Report 3
My Proposal for Lifelong Driver Education
by Sarah E. Phillips
instructions: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm
My home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/
Class home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html
1. Preface
In report 2 I had the opportunity to take multiple tests
and quizzes in Dr Leon James and Diane Nahl’s book Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving. The purpose was to
determine what kind of driving style I possessed and to find areas that I had
strengths, as well as my weaknesses.
After taking multiple tests I had to decide on one of my weaknesses to
target for improvement and hopefully eliminate it. My self modification attempt focused on trying to eliminate the
negative reactions I formed while on the road in response to other drivers
negligence, mistakes and even their good driving which I took to be not in my
favor (i.e. driving slow, blocking the turn lane, etc.).
In modifying my driving I was applying the methodology of
Driving Psychology that Dr. James and Nahl propose in their book. It became an active attempt to change the
way that I perceive, process and respond to stimuli while driving. In doing so I could become aware of my rash
and improper thoughts and actions in response to the stimuli.
For more information visit my
report 2:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/report2.htm
In concluding that study I was able to see that I had more
negative reactions on the road than I had ever thought. Through my method of measuring responses
with coffee beans I was able to see objectively how many times while driving I
responded inappropriately. I was able
to recognize that my reactions are a projection of my self and that I was not
always portraying myself in a favorable light.
I was bale to see areas that needed improvement and I have continued to
work on those since the project has ended.
This report has a different purpose, but one that is just
as important. In this report I will
attempt to critically think about ways to make Driver’s Education a lifelong
event and make a proposal of possible ways to do so. In thinking about driver’s education I am acknowledging that it
is an important aspect that has been neglected but that nonetheless I feel to
be worthy enough to focus on. In
thinking critically of ways to make driver’s education a lifelong event I am
thinking of ways that not just I but that others could benefit from in making
ourselves better drivers. In each
person attempting to make themselves a better driver we are in turn making our
roads a safer place for ourselves, our children, family and friends.
2. Introduction
In their book, Road
rage and Aggressive Driving, Dr. James and Dr. Nahl have given many
different ideas as to how to make Driver’s Education a lifelong event. Chapter nine starts with some statistics
about teens’ accident rates. One
shocking statistic was is that a 16 year old teen driver is 42 times more
likely to be in an accident than is a 17 year old driver. That one year of experience really seems to
contribute to lowering chances for accidents and even deaths.
Driver’s education seems to be a great force in lowering
accident rates among teen drivers. Dr.
James and Dr Nahl state, “the need for driver education is high especially
among teens, yet states rarely require it or fund it at sufficient levels. Driving courses are seldom available in
public schools, and those that offer courses cannot meet demand” (192). This statement really made me stop to
think. Each year hundreds of teens die
in accidents because they have not been sufficiently trained to drive and yet a
class like driver’s education is not made available to help prevent these deaths.
This is disturbing. Driver’s education has for years proven to
give young people the time behind the wheel and in the classroom to help them
better understand the workings of the vehicle and experience on the road in a
relatively controlled environment. It
is strange to think that when it has been proven to reduce accidents and deaths
and improve control and ability that it is neglected. I think that driver’s education is a valuable tool for anyone
learning to drive and that it should be given more funding. In giving driver’s education programs more
funding we would be investing to save lives.
Another quote that caused me to think was the following,
Dr. Larson “urged law enforcement to focus on the more ‘subtle’ aggressive
driving violations such as not signaling, not yielding, following too close and
making obscene gestures” (194). This
struck me first because I thought it was an absurd idea, if cops were to pull
over and ticket each of these “violations” they would be absolutely exhausted
at the end of the day and people would live in constant paranoia of being
pulled over. Then I thought that the
paranoia might actually deter aggressive drivers from doing these actions.
It seems elementary but in
fact it is a wise idea. By having law
enforcement out collecting violators and fining them people would be more
careful of how they behaved while driving.
If they knew there was a good chance they could be pulled over and made
to pay up many would stop acting in such a way.
A last few quotes that struck me was that of “driver-ZED
interactive CD-ROM program” (193) for teaching appropriate risk
management. These two ideas are very
wise and I could see them logically in place for all drivers to complete. This program is logical because it uses real
driving conditions and has proven effective.
This program is logical because there would be no excuse for every
driver not to complete. By being on a
computer it can be done at leisure to the individual and they would not have to
attend inflexible meeting times if that were to not work out for their
schedule. It makes sense also that if
every school cannot afford to have driver’s education they could have “driver’s
ZED” instead. It is cheaper but still
provides for realistic and applicable situations for the driver-to-be.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2003/hodges/bookreview.htm
On this page the writer,
Roderic Hodges makes a remark, “This section includes a much-needed proposal
for reworking the way our entire society perceives the driving
experience”. I think that he is right,
society does need to be reeducated about the facts of driving statistics and
what really happens on the road and how it can be improved. He is really quite pessimistic in his
opinion of how this can be done and makes note of it for every suggestion the
book makes. He claims that while they
are good ideas it would be hard to implement.
