It is my opinion that in order to fix any problem, one must first see and understand that there is a problem. In changing one's driving persona and by doing so becoming a better driver (conscious driver) I feel that everyone should be aware of at least 5 common areas which reflect upon a majority of today's drivers. These areas include aggressive driving behavior, speeding, tailgating, lane switching, and a negative driving persona, which I feel the other areas stem from.
When I think of the one aspect which directly influences all of the other areas to be covered, they are all related to an aggressive driving behavior. According to our lecture, Dr. James spoke of "risk aversion" as opposed to "risk addiction." Many-a-times have I found myself getting out of serious incidents by the "skin of my hide." Placing myself in a predicament in which case time was of the essence. I couldn't be twiddling my thumbs behind a "slow poke" in the right lane and had to cut over two lanes to the "fast lane" to make up time for sleeping in. After all, cursing won't make the car in front go any faster, so I have to put myself in a situation where I can control my destiny. As the tension mounts to an unbelievable stress level (blood-boiling) everything blanks out of mind (safety, defensive driving tactics, etc...) and unconsciously I take the risk. However, I now realize that by doing so, I am no longer in control of any destiny, especially my own when acting upon aggression.
Interestingly enough I found that quite a few students from the Generation One Traffic Psychology class had very similar thoughts as far as aggressive drivers go. Searching through Dr. James' Home Page, I located the Generation One lab reports and scanned through the students' reports. I found it convenient to click on anyone of the students names, pull up their own lab reports, then click on the "FIND" icon and type in a key word to locate it within the report. It was fast and easy. AGGRESSION LEVEL: 0.
According to Shane Akagi "men are more aggressive than women." I agree with this statement in the sense that history has taught us that since our primitive ancestors walked on two legs, men have been the aggressive beasts (hunters) and women have been the compassionate care-givers (gatherers). In our human nature men have hunted to continue their existence (survival) while women were of course needed to be kept alive and out of harms way in order to do the same(without women, the human race wouldn't go to far, don't you think?). Therefore an aggressive nature had to override any kind of fear that men had to face when knowing that their lives were expendable. Akagi also goes on to say that "male children are encouraged to show emotions, while girls are taught to be more constructive." I agree with this statement also, however I'm not sure that I agree with the fact that they (men) are to freely express some of those emotions in its highest state (e.g. aggression). Jo Allen on the other hand puts the blame not on what boys and girls are taught to do, but how the glamorization of t.v. and movies influences the way people drive. She writes "watching movies with violent driving could initiate people to drive violently." Monkey see, monkey do. I understand how this may influence kids in the way that they behave (and in years to follow how they drive) however, I don't know if I can accept the idea that people act a certain way and take certain chances while driving based on make-believe situations. In fact I don't think that the consequences are given a second thought until the person takes a moment to reflect upon his/her actions. Allen also continues by saying that "men may find it macho to drive violently (or aggressive) because t.v. glamorizes it so. I remember a time when I didn't have my driver's license and had to get a ride with a friend. Well this friend had it in his head that he was indestructible. Codename: PSYCHO. He loved to drive fast, get into fights and scare the hell out of us, but what's a guy to do if he can't drive. One night in particular he showed us this trick that he had saw in a car chase on t.v. in which pulling up on the hand-brake while accelerating and turning the steering wheel towards one way, will produce a 360 degree spin. That was the last night I ever called him to pick me up. The point is that this story is just an example of how people (not just men) act in driving situations. In the case of Psycho there was no call for that, but he felt that nothing would go wrong, eliminating the remote possibility of an accident occurring as a result of poor judgment. Both Akagi and Allen agree that men have a higher degree of aggression when it comes to driving, however if we are to look at making changes in everyone's driving persona, we cannot excuse women for being less aggressive. Whether or not women don't take as many chances as men in driving, or aren't as aggressive as men to do so, the fact remains that they are still taking those chances. Furthermore, whether the reason for this heightened state of aggression in driving situations are due to the way kids are raised (Akagi) or if it has something to do with the influences of the media (Allen) the point which I cannot stress enough is that in anycase, driving must be task done (for everyone's sake) on a conscious level.
