Psy 409 11/09/05

My Eighth Outline of Assigned Readings

By Ashley Hooks

Drivers in Hawaii-too nice?

Reference: http://www.drivers.com/article/701 Hawaii’s Courteous Driving Jamming Traffic? By: Driver.com Staff; 07-30-2004.

Instructions for this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-oral.htm

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/hooks/home.htm

Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/classhome-g23.htm

I. Hawaii Drivers

A. Hawaii’s drivers tend to be more laid-back and polite than drivers in other places. They let cars in, slow down tremendously when it rains, and yield to drivers crossing many lanes to make a left turn. These drivers think that they are being courteous, cautious, and safe, therefore making the roads in Hawaii safer.

B. In real life, this kind of laid-back driving can actually cause problems on the roadways. This is because it is not in everyone’s best interest. For example, if a driver lets too many people in front of them into a lane, they are not being courteous to those behind them who will experience more slowdowns.

C. I agree with the author because I think driving that is too courteous can have some bad repercussions. For example, if someone is driving in the rain and going very slow on a major highway; someone could have minimal visibility and not see the slow driver in time to slow down, which could result in an accident.

II. Should the Drivers Become More Aggressive?

A. The problem is not really the fact that the drivers are not aggressive enough. The problem is, the drivers have a lack of driving skill and tactical abilities, therefore their courteousness is not helping the other drivers.

B. For example, if a driver is letting too many people make left turns in front of them, it tends to make other drivers mad because they are being blocked from getting on with their commute.

C. I think that we can’t really place a label on a whole group of people, such as Hawaii’s drivers, and call them bad drivers; drivers within societies vary individually. However, I do think that a driver should not be overly courteous, and they should think about all the other drivers, not just the ones he is helping out.

III. So how can we Improve Driving in Hawaii?

A. It seems as though Hawaii gets more congested every day on the roads. The solution is to recognize that slowing down when you should be keeping up with traffic flow, waving others on, and yielding at the wrong place are not polite and are actually aggressive because you are not thinking about the well-being of the other drivers. These actions cause others to be delayed, and keeps traffic moving slowly behind you, instead of increasing the flow.

B. The main idea of improving roadways is not to use those high-technology devices such as smart cars that can drive themselves. It would be much more useful to educate the minds of the drivers to better understand how to drive so that you are not a threat to others.

C. I agree with the author on this point that some politeness can go too far. I don’t really know if smart cars would be a good idea for our society, especially for Hawaii. I don’t really think we need them if we are perfectly capable of driving cars ourselves. A better solution would definitely be to better educate the current and future drivers of Hawaii.

Related Web Links:

http://www.tripnet.org/state/HawaiiPR042505.htm-An -an article about how Hawaii’s sub-standard road systems affect Hawaii drivers in regards to wear and tear on their car and a longer commute.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1430/is_n6_v15/ai_13509209 - an article about the new research on cars that can drive themselves, car robots.

http://www.drdriving.org/misc/budget.html - Dr. Driving’s tips on driving aloha.