I've never intentionally cut anyone off, sometimes I?ve cut off people because I didn't see them until after it was to late, but that's not that often. I remember once when I was driving, I was changing lanes; I had my blinker on and was about to move over into my left lane. I heard a little honk and to my surprise there was a motorcycle rider right there. I could have hit them. My heart dropped thinking about how an awful accident could have happened. I guess it impacts me a little more because I use to ride a motorcycle and those types of things would always happen to me. 

Another gripe...I hate people who don't signal before changing lanes, especially when in heavy traffic. This guy cut right in 
front of me (perhaps he didn't see me) to close for my comfort, then after he had almost completed his merge into my lane, he turns on his blinker......WHAT'S THE POINT!!!! I just don't understand people who signal after the deed is done. 
 

hummm, let's see. Well, I don't pass that many cars, because I have a very old car, which doesn't nearly have the "power" newer 4 cylinder cars have. She's old, but she gets me places and that's the main thing. Although there is the rare occasion that I do pass someone, it's not that often but it does happen. =) When that happens, I pat my car and say; "you still got a little left in you" hahaha. No one has really ever forced me to brake. The only times I have braked is when I was gaining to much speed on the highway and therefore needed to brake to slow myself down. I had felt insulted at times while driving, but I've never felt the need to retaliate because I'd feel like a whimp. In fact, I think it takes a bigger person not to retaliate and realize that they aren't a whimp for not doing so. I know I have prevented someone from entering my lane, but I was kind of in a bad mood. I know, I shouldn't do stuff like that, but I guess my emotions got the best of me... ;-) 
 

When comparing my answers to my passenger?s answers, I saw that we had similar answers.  It was kind of funny because my friend and I would complain about the same drivers.  Normally it?ll be someone doing something really dumb.  For instance, a person making a left turn from the center lane, cutting off whatever traffic there was in his far left lane.  The other drivers honked furiously at him, but Laverne and I just laughed and commented on what a stupid driver he was. 

In questions #3, where it asks if I feel frustration and anger while in congested traffic, I answered some of the time.  My friend on the other hand, said never.  I thought this was kind of strange because I know I get frustrated in traffic.  So when I asked my friend about it she replied that she has never really seen me get frustrated in traffic.  When thinking about it I realized that when I have a friend with me I get less frustrated, I guess it is because I have someone to distract me from the heavy traffic. 

At times I do speed, leaving slower drivers behind, but most of the times I do this, is when I?m in a hurray to get somewhere, or I?m running behind schedule.  Normally if I?m just casually driving I do not, or try not to speed.  My fried had also notice the same thing.  I never tailgate driver just because they don?t want to move over, I think that is ridiculous and just a bad situation waiting to happen.  I also think that people who give another driver the finger is asking for something bad to happen.  As for honking, I rarely ever use my horn; I don?t like to bring attention to myself.  I think the only time I have ever used my horn was to avoid an accident from happening.  A person was cutting into my lane and didn?t see me right besides him.  I guess I was in his blind spot.  I honked my horn to inform him that I was right besides him, he jerked back into his lane and apologized. 
 

What kind of driver am I?  That's a tough one.  Well, in all honesty I feel I display characteristics of both phases.  In the affective self, I display more characteristics shown in phase two, I am very tolerant on and off the road.  I don't feel like I am entitled to anything, especially when it comes to driving because I know driving is a privilege or a convenience.  I try to be respectful as I can be on the road.  I strongly believe in the saying, "what goes around comes around", so I try not to do things I wouldn't want happen to me on the road.  In the cognitive self, I think I display characteristic equally in both phases.  Although I am not a master at controlling my anger, I have come a long way, I do not get upset as much as I use to, and if I do I can control my anger enough so that I don't farther fuel those negative emotions.  For the third category, the sensori-motor self, I display a little more characteristics in phase two than in phase one.  When driving I usually remain calm and alert.  I do make dangerous maneuvers sometimes, normally it is because I am in a hurray to get somewhere.  I am unaware of driving errors I commit because I am in a rush to be somewhere.  It is only after I arrive at my destination that I realize I had done some pretty ridiculous maneuvers, but I guess when you are taken away with your emotions you do not realize some of the things you are doing until after the fact.

When I began implementing this Tee Card, I knew not all of them were going to work, but I have it a shot anyway.  The strategy that worked the best for me was a variation of œcount your blessings, forgive and forget?.  Every time I would begin to get upset, I would think to myself, ?why the hell am I getting upset for?  They?re (the other driver) not worth exhausting all my energy over?.  The way I see things is that sometimes people do things to evoke a response in you, so why give them the satisfaction.  When trying the other techniques, I noticed that they didn?t quite work for me, especially the strategy where I had to think of alternative reasons why someone did something.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn?t make an excuse for someone else.  Perhaps it is because I was raised to always take responsibility for my actions, therefore why should I make excuses for another person.  As for the Castanza technique, well I?m sure it works for other people, but it just doesn?t work for me.  This strategy involved acting in the opposite mood then what you are in, so if I were in a bad mood, I would act as if I?m in a good mood.  This is supposed to make you feel better.  I am a very emotional person; in fact a lot of people who know me says that I wear my heart on my sleeve.  I cannot hide the way I feel, nor act happy when I am sad, so this technique had very little effect on me while I was driving.  The only other strategy that helped me control my anger was slowly counting to ten.  What Dr. Driving says about this technique interfering with the tendency of becoming angry is true, it worked every time I used it.  I was still a little upset, but nearly as enraged as I would have been.  I could still think sensibly and I did not vent my anger on another driver. 
 

