Collecting Data On Driver Communication:
How Drivers Communicate
Introduction
Communication plays an integral role in our everyday lives. Technological devices such as the telephone, radio, and television were invented for the sole purpose of aiding us in our communication with one another. Communication between drivers is also necessary in order to keep our roads safe and as accident-free as possible. Some examples of how we communicate on the road include: using our blinkers to let others know that we are going to change lanes; waving politely to someone who has just let us cut in front of them as a way of expressing our thanks; lightly tapping our horn to let an unaware person know that the traffic light has turned green; and finally, the most important of them all, is our numerous road signs that
tell us speed limit, the flow of traffic, danger signs, etc. If people entered the driving community, completely unaware of all of this communcation, there would be a lot more accidents! That is one reason why you must first pass the written portion of the driving exam, which tests your knowledge of road communciation skills, before you are allowed to practice operating a vehicle. It is the responsibility of each of us to be aware of the communication taking place around us while we are on the road so that we can help to keep our roads safe.
In my report, I will show four examples of road communication that I have witnessed first-hand. I will also share with you my summaries of reports from previous generations on driver communication. Lastly, I will include a few suggestions and hints to future generations about how to make it through this course successfully and make their report even better than the generation before them.
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Situation #1
when:
Tuesday, November 10, 1998
where: Ala Moana Center Street Level Parking Garage
what: I was driving through the lower level parking, attempting to find a stall in the crowded garage.
There was a taxi cab directly in front of me and in front of him was a Dodge Neon rental car. All of a sudden the rental car just stopped in the middle of the lane and slowly, three tourists started to make their way out of the car into the mall. Being that I work in Ala Moana, I'm used to this happening all the time! However, the taxi driver wasn't so understanding. First, he tried to jet around the car by passing in the other lane, which had traffic flowing in the opposite direction. By doing this, he almost hit an oncoming car! Finally, when he did manage to pullover into the other lane, he stopped in the middle of that lane and started swearing out loud to the tourist who was driving the Dodge Neon!! Finally, after saying what was on his mind, the taxi driver drove off.
communication form:
recklessly changing lanes and swearing
analysis of the situation: This situation was very disturbing to me for many reasons. First of all, I really don't understand why it is that so many people who go to Ala Moana to drop off passengers, have this need to stop in the middle of the flowing lanes of traffic. They could easily pull into one of the parking stalls, or if that was too crowded, then pull into one of the numerous spots along the side of the road that are out of the way of the flow of traffic. However, I am not blaming the tourists for this situation that took place because they obviously don't know Ala Moana all that well and weren't aware that they could have pulled over at another spot. The most disturbing part of the situation was the irrational taxi driver. First of all, he did not have any customers in the car with him so he was not being rushed by them to go somewhere. And although the tourists did cause a slight hazard by stopping so suddenly in the middle of the lane, the taxi cab driver caused an even bigger hazard by pulling into the other lane with oncoming traffic. To make matters worse, he stayed in that opposing traffic lane in order to get his "words" in with the tourist! These kind of aggressive drivers do not help the situation by expressing their opinions and acting irrationally, they only escalate the problem further. The best thing the taxi driver could have done was to wait the minute it took for the tourists to get out of the car, accept the fact that these are tourists and they may not be aware of the areas where they can pull over, and then proceed behind the Dodge Neon in the correct lane of traffic through the parking lot. Swearing at anyone for any reason really never accomplishes anything and is not an effective means of communication.
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Situation #2
when:
Friday, November 13, 1998
where:
The Intersection at E. Manoa Road and Woodlawn Drive
what:
I was on my way to work again and I came to this intersection. There was a red light and I was stopped behind a white Toyota Camry. A few seconds later, the light changed to green, but the Camry did not move at all. I observed that the young male driver seemed to be engrossed in conversation with his young female passenger and was therefore, not aware of the light change.
This light is controlled by sensors and thus, if no one drives over the sensor, the light will immediately turn yellow, then red. I decided to honk my horn lightly in order to grab the attention of the driver in front of me.
