Road rage is something that we’re all familiar with today, but why does it occur, and why does it affect so many people? Is there a driving sociological or psychological force behind road rage? What is it about sitting in a metal box for hours at a time every day which causes us to lose our tempers so spectacularly? Youtube and personal experience have demonstrated that road rage and dangerous driving can lead to physical confrontations, either from inside of our vehicles or outside of it, and even death in some cases. Road rage is not restricted to cars and trucks, but is also prevalent between motorcyclists and cars, since motorcyclists are much more vulnerable to injury. Here we will examine the difference between normal rage and road rage, …show more content…
A detailed list of “common motorist irritants” includes racing to beat a yellow light that’s about to turn red, traveling in the passing or left lane at a slower speed, making it impossible for others to pass, driving with high beams on behind another vehicle or toward oncoming traffic, slowing down after passing another driver, not making a right turn in the right-hand turn lane, and failing to react quickly enough after the red light turns green. The IDOT website is based upon the “He/she who drives away, lives to drive another day” tenet, and recommends basic driving behavior modifications or practices to avoid road rage incidents. Some of these include putting physical distance between the road rage driver and the car being driven, driving at a safe following distance (one car length per 10 miles per hour of speed), being polite and courteous of other drivers, staying mostly within one lane, avoiding cell phone distraction, avoiding eye contact and reaction to an aggressive driver, keeping music at a low level, and being tolerant of other …show more content…
Psychologically, IED is rooted in Hostile Attribution Bias (HAB) or the belief that every occurrence or threat is purposefully and personally targeting the victim. IED sufferers over-personalize all interactions and thus overreact immediately and aggressively. According to Lauren Kirchner of PSMag, people with serotonin or dopamine levels that are low or inconsistent are often impulsive and aggressive. Coccaro likens road rage to being in a state of denial and a sense of heightened power. Coccaro states, “I say that to people all the time, ‘Don’t assume that the other person is you…you don’t know how nuts they are. You don’t know that they don’t have a gun in their glove compartment.’” Kirchner reported that a Harvard School of Public Health’s study found that the presence of a gun in a car might cause road rage situations to escalate faster. The study also found that young adult males, binge drinkers, distrustful people, those driving with guns, and those arrested for non-traffic violations were most likely to demonstrate road
After reading “Driving While Stupid,” by Dave Barry, he tells us about some of his experience with seeing bad drivers. Barry uses many old experiences while being in Miami, China, Boston, and Argentina. I agree with this statement because in almost every city I been in the driving was terrible. Everyone, in some way or another, has witnessed people drive very stupid and reckless. Barry indicated that some drivers use insane driving techniques. These include driving very fast, failure of the utilization of headlights at night, and having distractions for the view of the drivers. He says that the drivers do not have a sequence for navigation since some are involved in phone calls, eating, reading, changing CDs, crowd surface makeup, etc. This is a common thing for teens and even adults to be distracted behind the wheel. He drove through various cities where the traffic laws are constantly being violated. For example, has only one traffic law, which is “No driver may ever be behind any other driver.” In his opinion, Miami drivers are the worst drivers that he has ever witness because of the guy who was driving on 1-95. He was watching videos on his phone and was clearly not paying attention to the road or any other drivers. This does not only affect him but also the other people around him. He was not be cautious of the road and putting his and others lives in danger.
This article writes about the consequences of a populace overview of 1208 West Australian drivers intended to gauge the predominance of driving-related brutality and hostility and in addition impression of these practices. A reasonable qualification is made between driving-related savagery (confined to criminal demonstrations of brutality, dangers of viciousness and vehicle harm) and other forceful driving practices. Despite the fact that the greater part of overview respondents had encountered some type of forceful driving conduct, just 13% revealed regularly being a casualty of driving-related savagery. Be that as it may, 17% of respondents trusted they were likely, or likely, to be a casualty of driving-related savagery inside the coming
Staying calm is very important. Aggressive drivers tend to make rude gestures and yell obscenities, but do not let this bother you. Paying attention to them will only divert your attention away from the road. Also, do not become frantic if something unexpected happens. Remaining calm will help you think more clearly and
Three teenagers arrested in Arizona for using a slingshot and rocks to attack civilians and cars. Officials described as copycat to shooting along a nearby freeway. The teenagers shot several cars and people on Arizona route 24 Saturday afternoon and evening .the victims were a couple whose car window shattered by the rock. Couple noticed license plate of suspects’ car leading to arrest. The couple did not identify the teens only saying there were 18.