Through my own self-observations, I have noticed that if my mood is of a bad nature (wake up on the wrong side of the bed) I not only tend to drive more aggressively, but by doing so, all of the other areas of discussion find their way into the driving picture. Speeding because I'm angry, changing lanes because everyone ahead of me are going as fast as turtles,or tailgating someone just to get them a little fed up so they can feel just as crappie as I do. Heavy traffic is the worst place to be when feeling aggressive because of the confined spaces allowed to you (like the lion that wants to get out of its cage and roam free). The initial fact that I started out of the house on the wrong note has now blown my driving experience way out of proportion and I have now created all of these problems for myself and others on the road.
In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, no one has time to stop and smell the roses. Everything that we do must be done quickly (although I can think of one thing that..oops I didn't know we couldn't talk about _ _ x) and driving is no exception. In fact I would think that most people would agree that driving should be an exception at the highest level because it is a task that is done to get you to a final destination, and not a destination in itself.
Many lab reports from the Generation One files contained information on speeding. I found a particular section from Joleen Lai's report to be very helpful in my query on speeding because contained within her report were links to other students' findings and opinions of speeding as well. A very valuable (not to mention fast) tool to be utilized when writing as well as "surfing" on the "Net."
As I mentioned, Joleen Lai wrote of speeding within her lab report in which she explained that one form of speeding was "moving 2 or 3 car lengths ahead to get to their destinations faster than the rest." I don't understand why people do this, in fact I will be the first to admit that I do it myself. On this very same note, Caroline Balatico talks of "cutting up ahead to get ahead at on ramps and off ramps." For some strange reason people feel that if they speed up ahead of the rest, they will get to their destinations sooner because they don't have to wait in line like the rest. However they fail to realize of the consequences, of the chances that they may not be able to get back in the right lane to get to the on or off ramp. In the worst case scenario, they take that ultimate chance and cut in without looking, leaving the person that they are cutting in front of to have to make a split-second decision to avoid any accident. Beverly Diaz adds that "this island is too small for speeders." I agree strongly with this because where can you possibly have to go in such a hurry on this island. However one can argue that because this island is so small, too many cars are trying to get around at once. In this event one can spend well over an hour to cover a ten mile stretch of freeway. Being that the thought of having to fight traffic day in and day out to get from home to work and vise-versa is programmed into the minds of Oahu drivers, people speed (or try to do so) to cut out some of the time that they may spend in traffic.
Another reason for speeding according to Jo Allen is because one who owns a high-powered car (such as a red Corvette) has to "put it to the test." Her example talks about driving from Kalihi to Ewa Beach in ten minutes. I know that most people feel that because they have high-powered cars (V-6 & V-8 motors) there is a desire as well as a certain need to use that power. Nobody wants to spend all the money to buy a car with a powerful motor if they don't expect to use it. Personally I feel that a four-cylinder car is sufficient for driving purposes on O'ahu. Unless of course you are buying a truck or sport-utility vehicle and are planning to use it for hauling purposes then of course a V-6 (at least) is necessary. However if you think about the driving situation on O'ahu roads, the majority of the people that are driving, do so at peak traffic hours to and from work. During that time they are driving at an average of 20-30 miles per hour until they get off of the freeway. Not to mention that they also have the air-conditioning on because of our lovely humidity. These factors are not taken into account at the time that a person decides to purchase a car. The only thing that one looks at is the amount of horse-power under the hood, the color, bodystyle and all the fancy gadgets that are included in the package. I stress this point in the hopes that one may consider the following; Driving has become a necessity in our daily routine, therefore owning a car has become a necessity as well. To drive however is not a necessity (being that public transportation such as buses are available) but should be considered as being a privilege. When people speed they abuse this privilege and don't take into account what might happen to not only themselves, but others around them because of their carelessness. I can speak from personal experience when I say that I often find myself speeding (10-15 miles per hour above, okay sometimes higher) and at the same time scanning up ahead for any cops with the radar guns. In other words (and I confess I am guilty of this) "It's okay to speed so long as you don't get caught." On this note Michelle Ota agrees with me and adds "speeding is okay so long as safety measures are taken and no one is in danger." Well I think that if you take Jo Allen's approach, saying that the car has power so you have to "open it up" on the road, then it looks like you are "fueling the fire" and just waiting for an accident.
