How Drivers Communicate with Each Other: The Hardest Language to Learn

The topic of driver communication is nothing new, especially to the many students who have taken Dr. Leon James' classes. One of his past students, Kristin Subia wrote a report about different situations and ways that drivers communicate with each other. The situations that Ms. Subia uses are very extreme cases, and I think that's something that needs to be remembered. Not all communication that is made is negative, or involves dangerous circumstances. For example, on of her situations mention is that of racing. This phenomenon is practiced, but as she mentions, not very often.

Kristin Subia also has a great portion of her report where she expresses her opinions about the effectiveness of different types of driver communication. This is really great, and something that future students may want to look into. Taking a poll of drivers and asking what types of communications work or don't work for them may be an important advancement to coming up with a universal system for U.S. drivers.

Andrew Shapiro wrote an interesting report on a topic that I think all of us drivers have a unsaid bond with. The dreaded four-way stop signed intersection. I personally find it almost humorous if I end up at one of these intersections simultaneously as the three other drivers do. It's almost like everyone sort of looks at each other like, "Okay, now what?" But after reading Andrew Shapiro's paper, I realize that my pleasant confusions have been an uncommon thing. It's easy to see how this could be frustrating, and this paper takes a mini-observational study look at what can happen when people aren't quite sure how to get their message across.

(November 1, 1997) Over the next few weeks I will be paying more attention to the different forms of communication used by drivers. I drive to and from the University of Hawaii at Manoa three days a week usually using the Pali Highway from Waimanalo. I also drive to and from work (which is in Kaneohe) five times a week, so I should have many opportunities to make observations.

I will be carrying a tape recorder with me during my commutes and any time I notice some form of driver communication I will record it for future reference. I am going to pay special attention to a few things in particular. These are: the type of car, the sex of the driver, the location of the drivers, and the time.

I chose these points to pay attention to because I have a few predictions. First, I'd like to define two terms that I have developed to help describe different types of driving behavior. The first is "Car Communication." By Car Communication I mean the communication which is done using your car and the way you drive. An example of this is the ever popular "tailing" phenomenon. One person is using their car and its positioning in relation to the other car to communicate the message, "I want you to go faster, so I am going to get very close to you and try to force you to move." I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that these types of Car Communications are all subject to interpretation. There are cases where the driver that is doing the "tailing" may not mean anything by it. Many times it is what we think the other driver is trying to communicate. I hope that during my observa5tions I am able to get a good third party view of some of these communications and make a non-partial interpretation.

The second term I'd like to define is "Physical Driver Communication." By this I mean facial expressions, hand gestures, and even verbal communication (even if it is only the moving of one's lips).

Now we're ready to proceed with my predictions:

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 (Honolulu) or near town are more likely to use "Car Communication" than drivers on the Windward side.

Drivers are less likely to wave, use pleasant facial expressions, or "Physical Driver Communication" at night; and are more likely to use "Car Communication" at night versus during the day.

I would like to begin by saying, straight out that my observations are not many in number. I only have three observations of intense or negative driver communication. This leads me to believe that driving, at least on O'ahu and within my driving areas (Honolulu, H-1 Freeway, Pali Hwy, Kamehameha Hwy, and Kalaniana'ole) is actually a pleasant thing to do. I also am led to believe that if we personally have a bad experience while driving, we tend to keep that in the back of our minds and refer back to it when we think about driving. Hence, the few bad experiences overshadow the many pleasant ones.

November 23, 1997 at 10:45 pm on Kalaniana'ole Highway:
I was driving home from Kailua on Kalaniana'ole Highway heading towards Waimanalo. In this area there are two lanes of traffic at a posted speed limit of 45mph. When you approach Waimanalo, the right lane merges into the left lane, and it's this one lane road all the way into Hawaii Kai. I was driving at about 50mph in the right lane. There was a van in the left lane about three car lengths ahead of me and a large pick-up truck in the right lane about two car lengths in back of me. We were approaching the merge area, so I turned on my left blinker to get into the lane in between the two mentioned cars. The truck behind sped up, closing the gap, and not allowing me in. So, because there was still enough room to do so safely, I sped up and passed the van, and merged into the left lane without problems. The van turned into a side street soon after, at which time the truck approached me very quickly from behind, turned off his regular headlights and turned on a pair of very bright fog lights, which due to the height of his truck, and the smallness of my car, shone directly into my rearview mirror. I flipped the mirror up to protect my eyes, but noticed that he/she did not back off. When I turned right onto my road, I looked back and saw the driver switch back to his regular headlights.