While some of the projections would be hard others would not. Driver’s ZED would be a great program that
could easily be implemented and taken advantage of.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2003/piper/g18bookreview.htm
On this page the author, M.
Heather Piper, mentions how vital it is for parents to read Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving. She points out
that since schools are cutting back funding it is important for parents to take
responsibility and put in to action some systems on their own.
To checkout more reviews by
students visit these pages:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2003/arzadon/bookreview.htm
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2003/velocity/g18bookreviewreport.html
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2003/dechert/bookreview.htm
Each student has read and
provided a review of the chapter but each lacks a personal attempt at trying to
figure out ways to implement programs for driver’s education. Many seem to think that it is impractical or
impossible to implement programs that the public would find acceptable or that
didn’t cost too much money but I believe that it is possible and easy to
do. In section four I will explore this
further.
3. Class Discussions and Lecture Notes
Jenny Arakaki’s presentation on 26 January was very
insightful. She opened her handout with
the question “Road Rage: Real or Fiction?”.
She gave a definition that explains road rage well and that I agree
with. She says road rage is weaving,
tailgating, obscene gestures, stinkeye and bad language. She also indicates that it affects us
psychologically and a statement that I can attest to in my personal life. Road
rage does affect the person through stress on the heart, high blood pressure
and increase in adrenaline which can greatly affect the persons well
being. It is important to note the
effects stress from road rage can have on the body and I am glad she mentioned
it.
A topic that I am not so sure
that I agree with in her report is that of the anger choice. I acknowledge the fact that there are times
when we can make a choice to become involved or disengage but there are also some
people who are not able to do so.
Making a choice for some people is not an option because they are
predisposed to anger through hormones and state of mind. Many children are not taught appropriately
how to react and this does not allow the option to become angry or not, they
just become angry and hostile. I do
think that more emphasis should be put on children education in appropriate
response and actions in situations, and this education would in turn most likely
reduce hostilities that many express. The
reduction would come from the ability to assess and logically reason out in the
mind the desirable outcomes for the individual.
On 2 February Ikue Fukushima gave a presentation and
included the notion of Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence struck me and I agree with the logic behind
it. It is a way for drivers to take
multiple perspectives while driving and to consider them instead of just the
egocentric reasoning we tend to arrive at.
For example, instead of claiming a the road as one’s own domain,
consider it a part of others’ as well.
Other people are driving the same roads and need to get to places too so
hogging the lanes, tailgating and weaving in and out with this idea would not
be practical and would often make the driver reconsider their actions.
Ikue also had another notion
that I agree with in the driver’s education of road rage. It indicates that we should teach and accept
that we are responsible for our own actions, no one else. By acknowledging this we are required to take
responsibility to change our actions and regulate our actions so that they are
appropriate. It means that we say, “it
is my fault” instead of, “you made me do it”.
Jeremy Kubo gave a
presentation on 23 February that I found had many interesting points. His Jekyll-Hyde Syndrome was very
interesting in that I have experienced it personally with a friend of
mine. She was a great girl out of the
car but as soon as she turned on the engine she was cussing and flipping the
bird until the car turned off again. It
was an amazing experience driving with her every time, seeing her
transformation was quite the event. One
thing about it, Kubo seemed to think that it was an unconscious choice for
drivers to change personality, I don’t think it is. My friend was aware that she turned into a lunatic behind the
wheel and she thought it was funny. So
I don’t think that it is unconscious for the driver but I do think that he is
right in saying that these drivers do need to take others into consideration
while on the road.
His subject of Verbal Road
Rage also hit home because I am a committer of this. I often will complain and harass (under my breath) about the
other drivers on the road and I know many others who do as well. It is often justified by saying, “they can’t
hear me” or “it’s not hurting anyone” but nonetheless it is not right and can
lead a person to react physically or with violence, plus it also affects stress
levels which are not healthy.
Eleanor Samuel on 1 March had the topic of Emotional Hijacking
which goes hand in hand with Ikue’s Emotional Intelligence. I liked this topic and agreed with it
because many people who experience stress and anger do not know how to properly
deal with it and end up in a great deal of stress and turmoil which can come
out at inopportune times. In learning
to deal with such emotions in ways that are not harmful, and transforming the
inner energy into something positive an individual can avoid stress and the
risk of behavior which they would not like to exhibit.
