Outline of First My Required Weekly Outline (Not Oral)

Classifying Types of Road Rage in the Road Rage Spectrum

This is a presentation of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving

Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl; Published by Prometheus Books, 2000, pg. 84-96

By: Julia Mae Geraghty

Instructions for this oral presentation are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm

I. Passive-Aggressive Road Rage

a. A form of passive resistance on the road

i. Feeling of desperation

ii. Expressed by ignoring others or refusing to respond properly

iii. Can also be coined “Left Lane Bandit”

1. Slows down when in the left “fast” or passing lane

2. Motivated by enjoyment of dominating others

b. Opinion

i. I feel that everyone has driven passive-aggressively or has encountered a passive-aggressive driver

ii. When first reading about this concept, I immediately remembered many occurrences when I personally encountered passive-aggressive road rage, which made me want to get revenge by doing the same acts back to that person, or someone else.

iii. I believe it is a large problem on the road and one need to be able to dissociate between passive-aggressive road rage and the people that truly do not realize that they are driving slow, in the wrong lane, etc…

c. Example

i. Passive-Aggressive Road Rage: Police going extremely slow on a freeway to frighten other drivers

ii. Left-Lane Bandit: One who drove 65mph in the left lane on the freeway even when he or she notices a pile up of cars behind

iii. False Left-Lane Bandit: Elderly person driving 65mph in the passing lane who does not notice the pile up of cars or the angry tailgater behind

II. Verbal Road Rage

a. Spoken forms of road rage

i. Complaining about traffic

ii. Mental or spoken attacks about drivers, passengers, road signs, etc…

b. Opinion

i. I feel that most people have a moderate to extreme case of verbal road rage without even being aware of the problem

ii. The fact that many people do not realize they are coming Verbal Road Rage frightens me.

iii. I believe that if this type of road rage can easily be a precursor to other more severe actions

c. Examples

i. My best friend Greta

1. Extreme verbal hostility toward other cars and people

2. Makes me, as a passenger, feel uneasy and tense

III. Epic Road Rage

a. The thought and act of instigating extreme punitive measures against another person on the road

i. Chasing, ramming into, and dragging cars

ii. Shooting at, beating up, and running over drivers

b. Opinion

i. This concept suddenly did not surprise me all that much. I have not been directly involved with an Epic Road Rage case, however I have heard many stores and watched many instances on the news.

ii. I was however, surprised at the large number of rural or non-inner city cases.

iii. I agree that this is the most dangerous form of road rage, and it is one that we as drivers should watch out for.

c. Examples

i. Man killing motorist’s dog for cutting him off

ii. Man shooting at vehicle because of child supposeably giving obscene gesture

Helpful Web Links:

http://www.drivers.com/article/166/

http://oldwww.roymorgan.com/polls/1998/3091/page-4.html

http://www.angeresources.com/motorbeware.html