My Evaluation:
Because this occurrence was directly related to me, I really had to let this sink in before I could evaluate it properly. My first instinct was that the driver in the truck behind me was mad that I had gotten in front of him, and purposely was trying to irritate me while he had the chance. But, one needs to look at every situation. It is possible that the driver thought his fog light would be less of a nuisance to my eyes than his regular lights, or perhaps because this particular stretch of road is so well-lighted, he/she felt the fog lights were enough to allow him/her to see safely. Going back to when I originally tried to get into the lane, perhaps I signaled too late for the driver to see me. I always could have slowed and moved in behind the truck. What I learned from this incident, was that I really do take things personally when I drive, and thinking about all the circumstances can really help to make driving more pleasant and enjoyable.

Evaluation:
First of all, I am a strong believer of pedestrian right of way. Even when perhaps they could have waited until the next light, I have no problems (especially when they are walking quickly, running, or waving to you in thanks). So, perhaps out of bias, this driver was totally out of line. I think it may have had a lot to do with his passengers in the car, because they were laughing when they drove off. The driver was mostly expressionless. But, looking at it from the other side of the coin, we, as modern humans, have an intense relationship with time. There'' a good chance this guy was running late for something, and this was not the first red light he had caught on Dole Street. Maybe he was just becoming impatient and in order to feel better, took out his frustrations on this pedestrian. I think the overall message of reminder is simple: If you are in a car, give a ;little extra time to pedestrians; they move much slower than you can.

Evaluation
Maybe I'm way off, but this was just too reckless to even think about it from the view of the driver of the porche. Obviously the woman in the van made a mistake, but we all do, and fortunately in this instance, no one was hurt because of it. Also, the Pali Highway does not have a lot of shoulder room, and it's no place to be fooling around or trying to scare someone on. If I had had my cellular phone with me, I would have called the police, because the whole thing was very dangerous. I hope the woman in the van took down the porsche's license and calls it in. Even though I know we take things personally on the road, I feel there is no decent explanation that is acceptable for this type of behavior.

The idea of universal driver communication methods has been brought up to try to fix the problem of drivers misunderstanding each other's communication attempts or driver's frustrations due to driving. Although this idea is idealistically wonderful, not only do I think that it would be impossible to implement, but I also think it would be more trouble than it's worth to think it up. Unfortunately we live in a day and age where it is socially and culturally acceptable to break many "rules" or even laws. A lot of these rules and laws that are deemed O.K. to break have to do with driving.

Not everyone signals to turn or switch lanes, almost no one drives the speed limit, and not everyone believes in exhibiting caution behind the wheel. Giving people say, flash cards that they can hold up will not only distract them, but lead to sarcasm while driving and people taking advantage of the signs and using them for personal benefit. An example of this would be if there was an "emergency" sign, someone may use this to get through traffic unfairly.

I think the best we can do is improve Driver's Education to include, not only topics about Road Rage and how to deal with it, but also about common courtesy. This courtesy portion needs to begin early, preferably at home, and continue through all levels of school. It may be useful to come up with a suggested set of hand signals or waves, and begin teaching them in driver's ed. and in regular driver's licensing books. This way, it can be more wide spread, people can start using them, and maybe it can become a regular habit in driving. It would be a really slow process, though, and should not be punishable, but easily praised. This way people would get a type of positive reinforcement for remembering and using them.

An idea of reward would be if you could call in to a radio or TV station is someone did the wave and their name could be on TV or the radio with a thank you. Or possibly the local newspapers could put peoples names in print when they're witnessed using the hand signals. Whatever it is, it would have to be cheap, but effective.

