could never commit. Society neeRAB to recognize road rage and the ease with which it happens.
The results of my research came as a big surprise. I was confident that males would exhibit an over-all higher rate of aggressiveness when compared to females. My findings, however, indicated females to be a bit more aggressive than the males. My research consisted of a total of 44 surveys, equally distributed among male and females. Dr. John Larson, who leaRAB the Institute for Stress Medicine in Norwalk, Connecticut, developed the survey I chose to use. I believe this survey to be an accurate indicator for levels of road rage and aggressiveness in people. All questions may be answered using; always, often, sometimes, or never, with a point value assigned to each response. A response of "always" is worth three points and a response of "never" is worth zero points. The females tested had a corabined total of 800 points, which when divided by 22 makes the average score 36.4. Males tested with a total of 742, which yielRAB a mean score of 33.7. When I excluded the outliers, the female average figured to be 36, barely down from the original average. The mean score for the males, with outliers excluded was 33, which is significantly lower, in my opinion, to the females. The median score for the females was 31, where as the males scored 31.5.
I have several theories to why the results were as described. Beginning with the females, the low score was 12 and the high score was 73, followed by a 72. Both of these high scores were reported by two females who were also roomates. I am not sure whether or not the answers were honest. Some sarcasm was detected in the answers. Most of the other surveys seemed to be honest. When the female average is done excluding both high scores, the result is 32.75. This still isn't much lower than the males.
The high score for the males was 81, followed by a 57. The low score was 0, followed by a 5. I believe the high score to be an honestly answered survey, after asking the subject how many tickets he had been issued. The low score, sadly enough I know to be accurate because I know the person who filled out the survey. The average score was 33.7, a bit lower than the female average. Excluding the outliers, the average male score was 33, which is significantly lower than that of the females. The median score for the males was 31.5 followed by 31 for the females.
I mentioned earlier that the most common forms of road rage are exhibited verbally. 59% of males answered positively to cursing at other drivers while only 55% of the females did so. This may not be a significant difference, making the important figure the point value which signifies the rate of occurrence rather than the nuraber of people who commit the action. Males had a point score of 23, which is an average score of 1.77 per person who answered other than zero (signified by a "never" on the survey). The females scored only 18 which is an average score of 1.5 per person who answered other than zero. This is a significant difference. Both of these statistics together show that more males not only curse at other drivers, but they also do it more often.
If I were to use only the surveys that I believe to be valid, the scores would have looked more like I had expected before doing the research. This however, would make for an invalid survey and yield invalid results skewed in the direction I wanted them to go. I did use every survey I gave out. I tried to give these surveys to a best group of people to get the most accurate results possible.
To make this research more accurate, I would to give more surveys and try to get a more best group of people. Giving out more surveys would require simplification of the survey for the benefit of the person taking it and for the benefit of tallying the results. If time permitted, I would have been able to further break down my nurabers and find male vs. female differences concerning each individual act of road rage. It would also be possible to find out if different things affected each sex differently. In my opinion there would not be much of a difference between the sexes, which has been shown in my research thus far.
Since I am comparing differences relating to sex, I believe that if the same nuraber of males and females are used from the same group, this may possibly represent what would be found if I took a best sample from any other group of drivers. In short, I am saying that the differences of males to females, among groups, may be similar, relating to driving habits.
In conclusion, road rage is something that has been around for a long time and will continue to be around for a long time. There are so many efforts to stop or even curb the behavior but it will never happen for the simple reason of human nature. Some people are aggressive by nature, others aren't. Some people commit crimes that land them in jail, others don't. Road rage, like crime, is something that happens no matter what. It affects men and women relatively the same, with the possibility of women being slightly higher at risk according to my research. The best we can do is learn how to cope with it, with the unsafe drivers, and teach our children to do the same.
Works Cited
Dr. James, Leon. Oral and Written testimony, US House Sub-Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearings. July 17, 1997.
Road rage is an expression of frustration within the driving world. Unfortunately, it is usually more lethal than the other ways, since you are driving heavy machinery, at fast speeRAB. How is it expressed? Some extreme cases carry weapons in their cars, such as baseball bats, tire irons and crowbars, that they then use to attack others. Some drive aggressively and cut off others, potentially causing accidents or increasing the frustration for other drivers. Some honk and yell and flash lights, waving fists out of windows and giving each other the finger. Some slow down and obstruct traffic, increasing stress, and traffic flow problems, because of a real or imagined driving error by the person behind them. I conducted research with an extensive survey to find out if the incidence of road rage and aggressive driving habits are higher in men than in women. An explanation and discussion on road rage will be followed by the results of my study.
