The road rage epidemic: hype or reality?

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Wednesday, 16. August 2006

This article originally appeared in Vol. 7, Number 3 of Driver/Education, in Summer 1997.

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Is there really so much mayhem on the roads? One radio commentator announced that two-thirds of all driving fatalities in the USA were caused by aggressive driving and road rage. He cited a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report. On the Internet a Web site announces that "In 1995 almost 2 million drivers in Britain were "forced off the road" in road rage incidents, and 500,000 additional drivers were deliberately rammed." We're being told that road rage is a world-wide epidemic.

The answer to the question above is probably "yes and no." A recent survey conducted for the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS) indicates a very much increased incidence of violent traffic conflicts, but the figures about traditionally civilized Britain pushed this writer's skepticism meter over the limit. A quick e-mail message to traffic psychologist John Groeger at the University of Surrey in the U.K. brought the response, "This is absolute rubbish. Some people have done some rather poor surveys and extrapolated wildly."

A call to NHTSA elicited that the two-thirds figure above probably had its origins in a statement made in July by NHTSA Administrator Ricardo Martinez to a House of Representatives Subcommittee on Surface transportation. What Dr. Martinez actually said was, "We estimate that about one-third of these crashes and about two-thirds of the resulting fatalities can be attributed to behavior associated with aggressive driving."

The term "associated with," says a NHTSA spokesman, refers to the fact that this figure was extrapolated from analysis of data on whether aggression-related factors such as changing lanes without signaling, driving on the shoulder and failing to yield right-of-way were included in crash reports.

Topics become fashionable in the media and sometimes the hype gets out of hand. One road rage reference found on the Internet turned out to be a group protesting the proposed building of a four-lane highway near the historic Stonehenge site in England.

However, hype has its benefits. Traffic safety advocates like to point out that one jumbo jet air crash can push the equivalent of 10 jumbo jets of highway crash fatalities right out of the headlines. A local newspaper might report a single-engine plane crash that kills two people on the other side of the continent with more prominence than several local road deaths on the same day.

So whenever we highway safety folk get a chance to surf some of our relatively unnewsworthy concerns into the public consciousness on a wave of hype, we grab the chance. Dr. Martinez and Deputy Administrator Phil Recht have been on "Good Morning America", "Oprah Winfrey", "Dateline", "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" and a variety of other television shows. On the Internet, Professor Leon James ("Dr. Driving") of the University of Hawaii Psychology Department stimulated a hot discussion with his speculation that the crash that killed Princess Diana was caused by road rage.

Staying on Target

Saying that there's hyperbole about road rage doesn't belie the fact that road rage is a massive problem, and one that's getting worse as traffic becomes more intense. However, it should not distract the traffic safety community from the real issue of unsafe driving and crash rates.

British psychologist Meyer H. Parry (Aggression on the Road, 1968) studied aggressive driving back in the '60s and some of his anecdotal evidence is remarkably similar to the road rage stories in the media today. Parry's study was part of an attempt to identify "bad drivers" with a view to treating them or removing them from the traffic mix, in the belief that this would drastically reduce crashes. Since then, researchers have concluded that, while a problem group of drivers may cause crashes out of proportion to their numbers, the real problem is the average driver, driving in an average way. Things just go wrong and we're not sure why. Two major studies conducted during the '70s, one by Indiana University and the other by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory in the U.K., indicated that the specific causes of crashes are diverse, and that crashes generally occur due to a combination of factors coming together. They identified driver inattentiveness and improper lookout as key causes.

So road rage may be a hot topic and a convenient way to piggyback driving issues into the media, but treating the symptoms of traffic problems won't do much for the underlying causes-drivers who are ill-equipped to deal with the modern automobile, on the modern road, in a skillful and mature way.

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driver 1,

I hate to drive in New Jersey. They are the worst drivers!!

John Fitzgerald,

Just a little book you might like to read while you are sitting in traffic.

Traffic Life, Passionate Tales and Exit Strategies, An Anthology, 2004, 254 pages, published by The Buckmaster Institute in Vancouver, USA. – A Review.

In this anthology, a host of young essayists, poets, cartoonists, satirists and short-story writers fling their pens and wits at the absurdities of the Car Culture. The editor, Stephan Wehner, excellently put together this collection of works as a counter-point to the prevalent car dominated “modern society” that has so violently replaced “civilised society”.

Almost 50 creative spirits and inquiring minds, including bicycle poets and poster artists are presented along with slick colour photos of “car-anathema” paintings, ceramic sculptures, prints and mixed media. There are even prehistoric cave drawings of a horde bicyclists hunting down a car across a decimated landscape.

