Rothe's Chapter One:

Setting The Stage
 

     Chapter One, Setting the Stage, deals with traffic safety awareness.  Rothe sites Parry, 1968, saying public officials, corporate representatives, and community activists have selected, labeled, and introduced particular groups of roadway users to the public as risk takers, deviants, selfish, aggressive, and dangerous people behind the wheel of a vehicle.  Rothe points out that society encourages risky behavior.  According to Postman et. al. (1987) A Miller beer commercial implied that men like to play rough, take chances, and ignore or find amusing the costly and dangerous consequences of their behavior.  Often, the messages imply the use of vehicles.  In 1978, Jones and Joscelyn found that on the average, a driver would have to engage in about two thousand impaired driving episodes before being caught by the police.

     Law enforcement agencies now use modern technology such as the breathalyzer, aerial speed trap, laser monitor, or photo radar camera.  By maximizing the apprehension or even the perception of apprehension, you minimize risk taking behaviors.

     Before generalizing traffic safety issues, Rothe suggests asking five simple questions:
        1.  How was the issue defined?
        2.  Who defined the issue?
        3.  Who made the decisions for dealing with the issue?
        4.  Who will benefit from the decisions?
        5.  Who bears the cost of the decisions?

     Weber, 1949, points out that driver behavior ranges from the highly rational to the highly emotional.  Understanding driver actions may require researchers to be not only rationally analytic, but also emotionally empathetic.

     The view taken from this book is that traffic arises from interaction between people at different levels.  According to Blumer, 1969, traffic safety is a social process, created, formed, and changed in and through the activities of people.