I did manage to catch his attention and he did notice then that the light was green and therefore started to move. However, he also glared at me when making his turn because he seemed upset that I had honked my horn!
communication form:
honking and glaring
analysis of the situation:
I still do not believe that I was wrong for honking at the driver because I was not doing it excessively as a means to express my anger, but rather as a wake up call to him to get him to pay more attention to his driving environment. I tried to think if there was anything I could have done differently in this situation and the only thing I can think of was to just sit there behind him and let the light turn red again. Although the driver was obviously angry at me for honking at him, I think that I also made him conscious of the fact that he should be more in tune with what is going on around him. I figured that the driver was probably extremely embarassed because he was trying so hard to impress the girl in his car and then when I honked at him, it made him feel ashamed. I believe that as a driver, you should take responsibility and put most of your attention into your driving environment rather than other things. If an emergency situation comes up (e.g. you get into a fight with your significant other), and you find that you are unable to concentrate on your driving, you should immediately pull over to the side of the road, stop the car, and deal with the situation at hand rather than juggling it with your driving.
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Situation #3
when:
Friday, November 20, 1998
where:
Ala Moana Center Street Level Parking Garage
what:
Again I was driving around the parking lot attempting to find parking for work. It was pretty crowded as usual and there were several cars desperately trying to find parking too.
A blue Honda Accord driven by an elderly lady was parked on the side waiting for a parking stall to open up. Meanwhile, a middle-aged lady was walking back to her car with some groceries in her hand.
The elderly lady started her car and was backing up to where the other lady's car was that was leaving. As she was doing so, a group of young teenage boys in a white Toyota Corolla (who had seen that a parking stall might be opening up)
drove around to the same lane. They obviously did not know that the elderly lady had been waiting for a long time before them. They saw the blue Honda backing up and tried to inch as close to her as possible so that she would not be able to
back up enough to make it into the stall. They were unsuccessful and she did end up parking in the stall. The young teenage boys, being immature and not knowing the whole situation, were upset and started to yell
profanities at the elderly lady as she got out of her car and after sticking middle finger at her, drove off.
communication form:
swearing and sticking middle finger
analysis of the situation:
I believe that what I witnessed was just a young group of immature teenagers who did not realize that someone else had been waiting for a stall
longer than they had. To everyone, who witnessed the whole situation, they looked like the fools. The elderly woman in no way deserved the treatment that she received from them because
she rightly deserved the parking stall. The teenagers, if they could have been patient, could have politely let her have the stall, then waited and found that about three other stalls opened up after they angrily drove off!
Apparently, these boys could only resort to swearing and sticking middle finger in order to communicate their feelings. This type of aggressive behavior is seen too often on the road and together we have to work to stop this. This kind of communication does not lead
to any solutions, but rather upsets everyone else witnessing the situation and makes for unpleasantness for all.
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Situation #4
when:
Thursday, November 26
where:
South King Street Crosswalk by Suehiro Restaurant
what:
I was watching from my parent's florist shop window and witnessed an elderly lady attempting to crossSouth King Street.
She waited patiently on the sidewalk until there was a clearing for her to pass. Unfortunately, her body was unable to walk across quick enough
and there were some cars that had to stop and wait for her to cross. One car in particular caught my attention. A young man driving a gold Lexus starting impatiently
edging closer and closer to the lady as though trying to force her to move faster. Then, after she had finally made it past his car, he yelled something to her (which I couldn't make out)
and quickly drove off.
communication form:
yelling and purposefully moving your car too close to a pedestrian
analysis of the situation:
This was a terrible thing of the driver to do to the elderly lady. She was not purposefully tring to get in the way of traffic; In fact,
she tried to wait until she thought there was a clearing for her. It was not her fault that her body is only able to move as fast as it did. If this man had thought about her situation as opposed to just thinking about how this would
make him a whole minute late to wherever he was going, he wouldn't have reacted this way. As drivers, we have to be able to perceive things from a pedestrian's point of view also. We should not think that just because we are in a car and they aren't
that they are doing something wrong.
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Links to Previous Generations
Kristin Subia:
Kristin's report was very easy to read and extremely thorough. She went through six common situations that occur in which driver's must communicate. They are making turns, changing lanes, yielding, making room in one's lane for someone else, tailgating and overtaking, and racing. She then went through the various methods of communication and their effectiveness. She stated that, "We engage in acts that we normally would not do in normal conversation. In a car, you have to improvise and use all avaialable resources to communicate with other drivers." She started off with vehicular communication. This type of communication uses your immediate resources of blinkers, break lights, and, of course, the horn. Next, she describes verbal communication. Verbal communication includes all of the spoken activity between drivers. I agree with her statement that, "The only verbal communication I observed was used mostly during protest and cursing." Finally, she describes gestures and facial expressions, which help other drivers to understand your emotional state.