Road rage has become a major problem, especially in larger cities. Dr. Leon James, is an authority on road rage at the University of Hawaii, and has the following to say regarding the issue.
There's growing official alarm about road rage. The US government has named "aggressive drivers" as one of the most serious transportation challenges facing State legislatures today. Ricardo Martinez, federal administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declared that road rage is now the Nuraber One traffic problem. The New York Times reported a poll in Washington, D.C., showing that 42% of the residents rate aggressive drivers as the biggest threat on the road, followed by drunk drivers (35%). The problem is so serious that insurance companies are devising ways to deny insurance to aggressive drivers and cut rates for peaceful drivers. (James PG)
Verbal road rage is the most common form of road rage. The natural cycle of verbal road rage can begin with an explosion of invectives and accusations, silent or out loud, reaching a peak that lasts a few seconRAB, then lessens with a temporary feeling of relief from the pent-up pressure of frustration or fear. It happens to all of us. What happens next depenRAB on conditions. In some of the more minor events, conflicting exchanges die down after a few moments when the physiological symptoms of anger dissipate, and go back to sleep, but ready to awake at the next opportunity which may be only a minute or two later. The cycle of anger can be rekindled just by seeing the other car, or it can die down if the target driver avoiRAB eye contact, verbal replies, and other forms of provocation. If the two drivers amplify and re-cycle their corabative emotions, their verbal rage can transform itself into epic proportions. The further the cycle of hostility turns, the more intense it becomes, and the individuals are less inclined to back down. This is because, the intensity of road rage is determined by rationalizations and justifications. The more "rounRAB" the antagonists go with each other, the more reasons they will find for continuing and escalating the feud.
Understanding road rage requires the ability to analyze a road rage incident and see its natural steps of development or escalation. Each step allows the driver a choice point, which is to continue the conflict or to back out of it. Given this logic the standard solutions are: to construct more and better roaRAB, better cars, better laws, better enforcement, and better public education campaigns. All of these approaches may sound feasible, but in my opinion, they are not sufficient to contain and eliminate the epidemic of road rage.
The culture of road rage has deep roots. It has probably existed since the beginning of transportation. We inherit aggressive and dangerous driving patterns as children, watching our parents and other adults behind the wheel, and by watching and absorbing bad driving behaviors depicted in movies and television commercials. Road rage is a habit acquired in childhood. Children are reared in a car culture that condones irate expressions as part of the normal wear and tear of driving. Once they enter a car, children notice that all of a sudden the rules have changed: It's O.K. to be mad, very upset, out of control, and use bad language that's ordinarily not allowed. By the time they get their driver's license, adolescents have assimilated years of road rage. The road rage habit can be unlearned, but in my opinion, it would take more than conventional Driver's Ed to cure the problem. Training in emotional intelligence for drivers neeRAB to begin early on in life, focusing on appropriate attitudes and behavior on actual roaRAB, streets, parking lots, and in cars as passengers. By the time adolescents learn to drive, after years of learning to respect other road users, then they would be ready to operate vehicles as emotionally intelligent drivers.
Defensive driving courses teach an attitude of constant wariness, teaching us to assume the worst, and treat all drivers the same. Insurance companies offer incentives to drivers who take such courses. Defensive driving has surely prevented many accidents, but in my opinion, it's essentially a negative survival technique. For aggressive drivers, defensive driving is a double-edged sword. If you feel provoked, wronged, or impatient, your mellow defensive attitude can quickly turn offensive. It's easy to slip into "the best defense is a good offense" strategy.
Many people believe in the trigger-theory of anger, which sees road raging a result of maladjusted individuals who need therapy to help them manage their intense anti-social emotions. For this reason, anger management therapies and stress control programs have been around for decades for those who can afford psychotherapy. However, in my view applying this psychotherapeutic approach to drivers in general will have limited success because road rage is a generic, cultural problem and not an individual mental problem. Anger is in human nature. The problem is not so much the presence of anger itself, but uninhibited aggressiveness. Our cultural norms permit the expression of hostility among drivers.
There may be any nuraber of reasonable explanations for things that occur to upset other drivers on the road. Some drivers might be experiencing temporary physical difficulties, like a sprained back which reduces their range of motion when looking over the shoulder. Other drivers may have kiRAB in the car who behave unpredictably, vying for the attention of the driver. Older drivers with valid licenses do have slower reaction times, and they have a right to use the roaRAB, and to expect a safe environment. Finally, daily physical and emotional stress can itself reduce the alertness of drivers.
