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Recommended: Road rage issues
It has become obvious that some people cannot drive without having some form of anger at other drivers. These people are usually patient and kind outside of their vehicles; but as soon as they start up their car, a strange phenomenon begins- Road rage. How can kind natured people have road rage? Is there something about driving that makes people tick? A few doctors and psychologists have found answers behind this problem, and some of the answers are quite shocking.
People around other drivers have become more aggressive, territorial, and mean. It happens every day. A person could be driving the speed limit but another car behind gets frustrated, rides too closely as if they are about to crash, and then speeds past honking like a maniac. Some people who have no temper problem admit to losing control when they are driving. “For some road ragers, it’s a need for control, to counter to other drivers who they feel violate their proxemic space, or their need for possession of their lane or their part of the road. For others, it’s unchecked anger and aggression. It’s hormone-based, primitive, small-brain thinking, bringing a lack of emotional intelligence or the need to dominate someone else and their unsharable space. Add in unchecked egos, the need for superiority, narcissistic pride: my vehicle is bigger than yours.” This is quoted by Dr. Steve Albrecht who has written the article
The Psychology of Road Rage. According to Dr. Steve Albrecht, it seems like some people have road rage because they feel as if they own the road, and do not let anyone get in their way. When they do, they are seen as violating the person’s space.
There is also shocking news coming from Dr. Emil Coccaro, in the article ‘Road Rage’ Gets a Medical Diagnosis...
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... influence emotions and actions. Another way to help with road rage would be to set a good example on the road with children so they have less of a change to have road rage problems as well. Children usually copy the way their parents are, and if they are calm on the road there is a good chance the children will too when it is their turn to drive.
It seems like road rage is a mix between nature and nurture. It can be a psychological reason or how one was raised. Road rage should be more noticed than what it is today so people could do something about this growing problem. If ones who know they have a problem with road rage, they should go see a professional so they could find out why it is happening so often when it should not be; or even use the techniques mentioned before. If road rage and the dangers of it is taken more notice, a lot more lives could be saved.
Dave Barry’s “Road Warrior” is a humorous essay that discusses different types of “rages” that exists on a daily basis in American life. Barry begins by discussing road rage then goes into parking lot rage, and shopping cart rage. He explains that these rages are unnecessary, and how they just create violence in the world today. While Barry was writing this article he was living in Miami, Florida discussing the problems of road rage in the city. If anyone has ever felt road rage, or any kind of rage this is for you.
The first point I chose for the article is the four types of rage people have. The four types of rage, is Road rage or ‘’Mad driver disease”, Sky rage, Sideline rage, Line rage. In this essay I will explain just one of them and that is Road rage. Dianne Hales wrote in the article that American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety says that road rage or what they call “Mad diver disease” is getting more and more examples, as in the 1990’s the percentage increase 7 percent each year in that decade. Dianne Hales did not explain road rage in detail, so I wrote out the definition of it. This rage is a hostile or crazy action by a driver of a car or truck or other automobile on the road. This is when the driver does oral malign, intentionally driving dangerously and making warnings to hurt other drivers. Road rage can lead to assaults, and collisions that can guide to trauma to other divers and even death to those drivers. I agree with Dianne Hales that this case of rage is getting more common in drivers as I see it happen more often lately. I sometimes see people driving recklessly, like hooting the horn and diving people off the road. For example, I was with my family in
In this essay I will explain only one of them and that is Road rage. This rage is a hostile or crazy action by a driver of a car or truck or other automobile on the road and this includes oral malign, intentionally driving in a dangerous way, or making warnings to hurt other drivers. Road rage can lead to fights, assaults, and collisions that result in trauma to other divers and even death to those drivers. It can be conceived of as an extreme instance of aggressive driving. I agree with Dianne Hales that this case of rage can be called “mad driver disease” and that this type of rage do increase per year because I see it happen. For an example, I was with my family in our car and my dad was driving. It was a rainy day and people were driving really slow compared to sunny days. We were driving along the turnpike and out of know where there was traffic. There was a motor vehicle collision ahead of us and that caused the traffic. The car behind us started to honk the horn after minutes, sitting there waiting for the traffic to move. Then out of know where the driver got out the car and started to scream to move the car. It was a scary moment. Lucky for us a state police trooper seen him and told
What prompts him to write this essay, is from constantly having to deal with the same types of drivers that cause him to get angry, or rage. He was living in Miami whilst writing this, which is a city of a large population, with lots of traffic. The immediate audience targeted would be other drivers, as reading this would get his points out and maybe they’d stop doing certain things he mentioned. The secondary audience would be future drivers, as they would now know what they should maybe sometimes avoid doing. Like when he mentions “-the aggressive young male whose car has a sound system so powerful and the driver must go faster than the speed of sound at all times-”. Future drivers may read this and think twice about doing it.
Aggressive driving can also result from drunk or drug driving and distracted driving. It is hence densely woven into multiple road dangers.
