My Second Non-Oral Outline

Causes of Highway Hostility

Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare, Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl, Published by Prometheus Books, 2000, p. 69-82.

By Robert Lee

I. Defensive Driving

a. In 1996, driver in the US caused five million accidents, forty thousand deaths, and $150 billion in health and related costs.

b. According to a resource curriculum on defensive driving, it’s better to assume the worst from other drivers, and not let it happen, then ignore the worst and let it happen.

c. Defensive driving causes suspicion and seeing other drivers as being an enemy.

II. Stressful Congestion

a. Traffic congestion is a universal problem around the world, because there are never enough roads for the number of vehicles.

b. Statistics

i. $100 billion loss in productivity

ii. 2 billion hours spent in traffic

iii. 6 billion gallons of extra gas

iv. 2 billion incidents of aggressive driving

v. Increase in air pollution

vi. Increase in number of collisions, injuries, and fatalities

vii. Discourages tourism and diminishes quality of life

c. Because of traffic congestions, delays, and frustrated drivers the number of aggressive driving crashes have increased.

d. $1200 is spent each year on gas while sitting in traffic.

e. Solution

i. Build more road space

ii. Slow the growth of vehicle volume on the road with bus and carpool lanes and transit service

iii. Stagger times that vehicles use the road with flex time and telecommuting techniques

iv. More efficient traffic management with coordinated signals and incident management

v. More land-use alternative that might reduce the need for vehicle travel

III. Peer Pressure

a. Example of peer pressure

i. Going faster than they want to go, because of fear of disapproval.

ii. Running a yellow light.

iii. Coming to a complete stop and a stop sign.

b. Why do we do it?

i. Fear of disapproval

ii. Drivers believe that they have the right to respect or disrespect people and laws, to justify hostile feelings, and give themselves permission to do violent or irrational things.

c. Penalties of peer pressure

i. Citations

ii. Fines

iii. Loss of license

iv. Injury

v. Death

Helpful Websites:

http://www.defensivedriving.com/

http://www.drivers.com/article/782/

http://www.bellpub.com/jabr/2000/th000206.pdf

My Homepage:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/lee/home.htm