Statement on aggressive driving by Ricardo Martinez
By: Ricardo Martinez
Date: 1997-07-17
This document is a summary of the statement on aggressive driving by the Honorable Ricardo Martinez, M.D., Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA), before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, part of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Dr. Martinez's statement focuses on aggressive driving. ( Read the full statement .) He provides background statistics on trends in traffic and traffic crash statistics over the past 30 years and zeroes in on aggressive driving as one of today's major problems.
He offers a definition of aggressive driving and some theories about causes. Calling for increased enforcement of traffic laws, he cites increased traffic congestion and unmet driver expectations as a factors in the dramatic increase in 'road rage' in the past few years. Drivers are increasingly frustrated by the fact that they can't get where they want to go in the same time they used to and they don't know how to handle these frustrations.
Expanding roadways will not resolve the problem, Dr. Martinez says. "We cannot always 'build' our way out of the problem....We will have to turn to improved traffic operations and technology to accommodate these increased traffic demands."
Countermeasures focus on the 3 E's: education, enforcement, and engineering. Dr. Martinez has appeared on TV (Oprah, etc.), been interviewed for numerous radio and newspaper exposures. High profile "enforcement waves" are in operation around the nation's capital over the summer. A special enforcement project using laser imaging or video speed detection devices and high resolution digital traffic cameras to detect and record traffic violations on the capital Beltway is being tried. A nationwide cell phone number for motorists to report aggressive drivers is planned.
Other enforcement programs are piggybacking on the wave of interest in aggressive driving and road rage. For example, over $600,000 has been awarded to 32 communities across the country to raise public awareness about the problem of motorists running red lights.
Driver Licensing: NHTSA is strongly supporting graduated licensing systems as a means of reducing young driver crashes.
Commercial vehicles: FHWA's Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) and Pennsylvania law enforcement have teamed up to catch aggressive truck drivers using a high tech approach that includes using photo laser imaging or radar at high crash locations where excessive truck speed previously has been identified as a crash factor.
Engineering and Operations: Various design and traffic management measures are being used to improve flow and decrease stress on drivers. These include Intelligent Transportation Systems features such as coordinated traffic signals and ramp metering management. NHTSA estimates that "ITS state-of-the-art freeway management systems can decrease travel time by 20-48 percent, increase capacity by 16-25 percent, and help create a cleaner atmosphere by cutting down fuel consumption used by vehicles while standing still in congestion."
On a personal level: Seat belts are an important line of defense against the risks posed by aggressive driving, says Martinez. He also urges individuals not to become part of the problem; not to personalize or challenge incidents in traffic; and to report aggressive drivers.
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