Dangers on roadways is an issue that describes the discrepancy between perception and reality of road rage. The media, for some odd reason, tends to make road rage a huge controversial issue. As seen on talk shows from Oprah Winfrey to CNN, they reveal to people that road rage could happen at any time and to always be looking over your shoulder. These talk shows and news programs also put fear into our minds by explaining that most roadragers often use guns to kill or injure their victims. Glassner contradicts the media's speculations by stating that out of approximately 250,000 people killed on roadways between 1990-1997, AAA attributed that one in one thousand was an act of road rage (pg.5).
With the introduction of the automobile in the early 1900s, laws have been instituted to protect drivers on the road. With these laws come lawbreakers who put their agenda in front of the well being of others. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost. billions of dollars have been spent, and pollution has grown exponentially because of this. drivers travelling at high speeds on roads (Hartman).
Most of the drivers probably had important places they had to be which can lead to frustration, road rage, verbal abuse and or erratic behavior. It can also be noted that, one driver drove his vehicle on to the emergency lane to bypass a moving vehicle and clipped a car. Not all of the cars did that, so whether a person decides to act in a deviant manner or escalate the situation also depends on their personal characteristics and there level of emotional maturity. Whether conformity is a form of deviance depends on what the group is conforming to and if they have all have the same goal or mission. Who would have thought that if everyone followed the law it could cause a
Life on the Road It’s fair to say that life on the road is something most people do not desire, as a way to live out their days; but a young man named Chris McCandless believed it was necessary to avoid the venomous grips of society. McCandless goes as far as to venture out to the rest of the United States and even crossing borders to achieve his true destination, Alaska. He shows us living such a life can hold many unique and wonderful experiences.
Today’s society appears to be constantly on the go. People seem to be pulled in multiple directions at once. Individuals never appear to have enough time to complete tasks that continually accumulate. It can be difficult to criticize someone that tries to make the most out every minute. Unfortunately, some of today’s drivers show a lack of judgment and trying to perform other tasks, while behind the wheel. People may feel this is best use time while getting to a destination. Occasionally, the small amount of time that people are trying to gain results in a time consuming accident. With modern conveniences that are geared toward an on the go public, individuals appear to be too preoccupied to driving safely.
When I was about seven years old, someone pulled right out in front of my parents. We missed hitting them. When I was nine, we almost backed into another car coming down the road. The lady was on her cell phone, not paying any attention to the road. When I was 13, we finally did hit someone. It was my brother’s fault. My brother should have been more focused. These are all things that happen to everyone at one point in their lives. It’s inevitable. I think if people were to pay more attention to the road, crashes would happen less often. Driving can be dangerous, and people can be even more dangerous if not focusing on the task at hand.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as "the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property"—a traffic and not a criminal offense like road rage. Examples include speeding or driving too fast for conditions, improper lane changing, tailgating and improper passing. Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are estimated to be caused by aggressive driving. 1997 statistics compiled by NHTSA and the American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since 1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving. According to a NHTSA survey, more than 60 percent of drivers consider unsafe driving by others, including speeding, a major personal threat to themselves and their families. About 30 percent of respondents said they felt their safety was threatened in the last month, while 67 percent felt this threat during the last year. Weaving, tailgating, distracted drivers, and unsafe lane changes were some of the unsafe behaviors identified. Aggressive drivers are more likely to drink and drive or drive unbelted. Aggressive driving can easily escalate into an incident of road rage. Motorists in all 50 states have killed or injured other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons. Motorists should keep their cool in traffic, be patient and courteous to other drivers, and correct unsafe driving habits that are likely to endanger, antagonize or provoke other motorists. More than half of those surveyed by NHTSA admitted to driving aggressively on occasion. Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. 62 percent of those who frequently drive in an unsafe and illegal manner said police for traffic reasons had not stopped them in the past year. The majority of those in the NHTSA survey (52 percent) said it was "very important" to do something about speeding. Ninety-eight percent of respondents thought it "important" that something be done to reduce speeding and unsafe driving. Those surveyed ranked the following countermeasures, in order, as most likely to reduce aggressive and unsafe driving behaviors: (1) more police assigned to traffic control, (2) more frequent ticketing of traffic violations, (3) higher fines, and (4) i...
The major cause of aggressive driving is the discourteous or inattentive driver. Driving behaviors include changing lanes to closely, tailgating and "the number one cause is the left lane hog." (Larson 1) These seemingly small errors infuriate the potentially aggressive driver and cause a transformation indescribable to man kind. Reduced law enforcement, highway traffic, the growing congestion is cities, and personal issues play a large role in the disposition of the aggressive driver. Then the angry driver may demonstrate his or her displeasure by speeding around the other vehicle, cutting the other car off, and or with a number of verbal and non-verbal messages. Though the driver may feel justified in his or her action, but the display in most times is very dangerous and often will result in damage to one or both cars involved.
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers” -Dave Barry, comedian. The number of accidents over the last ten years have drastically increased, drivers are paying less attention to the road itself. Many individuals behind the wheel of a car believe that their driving does not affect the road conditions, however it always will. The driving habits of today are catastrophic due to the reasoning that the driving will affect other lives through reckless or distracted driving, and disobeying traffic laws.
Preview: To overcome aggressive driving we must first understand it. I would like to share with you the problem, the dangers and the solutions for this growing trend.