The first part, acknowledge, was easy.  I know there are some things I need to improve on as a driver, I am aware of this, changing those habits is a different story (that?s the hard part).  The only thing I don?t fully agree about is a child learning how to drive when their parents are driving them.  My parents are excellent drivers and so is my sister, but for some reason I am the only aggressive driver in my family.  I believe I learned my aggressive driving through my friends and people whom I had encountered on the road, not my family.  Now that I know I am part of the problem, I have to decide which bad driving habit I would like to work on.  After giving it some thought, I?ve decided to work more on my tailgating behavior.  I know I have a tailgating problem, I?ve had it for awhile, but I must say I?m not as bad as I use to be, nor am I as bad as some of the other drivers I have seen.  I actually have been working on my tailgating problem for a while now.  It?s a little harder for me because I am one of those people who tailgate's subconsciously.  A lot of times I don?t realize I?m tailgating because driving within close proximity of a car became a norm to me.  Thus, my idea of safety distance was closer then the average person.  The reason I realized it was a problem was because my passengers would sometimes comment on how close I was to the car in front.  So I have actually been trying to modify this behavior for a couple of years now.  For me, awareness played a big role in modifying my tailgating behavior.  The more aware I was, the more compelled I felt to change that behavior, because I not only knew it was dangerous, but also because I didn?t want to scare my passengers.  Now I try to drive at least two seconds behind a car, (I believe two seconds is the amount of time required to brake safely).  Therefore, when following a car, I find a stationary object, normally those bumps on the road, and I count; one thousand and one, one thousand and two, then, when I?m done counting I should be just about passing that same bump.  If I pass it before I?m done counting, then I know I?m driving too close and proceed to slow down a bit.  It has worked so far, but I am human, and at times I still do tailgate. 
 

A man was arrested today and charged with homicide for allegedly pushing his former girlfriend?s car into the path of an oncoming train, killing her, a friend and two toddlers.  Candace Wertz made a frantic 911 call on her cellular phone and was talking to a dispatcher when her car was hit by the train yesterday, police said.  Carlos Angel Diaz Santiago, 22, was arrested this morning, said state police Lt. Edward Snyder.  He was charged with four counts each of homicide and aggravated assault.  Wertz, 20, and her 2-year-old son, John Michael Cortez, were pronounced dead at the scene.  Cynthia Jacques, 22, and her daughter Allissa, 2, died after being taken to hospitals.  The crash followed an argument in a restaurant and a half-hour chase that reached speeds up to 90 mph, police said.  Wertz went around a car that was parked at the crossing-the gates were down because of the approaching freight train-and then stopped in the oncoming traffic lane, Snyder said.  ?The second vehicle came up behind her and struck her in the rear.  The second vehicle then pushed the first vehicle onto the tracks,? Snyder said. 

Analysis 

This is a very tragic incident, tragic because it involved such young children.  It started off as an argument between ex-lovers and ended in the deaths of four innocent people.  I believe the entire incident could have been avoided if different steps/actions were taken.  The unfortunate truth is this happens all the time, emotional rage taken to the road and ending in violence.  Lets take a look at the possible elements involved in the story. 
1. Santiago, the victim?s ex-boyfriend, and Wertz had an argument in a restaurant.  This incident showed that their emotions were already running high. 
2. Wertz chose to continue arguing with Santiago, when she could have not said anything, or called security to report Santiago harassing her. 
3. This argument led to a ½ hour car chase, which reached speeds of 90 mph.  Santiago chose to continue following Wertz when he could have stopped, left, and cooled down. 
4. Wertz chose to engage in a high speed chase when she could have drove to the nearest police station, or phoned the police on her cellular phone to report Santiago?s harassment. 
5. Lastly, Santiago chose to push Wertz?s car onto the railroad tracks, which led to their deaths. 

This is an unfortunate incident, which could have been prevented if both parties had not been in such an emotional rage.  Like most tragedies, there was a series of steps that led to the tragic, or in this case fatal incident, steps that could have been prevented if either party had not been so enraged. 
 

Most of my favorite programs do not really have scenes which portrays bad driving behavior.  I like to watch programs on the Discovery Channel, A&E and Animal Planet, normally these stations do not have the ordinary TV programs which may have bad driving behaviors depicted in popular media.  Although I may not watch much programs that have a lot of bad driving behaviors, I do know the amount of violence shown in big screen movies are overwhelming.  The few movies I have seen have had outrageous and almost impossible car stunts.  Although I know these stunts are carefully coordinated, a child may not, therefore he may think that it is not that difficult to attempt.  One program I watched just for the hell of it was Magnum P.I.  There were only a few scenes where the driver of the car behaved in an inappropriate manner.  In one scene the driver peeled out in order to escape Magnum.  Another scene Magnum is weaving in and out of traffic causing havoc on the streets, in order to pursue the assailant.  We must remember these programs are being viewed by our children and thus teaching them what is acceptable in society.  When a child sees so many bad driving behaviors day in and day out on television, and then are not taught what are and are not acceptable on the road they will most likely assume that the driving behavior they viewed on television is the correct way to respond to various driving situations.  I find this very scary because our children grow up thinking aggressive driving is the way to drive, and if that is the case then I'll end up locking myself in my house.  hahahaha

I have to agree with Dr. Driving?s views, thoughts and beliefs of anger control, which we cannot feel negative emotions unless we interpret the act as an intended insult.  When driving, I do find myself swearing, taking risks, speeding, rushing and tailgating.  Although sometimes it?s directed at the other driver (swearing), it is normally to vent, but after the incident I am able to cool down so I do not whip myself into a rage.  Dr. Driving is right, normally my venting lasts for about 5-7 seconds, sometimes 10 seconds, but after that I?m fine.  Road rage is definitely a problem we must address and Dr. Driving has done a great job in teaching us how to control our anger, so we won?t be a hazard on the road.