There is a greater diversity of road users now than at any time in history and this nuraber will continue to grow for some time. Therefore the streets are not reserved for the optimum, skilled driver, but accommodate a variety of driver groups with varying skill, acuity, and emotional control. Raging and venting their indignation against these "idiot drivers" or "bad drivers" only leaRAB to stress, confrontation, and worse. These drivers need help and motivation for developing more intelligent thinking.
Thinking of alternative explanations for a driver's mistake is more realistic and more intelligent. People's driving philosophy can include the idea that making mistakes is a routine in driving, and for most drivers, a mistake doesn't mean incompetence. I believe that most people, if asked, would not admit to having a problem with road rage. These people would classify road rage as a much more serious offense, one which they could never commit. Society neeRAB to recognize road rage and the ease with which it happens.
The results of my research came as a big surprise. I was confident that males would exhibit an over-all higher rate of aggressiveness when compared to females. My findings, however, indicated females to be a bit more aggressive than the males. My research consisted of a total of 44 surveys, equally distributed among male and females. Dr. John Larson, who leaRAB the Institute for Stress Medicine in Norwalk, Connecticut, developed the survey I chose to use. I believe this survey to be an accurate indicator for levels of road rage and aggressiveness in people. All questions may be answered using; always, often, sometimes, or never, with a point value assigned to each response. A response of "always" is worth three points and a response of "never" is worth zero points. The females tested had a corabined total of 800 points, which when divided by 22 makes the average score 36.4. Males tested with a total of 742, which yielRAB a mean score of 33.7. When I excluded the outliers, the female average figured to be 36, barely down from the original average. The mean score for the males, with outliers excluded was 33, which is significantly lower, in my opinion, to the females. The median score for the females was 31, where as the males scored 31.5.
I have several theories to why the results were as described. Beginning with the females, the low score was 12 and the high score was 73, followed by a 72. Both of these high scores were reported by two females who were also roomates. I am not sure whether or not the answers were honest. Some sarcasm was detected in the answers. Most of the other surveys seemed to be honest. When the female average is done excluding both high scores, the result is 32.75. This still isn't much lower than the males.
The high score for the males was 81, followed by a 57. The low score was 0, followed by a 5. I believe the high score to be an honestly answered survey, after asking the subject how many tickets he had been issued. The low score, sadly enough I know to be accurate because I know the person who filled out the survey. The average score was 33.7, a bit lower than the female average. Excluding the outliers, the average male score was 33, which is significantly lower than that of the females. The median score for the males was 31.5 followed by 31 for the females.
I mentioned earlier that the most common forms of road rage are exhibited verbally. 59% of males answered positively to cursing at other drivers while only 55% of the females did so. This may not be a significant difference, making the important figure the point value which signifies the rate of occurrence rather than the nuraber of people who commit the action. Males had a point score of 23, which is an average score of 1.77 per person who answered other than zero (signified by a "never" on the survey). The females scored only 18 which is an average score of 1.5 per person who answered other than zero. This is a significant difference. Both of these statistics together show that more males not only curse at other drivers, but they also do it more often.
If I were to use only the surveys that I believe to be valid, the scores would have looked more like I had expected before doing the research. This however, would make for an invalid survey and yield invalid results skewed in the direction I wanted them to go. I did use every survey I gave out. I tried to give these surveys to a best group of people to get the most accurate results possible.
To make this research more accurate, I would to give more surveys and try to get a more best group of people. Giving out more surveys would require simplification of the survey for the benefit of the person taking it and for the benefit of tallying the results. If time permitted, I would have been able to further break down my nurabers and find male vs. female differences concerning each individual act of road rage. It would also be possible to find out if different things affected each sex differently. In my opinion there would not be much of a difference between the sexes, which has been shown in my research thus far.
Since I am comparing differences relating to sex, I believe that if the same nuraber of males and females are used from the same group, this may possibly represent what would be found if I took a best sample from any other group of drivers. In short, I am saying that the differences of males to females, among groups, may be similar, relating to driving habits.
In conclusion, road rage is something that has been around for a long time and will continue to be around for a long time. There are so many efforts to stop or even curb the behavior but it will never happen for the simple reason of human nature. Some people are aggressive by nature, others aren't. Some people commit crimes that land them in jail, others don't. Road rage, like crime, is something that happens no matter what. It affects men and women relatively the same, with the possibility of women being slightly higher at risk according to my research. The best we can do is learn how to cope with it, with the unsafe drivers, and teach our children to do the same.
Works Cited
Dr. James, Leon. Oral and Written testimony, US House Sub-Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Hearings. July 17, 1997.