Have you ever had the pleasure of driving a bit too close to the person in front of you and have that person retaliate by constantly braking and shining those brake lights in your face, until at one point the driver decides to slam on his brakes all of a sudden causing you to do the same. Then my friend let me break it to you gently, "YOU'RE A TAIL-GATER!" The one and only, infamous "kisser of bumpers."
I found a section on tail-gating when I was searching through Joleen Lai's lab report on speeding. In it she talked about noticing that tail-gaters usually wore sunglasses or big shades to conceal their identities. I don't really think that they are trying to conceal their identities as much as perhaps trying to block out the sun. In anycase, a tail-gater will most likely tail-gate regardless of it being day or night, calling it a "habit by nature." As far as a legal definition for tail-gating, one might consider the following which was also written by Lai; "According to the Hawaii Drivers Manual, when stopped at a stop sign or light, you must be able to see the bottom of the person's rear tires over the hood of your own car." In other words being any closer and you would be "TAIL-GATING!" I can appreciate this tip of advice when your car is going nearly "0" miles per hour, but how do you compensate for the fact when your driving at 60mph on the freeway and can tell the color of the driver's eyes in front because you can see them through the rear-view mirror looking back at you. In other words "YOU'RE TOO CLOSE!"
People tail-gate for many reasons. Mostly I think that it is an unconscious act which is partly due to keeping up with the flow of traffic. Nobody wants to be a straggler on the freeway because everyone would have to cut around them. Instead they keep a distance with the car in front that is barely enough to squeeze a piece of paper through. The car in front speeds up, you speed up as well. The car in front slows down, you also slow down. Now if you are tail-gating and the car in front of you screeches to a stop, "PRAY!"
I know that the only time that I tail-gate is when somebody cuts me off while driving. I get so angry that I feel that I have to teach this person a thing or two about driving etiquette. So how do I go about teaching this person a valuable lesson about the wrongs of driving?...........Well?........TAIL-UM OF COURSE! After all we were all taught in math that a negative and a negative equals a positive. Right theory, wrong application.
Through Lai's report on tail-gating I learned something about a moral aspect as far as when one does so which made me reconsider my actions. In her report, she refers to tail-gating as "being inconsiderate and unwilling to give space to the person driving in front." A link to this was to Michelle Ota's report in which she continued by saying that tail-gating "scares other drivers into bad decisions." I agree with this statement because the driver (being tailed) has to now worry about another problem (which is the person driving too close behind) and at the same time keep in mind all of the other things going on around him/her while driving. In most cases, tailing someone could result in that person panicking and getting into an accident. On the other hand, people could get very agitated by being followed too close and retaliate by doing the same to you, in which case I would suggest not driving directly to your destination.
If you think about the title of this section for a minute, I would say that most would agree that aggressive lane switching is due primarily to being in the wrong lane at the time one needs to get off the freeway, interstate, etc... Without regards for the other cars on the road, the driver takes the chance of getting into an accident instead of staying in the present lane and taking the next off-ramp. I have seen this happen on countless occasions, and have done it many times. However, I have never attempted the impossible because I know my own limitations within an automobile.
While searching through the Generation One files I came across Jo Allen's comments on the "over-confident driver." In her report she explains about the unusual phenomena of "nudging" her car in the front of another to get in the lane that she needed to be in. I can fully comprehend this phenomena in traffic situations because it has become all too common in my driving behavior. After all, if you need to get into another lane and cars are moving at "turtle-neck" speed, what else can you do but turn on that blinker and proceed. However, this cannot include those times when people switch lanes at higher speeds. In this case she mentions that she speeds up, passes the car and cuts right in front. I do this also only if I cannot get into the lane as a result of the person ignoring my blinker. Interestingly enough, Beverly Diaz said in her report that Hawai'i drivers are rude. Her experiences around parts of the United States led her to this conclusion. According to her report on lane-changing, people on the mainland let you pass when your blinker is on. As for Hawai'i drivers, she reported that you have to drive between 1 to 1.5 miles before they let you in. Usually I don't even bother waiting that long to get into the next lane because if I did, I would have already passed my exit. Instead I take Allen's approach by speeding up and cutting in.