According to Kristin, most of these methods of communication are used world wide and are therefore, quite effective. I have to disagree with this statement because to me "effective" means the fastest way to produce a desired result.
Methods such as cursing and swearing do produce a result of angering both parties, but does not produce the desired result of making our roads safer.
In fact, swearing and cursing, usually causes people to become defensive and this closes off the lines of communication.
Andrew Shapiro:
Andrew Shapiro's report on the "Effectiveness of the Gestural Communications Involving Drivers Requesting the Right-of-Way" blew me away. He used so many different outside sources and was extremely clear and concise in his writing. He describes a gesture as "any action that sends a visual signal to an onlooker." He is also quick to mention that because body movement, or a gesture, does not have its own universal meaning this often leads to miscommunication between drivers. He conducted his own mini-observational study to "determine what nonverbal communications were used by motorists arriving simultaneously at four-way stop intesections." What he found was that most drivers do not use a clear and obvious gesture, but rather use courtesy and common sense. He also discovered many drivers (espeically young males) who were extremely aggressive and basically demanded the right-of-way. There seemed to be a frequency of rude and obnoxious behavior, which he found shocking. The best way to sum up what Andrew's feelings are is in this quote from his report (from the California Drivers Handbook): "If another driver does not yield to you when he or she should, forget it. Let the other driver go first. You will help prevent accidents and make driving more pleasant." If we could all live by this motto, there would be a lot less deadly problems due to aggressive driving.
Kristin Evert:
Kristin Evert's report was extremely insightful and we can see how her attitude changed just by writing this report. She begins by distinguishing two terms: 1)"Car Communication" which is the communication done using your car and the way you drive (e.g. "tailing."); 2) "Physical Driver Communication" which include facial expressions, hand gestures, and even verbal communication. She predicted that during her observation of other drivers she would find that people in sports cars are more likely to exhibit Car Communication then people in non-sports cars; females are more likely to use waving or pleasant facial expressions to communicate than men; drivers in town or near town are more likely to use Car Communication than drivers on the Windward side; and finally drivers are less likely to wave, us pleasant facial expressions, or Physical Driver Communication at night than in the daytime. What she actually found was that no one exhibited any action communication during the time period that she observed. Also, the only physical communication that she saw was waving. Like most of the other people who wrote reports on this topic, Kristin believes that we should all work together to get along. One suggestion she had was to include topics about Road Rage and common courtesy in Driver's Education. The final part of her paper deals with how to reform your own attitudes toward driving. She labels this "R.I.P." which stands for rethink, implement, and practice.
Mary Elizabeth Pacheco:
Mary Elizabeth Pacheco's report covered two driving situations: overtaking and changing lanes. She defines the function of the doer and the receiver. The doer must acknowledge or accept the other vehicles intent while the receiver must finish the communication exchange thereby eliminating any hard feelings. Her recommendation to accomplish successful driver communication is to recommend a UPC code for drivers. To begin, she suggests that we ourselves implement such universal gestures as the hand wave. This simple gesture could help to prevent bad vibes for those drivers who are courteous and expect to be acknowledged. I enjoyed reading this report and I agree with Mary that people learn by modeling. Therefore, we should all take demonstrate courtesy on the road so that others will see it and hopefully, assimilate it into their own driving repertoire.
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Suggestions for Future Generations
My one and only suggestion would be to make sure you start this report early!!! I know you've probably read this from lots of people already
but it is the one suggestion, if any, that you take to heart and listen to. You might be telling yourself that you have lots of time left, but things come up. You might get sick or
perhaps the server will be down and you will be unable to finish things up last minute! This class is one class that you do not want to procrastinate in. The final suggestion I would have as far as
this report goes is to try and find more web sites on this topic. I searched several different engines and related topics, but was unsuccessful in finding some that I could put in my report. A final quote by an anonymous person that might help you out as you struggle to complete your own webpage:
"When things go wrong as they sometimes will. . . when the road you're trudging seems all uphill. . .when the funds are low and the debts are high. . . and you want to smile but you have to sigh. . . when care is pressing you down a bit. . .
rest if you must, but don't you quit!."
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Epilogue
In conclusion, I hope that by reading this report, you learned a lot about how drivers communicate with one another. My biggest wish is that you will take away this knowledge and apply it to your everyday driving. Remember that swearing and yelling will only
lead to more negative feelings, which could only lead to bitter feelings and perhaps even fatal situations. Take a breath once in a while and be forgiving of other people on the road. Remember that you want to only practice "effective" communication!
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