. We must stop killing each other.
Physical & Mental health
This very user-friendly book (filled with different examples, tests and exercises) shows us in different ways how we can learn to be happier and healthier drivers in today's congested traffic. It shows us the consequences of road rage, which includes its impact on our physical and mental health ("Routine anger makes people sick by weakening the cardiovascular and immune systems."). The book gives us an analysis of our reality on the roads, opening our eyes to the irrational way we behave (with disrespect, aggression and defensiveness) while driving. The authors explain this reaction as a response to our unawareness of the situation. Drivers get angry because of several reasons. Some of the main reasons are: feeling the pressure of time, i.e., when their expectations of getting to their destination on time is not being met; feeling trapped with no way out; feeling like a "loser" when passed by someone or when unable to make the light; feeling ashamed of making a full stop at a stop sign when there are no cars in sight; or, finally, feeling that people are being rude to them or stupid. As we can see, the reasons why people get upset on the roads do not seem to be that important. People are not analyzing their feelings, thoughts and actions. They do not know what it is to be emotionally educated!
Emotional Intelligence
We must be aware of our own behavior, and not only the behavior of others, as we usually are. These negative feelings must be analyzed, which consequently will bring up rational thoughts and actions. The authors emphasize the importance of developing emotional intelligence, offering a step-by-step solution to reach this result. Chapters 5 and 6 give us very effective advice, exercises and a self-improvement program to help us in improving our driving skills. Before I read this book, my days would be completely spoiled and negative because of the anger and stress I felt on the road earlier. I would swear, feel stupid, aggressive, impulsive and put myself at a very high risk of getting into a fight or an accident. Now, when I am confronted by an event on the street (that before I would consider a problem), I automatically start to analyze the situation, asking myself why I am getting angry, why I am reacting like this, is this important to me, and realizing that what happened or what is happening is indeed not important. I calm down right away, changing my thoughts toward a completely different direction. I feel much safer and aware while driving.
Media Role
"…feeling hostile and violent behind the wheel is a cultural norm rather than a psychological disorder." We only need to turn on the television to understand this statement. Movies, news, TV-shows, cartoons, video-games and commercials all seem to be focusing on reinforcing aggressive behavior! It is almost impossible to not acquire such behavior when there is so much of it, especially when we are talking about children who do not have a developed sense of judgement yet, and usually accept of what they see. To change this situation we need to look at the root of the problem, education. There must be a proper model of behavior available for children (who are our future) from the beginning of their lives, starting from kindergartens. Chapter 9 explains the importance of introducing driving education at an early stage of children's socialization process, which is right from the beginning.
Reading the third part of the book called "The Future of Driving," we get a better idea of how much we are losing due to not being emotionally educated. It gives us some idea of what polices are being developed on the Federal level to help decrease aggressive drivers' behavior (e.g. photo radar). This section also focuses our critical thinking on all those dangerous car distractions we have today and that are developing to make our driving skills even worse, such as mini-microwaves, cell phones, music, computers, etc.
New concepts
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving brings several new terms and revolutionary concepts to our lives. For the first time, people have started to seriously view road rage as a problematic, negative character in our society. The concept of "Driving Psychology" for example, explains the importance of a proper state of mind while driving using emotional intelligence, self-improvement programs, and being supportive.
Advised for ...
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving is a wonderful book that can be easily read by all generations, and which provides very effective advice on how to make our lives better. For those who are in the field of psychology, the book offers a great opportunity to understand how our affective (emotions and feelings), cognitive (thoughts) and sensorimotor (actions) aspects work together in our behavior. It talks about skills, motivation, awareness, etc. In my point of view, that is what I most liked about the book. It helped me to see the whole picture of how we react to the world around us. I did not find any weaknesses in the book, but I do think that it should be revised every year, so the readers can be aware of the progress and/or regress of this important topic - road rage.
Dr. C. Winskowski, an ESL professor, January 3, 2001, 