I clicked on the net search button and chose Alta Vista to try and find some related web sites dealing with the topic of how drivers communicate with each other on the road. Unfortunately, this was much more difficult then I thought. Choosing words like "driving," "driver," "communicate," and "gestures," I found a lot of web sites on the topic of the internet. Even after adding in the word "vehicle," I still came up with web sites dealing with the internet being a vehicle of communication.

I switched to Infoseek, where I got much of the same, and also a lot of related pages dealing with crash-test dummies. I also ran across several different versions of different states sample DMV tests or study courses. The only thing rmotely related to my topic was a page about what different hand gestures mean in different countries.

I switch to Search.Com, where I did find one interesting page. This page was titled This Sign Means Caution which I thought was going to be about universal signs while driving. What I found was a page about a sign which is hung from industrial or agriculture trucks which drive slowly and how to drive cautiously around them. It also has the same explanations of rules for driving near horse-drawn carts. Not exactly what I had in mind, but very interesting.

At this point, I had been searching for an hour and called it quits. I will continue to search and update with any new findings.

Unfortunately this search did not go even slightly as well as my internet search. At the time of my search I was unable to log onto the UH CARL system to do a complete library search, so, I did a search of ERIC online, which contains journal articles up to November of 1997. NO matter what my word combinations were, I was not able to find even a slightly close match. I switched to UNCOVER, but was also unable to get into that database.

I went to the Hawaii State Library page, and was also unable to telnet into their system as well. I searched the internet for any other library access, and although I didn't find anything related in the time I allotted for searching the site, I found a very good site for my own and others' future use for searching. This page was a broad Public Library with links to journals, reference materials, and online text. Hopefully I can go back to this site and do a more in-depth search into all this site has to offer.

Overall, Possible due to my own lack in certain computer software, I was rather displeased with my online library search. I think if I had gone into the library I would have had a better outcome. But, looking on the positive side, I found a new site to add to my bookmarks for future reference.

This paper really allowed me to think about, not only how I drive and communicate, but also how I feel about the entire driving experience. I am one of those people who thoroughly enjoys driving, so this is a big advantage. I like driving to work, and unless I'm late, I really don't mind driving in traffic. So, using this background, it was easy for me to begin my changes in the several aspects of myself that are involved in driving. I'm going to take these final paragraphs to go over with all you readers and future generations how I decided to do it.

Rethink
I said that I was lucky that I enjoy driving. What I meant by this is that the first thing you need in order to change anything is a positive attitude towards it. This begins with rethinking your way through it. When I started this paper, I thought that a lot of really awful things happen everyday and every hour and every minute out on the road. But, I found that this just isn't true. So, if I was going to do further research on this, I would start with that as a background. I would change my goals of the paper from who is doing what kinds of bad things to something along the lines of how often bad things happen. This also coincides with my own attitudes towards driving. I feel a little less defensive now, because when I really paid attention to things going on around me, I saw that it really is not that bad.

Implement
This part is a little harder because starting something new is always a little challenging for me. I would take my new knowledge and expand on it. I would get more statistics about traffic in my neighborhood and pick a good spot to study myself. A lot of times things we accept as the truth have little loopholes in it making it appear different then how it really is. This is why I would concentrate on one specific area and observe without being an active participant. An example of this is how Andrew Shapiro did his research for his paper. It doesn't need to be extravagant, but I think it's good to separate yourself from what you're observing. As for me personally, I need to make more of a conscious effort to think about how the other driver feels when something happens that I feel badly about. I oftentimes jump to conclusions, and this is what leads to my intense defensiveness.

Practice
With everything else in the world, practice is the thing that helps us make it easier. Perhaps whatever areas are chosen to be studied can be doubled up with students. If two students take turns observing the same area and compare data, they can find where their differences are in interpretations. This may lead to a better method of interpretation, and if nothing else, the chance to get to see things from someone else's point of view and discuss it. Role play may also be effective here. In my driving world, I need to practice clear and rational thinking. I'd also like to practice looking a little happier, but then I'm afraid people may mistake it for insanity!

Whatever all you out there decide to do, remember to drive as safely as you can, because there's people in the world that care a lot about you, and if you can't do it for yourself, drive safely for your loved ones.