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Road rage causes and effects
The effects of road rage
Causes and solutions to road rage
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Have you ever sat behind someone stopped at a green light and been tempted to ram them? That's road-rage. Road-rage is becoming an ever-increasing problem in our society. There are several factors that attribute to the growth of road rage. Road construction has increased the daily stress of driving. Rude and inconsiderate drivers don't think before they act. Another cause of the increase in road rage is the incompetence of drivers. Finally those who speed excessively create a dangerous environment to drive in.
The daily stress of driving in traffic has increased due to more road construction projects. The drivers must slow down to merge into one lane or come to a complete stop due to heavy traffic. Aggressive drivers add to the trouble by using excessive speeds to merge at the last minute. More rear-end collisions occur because drivers don't like people cutting in front of them, so they follow too closely behind the vehicle ahead of them. Also, traffic jams cost the average city $900 million in lost work time and wasted fuel every year according to a Newswise article. In 2002, the urban traveler was stuck in traffic 46 hours a year. In large cities, 61-73 hours per year were lost to snarled traffic jams. In 54 urban areas, traffic jams increased 30 percent faster than roads could be built to alleviate them. The problem has worsened over the past decade in small, medium, and large cities according to the annual Urban Mobility Report.
Therefore, road construction seems to have the phenomenal power to attract the most inconsiderate drivers. Inconsiderate drivers often do not allow people to merge into traffic when it is necessary, causing another unnecessary line of traffic. This new line of traffic usually encourages hot-hea...
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... such speeds, drivers will weave in and out of traffic outraging, intimidating, and endangering other drivers on the highway. Too often in the news we hear of road rage ending in a violent stand off between drivers. In a time when the "Too fast, Too Furious" lifestyle seems to be so popular, men and women are ignoring the potential dangers of speeding. Everyday drivers are losing their patience with racers who are putting the lives of their families in jeopardy.
Obviously, road-rage is becoming a more prevalent problem in our society. Road construction, traffic jams, rude and incompetent drivers all contribute to the growth of this problem. The most dangerous drivers who contribute to road-rage are the excessive speeders. A car driven by someone with road-rage is a 2000 pound weapon. Unfortunately as traffic rises, so will stress, so road rage can only increase.
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.
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
Aggressive driving can also result from drunk or drug driving and distracted driving. It is hence densely woven into multiple road dangers.
The most noticeable inconvenience of driving in Miami is traffic congestion. In fact, because the highways are cluttered with a significant amount of vehicles carpooling is encouraged. For this purpose, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes were formed. Each weekday, a simple twenty-minute drive turns into an eternal wait for forward progress. With each minute that goes by cars advance less than twenty feet. And while the traffic may open up in some areas, in its entirety I-95 remains congested during the morning and evening hours, as seen in the image where cars on the South Florida Highways line up bumper-to-bumper. The cause for such highway clutter varies, but it is interesting to note the difficulty in explaining highway driving conditions. It is uncertain as to whether the accidents cause traffic congestion or the traffic congestion causes accidents. Either way, the main roads and highways commuters take to work are crowded with drivers. Furthermore, I-95 passes through several commercial districts in the lower Miami area. Many large trucks and commercial vehicles, as well as passenger vehicles, drive to work at these commercial areas. The weekday traffic congestions on the Miami roadways are, in large part, a major inconvenience to commuters, all with intent to arrive early to work.
Many years ago, a popular movie, "Top Gun" coined the phrase "I feel the need, the need." need for speed and speed." Many drivers today would agree with that phrase. Speeding is one of the most common ways that people break the law. When people break the law there are unpleasant consequences.
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).
Eppley, George. "Confessing to Road Rage." Human Development 26.3 (2005): 48. Acedemic Search Complete. Muntz Lib., Tyler, TX. 25 Mar. 2009.
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.
Drivers who speed often do not realize the enormous danger they are creating. When someone is speeding they have a higher braking time and are often going too fast to notice all of their surroundings, and fail to take all of the safety precautions a driver should use. Road conditions play a large role in the effects of speeding. Choosing to speed can also get a person’s license taken away, cost a fortune, or both.
Speed limits are very important throughout the world. Mainly because it involves the safety of yourself and other drivers on the road. Most people feel as if speeding is okay if you are driving correctly without any distractions. Well that is not the case at all, if you are sure of your driving and doing more than the speed limit it is a possibility that it can be another person at fault for the cause of an accident. Other drivers driving slowly causes road rage because so many people are in different lanes driving at the same speed limit. Speeding has always been a problem with me because I love to drive fast and I have a heavy foot.
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.
III. Connection: Everday we have to deal with these people on our roads. We run a great risk just driving around the corner to go to the store or a quiet trip to church. According to U.S. News and World Report, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that two-thirds of fatalities are at least partially caused by aggressive driving. Fortunately, there is something we can do about it.