Maybe road rage isn't anti social

a 
Date: 2002-06-30

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The problem with road rage appears to lie in the definition, writes David Dehaas. In a recent article in Canada's National Post newspaper, Dehaas points out that the term is often applied to driving behavior which is aggressive rather than enraged. "Organizations and even government departments that are otherwise fairly respectable have fallen into the trap of wildly exaggerating hazards, alleging cases of road rage that are really nothing more than momentary impatience." They're describing as "anti social" some pretty common behaviors that most people are guilty of.

Researchers are citing aggressive driving as road rage, says Dehaas, but the most commonly cited aggressive driving behavior is "speeding," according to one Canadian study, and about 85% of drivers admit they do that. It can hardly be described as antisocial, Dehaas argues. "Furthermore, closer scrutiny of the speed of traffic would reveal that the flashing of lights, honking of horns and wanton display of various suggestive hand signals tends to be directed not at drivers exceeding the speed limit but at those anti-social people in the other 15% -- the ones puttering along at 99 kilometres an hour in the fast lane." Read the DeHaas article

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