The Current Situation of Aggressive Driving and Road Rage

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The Current Situation of Aggressive Driving and
Road Rage

• Dale O. Ritzel, Dan V. Shannon,
• and Paul D. Sarvela
• Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• 16 June 1999
• 32nd ISATA
• Automotive Ergonomics and Safety
• Vienna, Austria

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Driver Self-Evaluation-Are you a safe driver or a
crash waiting to happen. Think about it.

• 1. Does your personality change when you get
  behind the wheel of a car?
  
• 2. Do you consider speed a matter of personal
  preference?
  
• 3. Do you maintain a safe distance between your
  car and the car in front of you?
  
• 4. Do you yield to pedestrians?

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• 5. Do you sometimes follow the car in front of
  you through a red light?
  
• 6. Do you sometimes use your horn to vent your
  frustration?
  
• 7. Are you aware of the speed limit on
  residential streets in your community?
  
• 8. Do you use your turn signal for all turns and
  lane changes?
  
• 9. Do you realize that your speed when passing
  should not exceed the posted speed limit?

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• 10. Do you yield and move to the right, if
  necessary, for emergency vehicles as soon as you
  hear their sirens?
  
• 11. Do you often speed, run red lights, or weave
  in and out of traffic in order to make your
  appointments on time?
  
• 12. Do you sometimes react to other drivers
  mistakes by shouting, screaming, or making rude
  gestures?

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NHTSA Approach to Aggressive Driving and Speeding

• Problem Driving behaviors likely to endanger
  people or property consist of risky maneuvers
  such as tail-gating and high speed driving.
  Speeding is involved, in 1996, 30 of fatal
  crashes, 12,988 deaths. Speeding was associated
  with 116,000 moderate-to-severe injuries, and
  cost society 28.8 billion that year.

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NHTSA Approach

• Strategy NHTSAs goal is to reduce
  speeding-related fatalities 5 by year 2000.
  Research will study the role of speeding and
  aggressive driving in crashes examine new
  measures against speeding, aggressive driving and
  other unsafe driving acts, and study setting
  speed limits and study road design solutions.

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Aggressive Driving Statistics

• National statistics from 1990-1996 reports a 36
  increase in reckless driving incidents.
  
• 12,828 injuries were sustained.
• 90 cases involved driver driving into a building
  or other property,
  
• 322 cases involved domestic violence,

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Statistics continued

• 22 cases the driver snapped and drove into a
  crowd of people,
  
• 221 cases drove into police officers killing 48,
• Majority of reckless drivers were male ages
  18-26,
  
• drivers in 86 cases were 50

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Survey by EPIC/MRA Lansing

• One of every 6 Michigan drivers (1million
  driver!!) admitted to driving aggressively on
  occasion.
  
• Women accounted for 56 percent of those drivers
  who admitted to moderate or high levels of anger
  and impatience.
  
• Women and men were equally likely to act on their
  anger.

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Angry driving - Bad for your Health??

• A recent British study shows 55 of commuters are
  stressed on their daily drive to and from work.
  
• Road stress can drive down your moods and your
  job performance.
  
• The longer the commute, the higher the drivers
  blood pressure, along with also an increase in
  illness and job frustration.

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• You may have commuter stress if you
• Tend to go through red or yellow lights
• Curse or make obscene gestures
• Constantly worry about being late

• You can reduce stress if you
• Ride with someone else or take public transit
• Think of your car as a refuge from freeway
  frenzy
  
• Listen to relaxing music while driving

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A good description of aggressive drivers is
persons that weave in and out of traffic, honk
their horns, run red lights, speeders, and drunk
drivers
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Three types of highway incidents that have made
headlines

• Driver harms or kills another driver whose
  driving behavior has provoked him.
  
• Two drivers, aggressively racing each other, will
  lose control of their vehicles, colliding with
  other cars, injuring or killing someone.
  
• Driver who impulsively takes driving risks
  (passing in no passing zone, going through a red
  light.

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People involved

• Are not predators in the usual sense.
• Dont have history of assaultive behavior
• Usually recognize that they over-reacted
• Most are young men under 25, who have had
  personal, social or job setbacks
  
• Include many who are wealthy, successful,
  responsible individuals

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Assaults are the tip of an iceberg of increased
aggressive driving behavior

• Manifested by
• speeding, tailgating
• failure to yield right of way
• lane changes without signalling
• weaving, cutting in
• rude, provocative behavior including facial rage,
  obscene gestures, and swearing

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Road Rage- culmination of escalating vigilante
behavior

• 1st degree - single gesture, curse, or grimace
  delivered as punishment.
  
• 2nd degree - repeated exchanges of the same,
  together with diminished awareness of other
  sensory input, plus impaired judgement.

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Behavior continued

• 3rd degree - harassing the other driver through
  high beams, tailgating, retarding the progress of
  his vehicle, edging him over, or abruptly
  stopping in front of him, sometimes call highway
  madness.
• 4th degree - intentionally injuring the other
  drivers vehicle or person. ROAD RAGE

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What can we do to protect us and our passengers
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• Do not take the other driver personally.
• Make every attempt to get out of the way.
• Do not retaliate. Ask yourself, Is it worth my
  life?
  
• Put your pride in the back seat. Do not
  challenge them by speeding up or attempting to
  hold-your-own in your travel lane.
  
• Wear your seat belt. It will hold you in your
  seat and behind the wheel in case you need to
  make an abrupt driving maneuver.

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• Be polite and courteous, even when others are
  not.
  
• Assume the other driver made a mistake.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Ignore gestures and refuse to return them.
• Report aggressive drivers to the appropriate
  authorities by providing a vehicle description,
  license number, location, identification of
  person, and direction of travel.

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• If you are harassed by another driver and being
  followed, go to the nearest police station. Do
  not drive to your home. Slow down!
  
• If you have a cellular phone, and can do it
  safely, call the police.
  
• Out think the other driver by controlling your
  aggression.
  
• Never underestimate other drivers capacity for
  mayhem
  
• Practice patience and keep your cool.

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Here are the 6 methods that worked for us

• We are committed to obeying all traffic signs and
  regulations.
  
• We remind ourselves regularly to drive as if we
  are being videotaped on a live TV show with the
  camera and mike right in our car.
  
• We keep alive the conviction that driver errors
  be considered from a moral and spiritual point of
  view.

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6 Methods continued

• We use self-regulatory sentences to defuse and
  de-dramatize driver exchanges in traffic. If we
  hear ourselves denigrate someone ("Stupid driver!
  Why don't you watch it."), we immediately use
  counter propaganda sentences such as, "Come on,
  be nice. Give the man a break."

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6 Methods continued

• We keep ourselves knowledgeable on the subject
  of driving.
  
• We let our wives help us while we are driving.

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Some good resources include the following Web
sites

• Citizens Against Speeding and Aggressive Driving
  - Click on the words to view site.
  
• Automobile Association of the United Kingdom -
  Click on the words to view site.
  
• U.S. House of Representatives - Click on the
  words to view site.
  

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Web Sites continued

• Dr. Driving -Click on words to view site.
• US News - Click on words to view site.
• AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety - Click on
  words to view site.
  

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