I think that both Diaz and Allen stress the point that drivers are inconsiderate to others. Maybe unconsciously, with regards to Hawai'i drivers, because of our over-population of cars and given our limited resources to get to destinations. Follow this thought: Every place that is accessible on the island of O'ahu is probably within a one hour drive from anywhere on the island, given of course the best possible scenario (no traffic, not raining, etc...). With this in mind, people take advantage of the time, and by doing so, figure that they can make it up on the drive over to wherever they may be heading. Therefore, everyone is rushing someplace. As opposed to "mainland drivers" that drive for hours on interstate highways to get to their destinations, in which case I would assume, that they did not possess this feeling of being in a rush, and would not mind if a person or two cut in front of them along their travels.
You had a bad day at work, got into a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend or maybe found out that you just got an "F"on your Traffic Psychology report. What do you do next? Get in your car and blaze down the road like a maniac. All of a sudden you have taken all of the bad habits that you normally do while driving and placed them into OVERDRIVE. A negative driving persona will capture all of these bad habits (such as speeding, tailgating, lane-changing, etc...) like a black hole and won't allow reason or common sense into your head to let it escape.
Through Jo Allen's report I found comments she had written to Patricia Jung's paper. In it, Jung spoke of having a different kind of negative driving persona than to the one I had previously mentioned. To Jung, her negative persona stemmed from her family always asking her to do the driving. Feeling like a chauffeur to her family led her to a feeling of anger and hate towards driving because everyone else was capable of doing it themselves. Allen could understand Jung's discontent with driving because of her situation. I too have felt like a chauffeur to my family as well, especially in situations where I don't have reasons of my own to go to these different places. However, since reflecting on my driving persona, I have come to realize one thing about driving my parents around. Before I could drive, they were the ones that took me everywhere, regardless of if it were important to them or not. The thing is that it was important to me and that is how they viewed it. Now as they get up in those years, I guess the tables have turned and it is now my turn to take care of them.
Another description of a negative driving persona was found in Jae Isa's report under the sub-heading "Description of Generational Paper 2." In it, Isa spoke of a narrator who described himself as one always being on the go, impatient and uptight. He called his actions "unnoble acts" and listed speeding, tailgating and aggressive lane switching as a few of those acts. He refused to allowing cars into his lane because "he felt he was being taken advantage of and, somehow, damaging his ego and self pride. However, the one that surprised me the most was when he talked of "nudging" his way into crosswalks because he wanted pedestrians to hurry up, and it they didn't would yell and curse at them to do so. It is one thing to go and yell at somebody driving on the road, but to yell at people walking across the street, in a crosswalk, to make them hurry because he is in a rush is an infringement on their rights as people. Who does he think he is? I can't say (fortunately) that I have ever committed this act no matter how bad a mood I was in. Even though I am guilty of every other "unnoble act" mentioned, I have never felt it necessary to nudge my way into the crosswalk and yell at the pedestrians because they are walking. If that were the case, why doesn't he just bang them all because at least then, he doesn't have to waste his breath yelling. On a positive note, the ending of Isa's report reveals that this driver has made improvements on his negative driving persona and now waves and smiles at pedestrians while waiting for them to cross as a stress reduction exercise of some sort. "Way to go, sport!"
HOPE FOR THE BEST, FEAR FOR THE WORST
People take too many chances when driving and you cannot account for everyone's ability that they are in control of themselves (mentally & emotionally) as well as the car that they are operating (physically). Yet with disregard for these obstacles, you, me, everyone takes those chances in the sense that we have faith and trust that the other drivers won't let any kind of accident occur due to our own personal decisions we make while driving. If the previous story is the wave we as drivers on riding, then the roads will be a better and safer "community" to be in. The unconscious act of driving and all the things (bad as well as good) that we do to get ourselves from Point A to Point B must be realized in our conscious mind. We as drivers must open up this awareness and allow room to change for the better. After all, if one person could make the change from one who would nearly hit a person walking because of his own personal time constraints, to a person that would smile and wave to better himself, isn't there hope for all?
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