A sentence that I think
should be rewritten is that of “if a driver chooses to ignore a driving
incident ‘bad blood’ will die down within the hormones and bloodstream”. I don’t agree with this because as much as
an individual ignores a situation they may not be able to forget it. Just ignoring it does not change the memory
or feelings with the memory. I think
that one must rethink the situation and come up with other possible
explanations for the situation than just ignoring it. For example a lady is tailing me and won’t get off. I ignore her but she still has caused me to
become agitated. Later the memory comes
up and brings with it the agitated feelings.
If I were to instead think of the situation by saying ‘wow, she must
really have to go to the bathroom’ when I thought of the situation later I
would laugh instead of becoming agitated from just ignoring her.
4. My Proposal for Lifelong Driver Education
I agree with Dr. James and
Dr. Nahl that driver’s education should be lifelong. At each stage of life we are developing, growing and learning and
it affects the way we think and respond in different situations. Some abilities improve while others lessen
and we need to realize this and find ways to control and support ourselves in
all situations, this includes driving.
From a very young age we are learning about cars and
driving from the media and parents. We
start forming concepts and reactions to situations that we encounter regarding
driving from these sources and adopt them as our own. I think it is important that drivers education start young when
we are forming these concepts and reactions.
For young children (2-9 years
old) I think we should focus on the affective self; their feelings, emotions,
attitudes and values. Children at this
stage are very in tune to their emotions and much of how they respond is based
on their emotional state. If a child
becomes angry that his place was taken at a table he will most likely react
with yelling of shoving to get it back.
If a child is hurt they will cry, or happy laugh. Children at this age a re still in a very
emotional state and react constantly on their changing emotions from being
happy one minute to sad or angry the next.
By focusing on their emotional (affective) self we can help them
understand and react in appropriate ways to these emotions.
Not only should we help
children respond appropriately to their own emotions but we need to help them
become aware of others. Children are
very egocentric at this young age and will often not be aware of how others may
be feeling or thinking, by probing a child to think of others’ feelings we are
getting them to think less about themselves.
In doing this children can place themselves in others’ shoes and think
about how they would then perceive the situation.
For example; Jimmy has left to go to the bathroom and
when he comes back Suzy is sitting in his chair. He tells her “that’s my chair get out” but she refuses because
she thinks its her chair. Jimmy
continues to get angry and frustrated and is starting to become hostile. Miss. Johnson comes over to intervene and
hears what happened.
What Miss. Johnson can do is
first make Jimmy stop yelling and explain, “Suzy didn’t know you were sitting
here because you were gone and thought that it would be okay to sit here. Since you both want to sit here and color
why don’t we just pull up another chair and you can both color together”. Jimmy calms down because he still gets to
color at the table and the situation quickly passes.
Jimmy was able to understand
that Suzy didn’t take his chair on purpose and that he could still get what he
wanted without much inconvenience. The
situation was just made into a much better one where Jimmy was taught to calm
down and find another solution.
Another training option we
could use with children is teaching them to share and do nice things for
others. In getting children to think of
nice things they could do for others we are getting them into a habit that
becomes a part of life. By doing it over
and over whether it be giving compliments, sharing snacks or helping to carry
books children learn how to help and are also helped by others. They learn to associate good thoughts and
feelings and will then be more likely to do such things later.
For the next stage I would
focus on teaching 10-15 year olds cognitively.
This is a good time to work on their thought, judgment and
knowledge aspect because they are
naturally at a point where they are thinking critically and are beginning to
understand more complex ideas and remember common laws and rules. It is important to note that I would not
stop the affective training but would add cognitive on. In the cognitive stage of training and
education I would start introducing laws that govern the road. If I was speeding I would say out loud to
the second stage learner, “whoa, I better slow down because the speed limit is
55”. By verbalizing the child is able
to connect that speeding is going above the limit of 55 and that it is too
fast. By stating this the child cane
come to the conclusion that bad things can happen if I were to continue to
speed and that I am trying to avoid them by slowing down.
At 15 years of age a teen is
starting to look forward to driving and are looking at the people they commonly
drive with as an example of how to drive.
By acknowledging that there are certain laws and rules that govern
driving and the road a child is adopting those into what they should do as well
in driving. They watch how to shift
gears, how to yield and how to park. By
having a good role model they will learn appropriate actions in all
situations. But not all parents are
good models, even the best.
I would propose that all
teens who are wanting to drive should be required to attend a driver’s
education program. In these programs
teens are taught the laws and rules of the road in a concise manner. They are taught about car and how a car
works and they are given valuable road experience. If a driver’s education program could not be attended I would
require a driver’s ZED program by AAA.
This program is similar to traditional driver’s education and would
still give new driver’s experience and knowledge to carry with them.