In bumper-to-bumper traffic they will honk, flip people the bird, and yell as if the rest of us can do anything to make things flow way better. Stay away, give him plenty of space, and let him take his anger out on someone or something else. Change lanes, do not drive in front of him, and get behind him. Do anything you can to let someone else be the target of his anger and avoid them
Harsh road rage will most likely have long-term physical and mental health issues from the incident. The article describes that Toronto is one of North America’s highest cycling and pedestrian fatality rates, and from that information they did a study to gain a better understanding of road rage victims’ experiences to consider how they might interact with situational and environmental factors in the outcome of incidents. The results that were concluded from this research were important key themes before, during, and after the incident. Awareness/Hyper vigilance, Scapegoats, and Power Imbalance occurred before the incident. Special Challenges and Misunderstandings, and General Disregard and Special Consideration. Occurred during the incident. Lastly Psychological/Physical Consequences and Changes in Behavior occurred after the incident.
We all have either witnessed, fell victim, or have engaged in road rage behavior. The definition of road rage is, “aggressive or violent behavior stemming from a driver's uncontrolled anger at the actions of another motorist” (DMV, 1999). I know all too well the frustrations of sitting in traffic for hours. An even I myself am guilty of having some road rage tendencies. There is nothing more frustrating, to me, than to have somebody race to get in front of me, and then stopping. Rather than getting behind me and then stopping. It makes me wonder what is so important, that they had to cut me off. Honestly, some days I question if people really do get their licenses from Cracker Jack Boxes. There are all sorts of horror stories of people becoming physically violent, and even at times fatal, all because of road rage. A majority of road rage cases is caused by; distracted drivers, drivers who have anger issues and drivers with an underlying medical issue.
Do you regularly drive over the speed limit ? Do you flash your headlights to a driver in front of you because is driving too slowly? Do you honk the horn so often without any purpose ? Do you ever use obscene gestures or cry at another driver?
Shopping for a car, SUV, or truck today is just like putting together the perfect outfit complete with the ideal accessories. When shopping for the perfect “ride,” not only does the buyer have a wide range of choices, but the buyer also has a wide range of accessories or options from which to choose. Yes, price does play the most major role in a vehicle's purchase. The days of the 70s when one could buy a new car for $4,000 plus have vanished just like the days of the cowboy riding off into the sunset on his favorite horse Trigger. But after the physical reactions of the sticker price shock, what does a driver need when rolling down the road? What options or accessories, does her or she need for a safe, comfortable ride?
I saw this and decided to respond because I absolutely agree with everything you said. Immigrants are human being like us and they deserve the same opportunities as everyone else. Just because they might be illegal doesn’t make them any lesser. They work hard like everyone, sometimes even harder, so let them thrive in America because they can’t in their own countries.
With all the violence that is going on right now in society it would be easy to blame it on genetic disposition. The warrior gene would be used as either a scapegoat for many violent people or a way to imprison anybody with the gene. But it will come down to the question of if you have the warrior gene are you violent? The answer to this would be not really.
Southern California traffic can be very frustrating. I drive the freeway almost every day and the aggressiveness of other drivers has often left me feeling very angry. I can vividly remember a few months ago another driver was riding on my bumper, flashing his high beams, honking his horn. He then pulled in front of me, stopped his car, and got out of his car to confront me. While I decided not to jump out and escalate the confrontation, instead just changing lanes and leaving him standing in the fast lane, I found myself ruminating over the whole situation. I was able to stuff my anger holding myself back from doing what I really wanted to do, which was to jump out of my vehicle and get in his face. As I drove down the freeway I played
There are three types of drivers in this world: competent, overcautious, and reckless. After driving for many years in frustrating rush hour traffic, one might find there are three types of drivers, competent drivers who keep the flow going, over cautious drivers who cause slow and backed up traffic, and reckless drivers who weave in and out of traffic causing one near death experience after another. Trying to sort out what type of driver a person might be is an extremely challenging task. In a person's own mind, they think they are the aggressive type of driver, or the cautious type, but no one will ever admit that they are reckless kind. In most cases they’re too oblivious to these classifications and all other
Nerenberg believes that road rage is a “mental disorder and social disease,” which involves evolution. He states that throughout history mankind has had a competitive spirit and tries to dominate others. Nerenberg defines road rage as “ basically a maladaptive reaction to an identifiable psycho-social stressor that interferes with social functioning,” or, more simply put, “one driver expressing anger at another driver ... at least twice a year.” John Larson, a psychiatrist at Yale University, believes road rage is a “vigilante behavior” and that different levels of road rage exist. Furthermore, Larson believes that road rage is caused by association with sports, saying that a road rager is an individual who is “strongly imbued with the sports model, either from high school, college or professional sports; and from identification with sports heroes who become introjected models for behavior.” Make and model of a car is also a determining factor in road rage, according to Larson.
According to the results from the 2009 AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index published on April 2009 and accessed on May 16, 2016, “78 percent of respondents rated aggressive drivers as a serious or extremely serious traffic safety problem. However, many of the same people reported driving in ways that could be classified as aggressive.”