It's great fun. You'll laugh at the many cartoons, especially Andy Singer's car-bashing super hero, Car-Alarm Man, using sledgehammer tactics to decommission the ear piercing and menacing shrill of car alarms. You can sample Zen haikus as an antidote to road rage. Or exult with the tale of the frustrated driver who shoots his own car before abandoning it.

Greg Taylor's Touched by an Angel? Nope--Whacked by a Hatchback, dampens the notion that you have a divine, winged protector right behind you as you cycle or walk the streets or roads. Ken Avidor's Roadkill Bill cartoons are hilariously poignant for a society ravaged by traffic carnage. Ray Bradbury's (Fahrenheit 451) "The Pedestrian," is a captivating, futuristic piece about a lone pedestrian trapped in car-induced, nightmare scenario in 2053.

One particularly informative piece is "Documentation: Declaration of the Right to Walk and Roll," by WALK Austin. Based on an individual who after reading the Declaration Independence, reaches some compelling conclusions that those who would rather walk or cycle, have not been considered equals to people driving vehicles - whose “turning radius, speed, and freedom from even minor delays have been considered paramount."

Reading this bit of fantasy violence against the instruments of so much death and injury, is paradoxically downright therapeutic at one level and depressing on another. (A person killed or maimed every six seconds and a child killed every 3 minutes) - These are figures from a “third world war undeclared” but still considered “humdrum” by our “modern standards”. Fear less what shadows hide: our roads are killing fields. (P Sheehan, Sydney Morning Herald, 2004)

But Traffic Life is more than fun and fantasy. There are also trenchant indictments of the huge environmental damage caused by our carbound excesses and thoughtful proposals for taming these beasts. There's also an "Autoholics Anonymous 12-Step Program" for car addicts. If you've read any books or magazines such as “Carbusters”, about car -sprawl's cancerous grip on modern society, or if you've visited J.H. Crawford's Carfree Cities web, you’ll know there is a healthy anti-car counterculture flourishing throughout the world - and Traffic Life is a classic addition to that growing tradition.

Life is too short for traffic!

kristina,

jersey drivers are the worst by far.

oldracer,

Skill is always going to be in short supply on American highways. German drivers are highly trained and learn to respect the traffic community before they take to the road. OUr country's willingness to accepr this lack of skill makes going fast and staying too close to other cars very dangerous. Hey, the faster you wreck em- the faster they fix em, build em, and sell em. I like a good strong economy don't you?

classroom rager,

I think the problem goes beyond the road and jumps the curb towards home and work. What hasn't changed drastically very recently. Uncertainty makes all of us edgey and shortens the fuse as a vehicle operator.

Greg,

If you could run all the stupid drivers off the road, there would be no road rage

Jose Manuel,

It's usually fairly obvious when one driver is intentionally trying to drive like a jerk to get to you. Sometimes people are in a hurry, however, and really do need the "fast" lane to be clear for them to pass people. They are running the risk of getting pulled over for speeding, why not let them through. I've had to cut people off before to allow mergers coming from an on-ramp space to drive so that I didn't get in an accident. I drive agressively from time to time, especially when people don't drive the speed limit. I could understand if there were a police car right ahead or behind but when there's a clear road, hit the gas and get up to speed and stay there or five miles over.

bob,

Marnie,

I think of myself as a good driver or at least I try to be polite and not aggressive. Sometimes when I see someone who is driving aggressively and cutting people off I hope some road rager goes after them and punishes them

Pete,

Well, this is all good and I can't agree more, someone's freedom stops where the other's freedom starts. And that also means, you get out of the way of people that want to drive fast. Even if you think that he is driving to fast for you. Who made you the judge as to what is the exact right speed above which hell will break loose?

But one thing for sure, these new services that allow one to call to report a bad driver are the biggest factor in increasing road rage. If anyone that thinks another driver can report that driver, than every driver is going to call defensively as soon as there might be a chance of a report. He will also get pissed because that other driver is reporting him. Increased road rage, increased dangerous driving, loss of respect for others. In the end, let's not forget that society is not the only way to solve our problems, as adults, let's just accept that we don't always see eye-to-eye and deal with it without calling big daddy, huh?

Person-Lady,

I'm just learning to drive...and bad drivers make me angry. I'm critisizing my parents for driving bad.

moome,

im a nice driver!!!

Barney,

I'm a polite, considerate driver most of the time, but when someone is inconsiderate (like slowpoke in the passing lane) or doesn't want to cooperate in lane changes, I can get nasty. Lots of drivers out there want to make their own rules

rita,

yea there are bad drivers and they should be recognized and shoved off the road!!!

STEVEN M.BROUSSARD,

I understand there are bad driver.