For the next stage of 15-19
year olds I would have legislation that would limit their driving time. While it is important that they get
experience on the road it is more important that they have the right kind of
training. By working on the
sensorimotor self these new drivers would come to learn specific events that
occur only on the road and how to react accordingly. Since there are many situations that occur only on the road it is
important that they spend as much time as possible with an experienced
driver.
I would propose a graduated
licensing program which would require that certain steps be met before being
graduated tot he next step.
step one: Driver’s Education or Drivers ZED program
must be completed before
a permit test can be taken.
step two: Drivers must be with an adult supervising
driver at all times until the
age of 17 when they may have an new license for driving alone or with other teens.
step three: At 18 years of
age a driver may become an independent driver and
may drive alone at any time.
Other regulations:
-Teens may not be able to
drive at night until the age of 17 and still would have a curfew of 1030pm
until the age of 18.
-Any underage driver caught
under the influence or with open bottles in the car as well as any illegal
drugs would lose their driving privileges until the age of 18 when they would
have to start education and permitting over again.
-Teens caught not wearing
safety belts would be subject to fines and may have license revoked until the
age of 18 if caught three or more times.
After high school years when
most driver’s would have their permanent license I would still make it
mandatory to get it renewed every 5 years at most. At renewal there would be a safety inspection of the car and a
road as well as written test. By making
inspection and testing required it would be making mandatory that all drivers
have a working knowledge of road rules and laws and also that they were able to
drive in a safe and properly conducted way.
As years pass I would require
for all drivers to be subject to more frequent renewals starting at the age of
60. While many people are still healthy
and fine drivers it would be mandatory for all drivers to have health checks,
road tests and vision tests every two years to ensure their ability to drive
was in top form. While many would not
like this ruling I think that it would be necessary to ensure road safety. Just as young drivers are expected to
conform to rules so would older drivers.
To implement my plan would
take lots and lots of legislation and even money, but I consider it to be an
investment that would end up saving lots of money in the long run.
Starting with the children’s
programs I would have teachers
(mandatory) and parents (optional) trained in ways to encourage selflessness
and choosing options. Each teacher would
be sent to a class with an instructor who would give them scenarios and lessons
in children’s development. This could
be done once a year in a session that lasts no more that 3 hours. Basic training is more than enough to get
across the point.
For cognitive development
another training class for educators would be mandatory where they would learn
about the mental development of children and how to foster it. By giving examples and posing situations
educators would learn how to ask questions and get a child in this stage to
develop their cognitive skills.
For the teens in the
sensorimotor stage I would require drivers education which would encompass the
affective, cognitive and sensorimotor lessons.
This would be the most expensive part of my program. By making mandatory driver’s education and
graduated licensing it would ensure that ALL teens and new drivers get the same
education and training. By making it
mandatory it would require laws and legislation for the DMVs to follow and for
law enforcement to enforce. As a
benefit for going through and complying to rules and laws insurance companies
would be mandated to give breaks to drivers.
All of the stages would
require parental cooperation and involvement and would require lots of money on
either the individuals or government’s but in the long run it would cut costs
because we would have more drivers driving safely and preventing
accidents.
5. Conclusion
This report had me thinking more critically about how our
society views driving and how we are so lax and uncaring about our road
conditions. Many drivers today are so
self serving that any legislation that would be of the least bit of hassle to
them, they decide to get up in arms about and revoke. Most drivers also ignore the fact or refuse to admit they need to
change their driving habits in order to be safer. This is helpful to me because I have a new understanding about
how drivers think and act on the road and I know what it stems from and have
been able to think in new ways because of it.
I know now that much of our media influences drivers and how thinking
processes work to defend our actions and assert ourselves. I also now know ways to think logically for
myself and separate myself from the situation so I may assess it objectively.
Since the beginning of the semester my views have changed
on the subject. I never realized how
much money driving incidents cost tax payers, or how many deaths. I was aware of how new technologies in cars
have disrupted driving and have contributed to many accidents. But I am also now aware of ways to train
yourself and improve your driving skills. I think that for years to come I will
think back to this class and remember the various aspects of driving I learned
and how to apply it to my own life. I
also think that now I am more aware of my driving habits I will work more to
improve and become a supportive driver.
6. Future Generations
My advice for all generations is to get started early on the last project. It never fails that professors will change
dates, give another test or make an new assignment due for the same time as 4
of your other class projects due dates.
The early you get started the better your project will be and the better
your grade. Don’t neglect it and say
you still have 3 weeks left because those three weeks go quickly and you’ll be
left with a whole lot of work.
Reference:
Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl. Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving. Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY 2000
My home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/
Class home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html