Report 3:
Communication Between Drivers, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

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Instructions for This Report

The Good

Hand Gestures, Signs, and Signals

The Bad

Examples of Situations with Bad Communication

The Ugly

Examples of Situations with Physical Violence and Outrageous Driving

What Others Have Done On This Topic

Looking at Past Reports

Epilogue

Summary and Thoughts

Navigation Table

The Good

 

There are a lot of situations where non-verbal communication is utilized while driving a car. These types of communication are being used every day. Some of these are the using of a blinker on a car, the use of headlights as a communication tool, and the use of hand gestures.

 

A blinker is used to notify the drivers around that the car is switching lanes or making a turn. In this situation, the driver uses the blinker that comes with the car to tell the rest of the drivers around him or her the intention of either changing lanes or making a turn. This method is taught to everyone who has a license by making it a part of the written test that is taken in order to learn how to drive. It is also seen as a part of the road test that is administered. The effectiveness of this action is seen by using a blinker to change lanes on the road as opposed to not using it. Drivers who use their blinker has better reception by other drivers than those who don?t use a blinker.

 

Another communication method involves the use of headlights to let another driver know that their headlights are off. This is done by flickering the headlights on and off several times to a car that is either driving in front or in another lane that is on-coming. This is especially important on a dark road that has poor visability. This curtesy to other drivers is taught through the written driving test. This action can be measured by driving down the street without the cars headlights on and observing how many drivers flick their lights at the car.

 

There is also the hand communication. This type of communication can be either good or bad depending on the gesture shown to the other driver. The focus in this section will be on the good gestures which are the hand wave and the "shaka" sign. When a driver does something for another driver, for example, letting a driver into their lane, the receiving driver will then wave his or her hand in gratitude. This happens a lot during traffic and times where there are a lot of cars on the road. The "shaka" is used in the same manner as the hand wave, but it?s use was originated in the Hawaiian culture. This gesture is a local way of thanking the other driver for the good deed bestowed. These gestures are learned through the culture and should be taught during the road test that is administered. If all people were to say thank you with a hand wave, there might not be so many angry drivers on the road. The only way that this gesture could be measured is by waving to some people and not waving to others and recording their reactions.

 

The Bad

There are many types of bad communication. The three that I will focus on are ones that happened to myself while driving. These communication skills were performed by myself or by someone else to me. These three are, speeding up to not let another car into the lane, tailing another car, and sticking finger.

 

The action of speeding up to not let another car into the lane has been performed by myself. While on the H1 freeway going towards town, I was stuck in traffic in the second lane from the right before the Likelike exit. While in this lane I noticed that there were a lot of cars that were speeding by in the right lane and cutting into the left lane before the off ramp started. By observing this I told myself that I would not let anyone into my lane. As a result of this thought I found myself speeding up every time someone pulled alongside of my car.

 

As I look back on this incident, I notice how territorial I was acting. The fact that I thought of the lane that I occupied as "my lane" shows that I thought that I was protecting my domain. As I thought about what had happened I felt bad for the people who had gone into the left lane by accident and was just trying to correct their error. At the time, I never thought about the other person and the reasons for their actions.

As I was driving on the H1 freeway going west bound, I accidently cut off another driver while changing into the right lane. This action prompted the other driver to drive within about 5 feet from the back of my car also known as tailing. I waved my hand to say I?m sorry, but the other driver paid it no mind. He kept on tailing me. I then proceeded to slow down so that he could pass on the right side of me. This didn?t work. The driver stayed behind me and followed me until he had to take his off ramp on the freeway which was about 4 miles from where the incident had occurred.

 

This action performed on me made me very upset. I tried to say that I was sorry, but the other driver paid no attention to my good gesture. He just kept on tailing me until he couldn?t tail me anymore. I thought about the reasons why someone would cut off the spacial between two cars and endangering the lives of not only the people in the cars, but the people in the back of them. One two car accident has the potential to cause a huge accident.

 

The last bad incident happened to me while traveling west bound on the H1 freeway by the Fort Shafter off ramp. This incident involved myself and a truck driven by a delivery person. I was in the left lane of the freeway when a truck pulled up along side my car and the driver stuck his middle finger to me. I had no idea what I had done to deserve it. I could have cut him off and not know or I could have made him mad somewhere else and he remembered my car. To this day I haven?t the faintest idea as to why he did this.

 

The fact that I had no idea why this person did this still puzzles me. Maybe he had a bad day at work and I reminded him of someone he hatted. On the other hand I probably did something to him, didn?t give a friendly gesture to acknoledge what I had done, and he took offense to it. I did get the drivers license number and the company he worked for and reported the incident. As I talked to the manger it seemed as though the manager didn?t care about what had happened. This didn?t bother me because I just needed to get the incident off of my chest.

The Ugly

There was an incident that I witnessed while on the King Street off ramp from the H1 freeway eastbound. Apparently a red car had cut off a white car on the freeway. The white car then followed the red car to the off ramp. While at a stop light, the white car pulled along side the red car and began to swear at the driver. The driver in the red car then got out of his car and threatened the other driver. The driver in the white car who had chased down the other driver then stepped out of his car and they both began to fight. This stopped traffic and everyone was at a standstill until the altercation had ended. This incident ended with the people from both cars seperating the two drivers and returning them to their cars.

I thought that this incident was the most extreme that I have ever witnessed. If it wasn?t for the other people in the cars breaking up the fight, who knows what would have happened. Someone could have been seriously hurt or even killed. I thought about it and came up with the conclusion that the only way that something like this could happen is if both parties were either very upset before the incident, or they were both looking for trouble. No sane person would get into that type of physical altercation unless something else was the fuel for the fire.

Jennifer Lee

In Ms. Lee?s report, she talks about four different experiences that she either witnessed as a driver or an observer. These four experiences were very diverse and had a lot of thought and time put into them. I also liked in her analysis how she put links to other reading that pertained to her advice that she presented. Her report was the reason that I became interested in the topic of communication between drivers. The fact that I could observe myself and others and the way that everyone drives interest me. I had a chance to analize my driving and those around me.

Irene Barrineau

In Ms. Barrineau?s report there are a lot of analizations of other peoples past reports. There was no first hand experiences of the types pf communication used by people. I did like the fact that a lot of newsgroups were mentioned and linked. I didn?t really like the way that she kept on alternating colors for every idea that was changed. I started to get dizzy after a while. The best part about her report was the seven signals that she thought were the most important and that everyone should know. All in all, I enjoyed Ms. Barrineau?s report. I thought that she researched the topic very well.

Carolyn Agmata

This report by Ms. Agmata was a lot like Ms. Barrineau?s. The emphasis was on research and other reports rather than personal experiences. There were references to the same reports for all of the people that I read from. The common reports that were mentioned were MaryElizabeth Pacheco, Kristen Evert, and Kristen Subia. The summary that Ms. Agmata gives of these reports is excellent. Within her report she also she also links to other classmates in her generation that have done this same topic. I enjoyed reading them all.

To future generations who do this topic. When taking down the information, try to make an experiment to test your hypothesis as to why the action or situation took place. Another thing that could be done is to watch from a neutral spot the reaction of people as a friend does a action to cause an emotional outcome.

My Generations File

My Newsgroups File

My Oral Presentation File

My Report1: Tailgating

My Report2: Future of Driving

My Report3: Driver Communication

My Class Home Page

Dr. Leon James Home Page

E-mail Me

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