Kristin Subia's "How Driver's Communicate With Each Other"
 
    Kristin's Report is divided into two main categories, Situations and Methods and their Effectiveness. Situations, is the first section in which Kristin explains the communication that takes place between drivers while on the roadways.

Making turns:
In this area Kristin describes the most common way of making a turn which is to use a turn signal.  She then goes on to explain that another form of communication is to have driver A (traveling on the roadway) wave driver B (who is on a side street)  on to the roadway.

Changing Lanes:
In this part Kristin describes the proper way to change lanes on the freeway.  She mentions putting on the blinker, looking in the rearview and side mirrors before engaging into the switch.  Kristin also says that it's hard to see if other drivers are trying to get into the same lane from the far lane.

Yielding the way:
When in a turn only lane at the intersection, drivers must give way to crossing pedestrians or other drivers and cyclists first.

Making room in one's lane for someone:
Kristin describes this situation as being a terrible experience. The person in the left lane sticks his arm out, gives you a dirty look, making you give him enough room to let him in.  She goes on to say it usually pisses people off, but we do it to avoid confrontations.

Tailgating and overtaking
Kristin mentions that to take care of tailgating pests, she slows down  and waves them to pass her.  She doesn't feel that passing is all that bad, as long as it's done legally and safely.

Racing:
In this last area of Kristin's situation section, she describes a scenario in which she was caught up between two other cars racing down the freeway.  She expresses her dislike and fear  with the idea of racing and how she wished she was not a part of that incident.  Kristin mentions that people were honking their horns in protest and also to root the racer on.

The next section Kristin touched on was Methods and their Effectiveness.

Vehicular communication:
She mentions the main forms being blinkers, brake lights, and the horn.  She also goes on to say how tailgating can intimidate others to move faster, swerving close to other lanes means you want to change lanes, and revving engines is a sign of wanting to race.

Verbal communication:
Kristin believes this form of communication is rarely used except when a driver is protesting or cursing another driver.

Gestures and facial expressions:
Kristin lists waving people on to let them know it's okay, showing "the finger" in disapproval, and nodding your head to say that it's okay.  Kristin says she is partial to the "shaka" as opposed to the wave.

Effectiveness:
Kristin believes that all these forms of communication work and it was evident in her trip to France when most forms came in handy.  She does say, however, that the "shaka" would not work as well in other areas :).

Kristin ends her paper with suggestions to the future and links to related articles to her topic Andrew Shapiro and Dr. Driving Letters.
 

My Reaction

    I personally enjoyed Kristin Subia's paper.  Her paper was well constructed, easy to follow in terms of organization, and well detailed.  Kristin's in depth scenarios are a definite plus to her paper which will make for many a student to follow her ideas.
 
 
 

Andrew Shapiro's "....Requesting the Right of Way"
 
    Andrew's report focuses on the all to common confusion found at the four-way stop. He conducts a mini-observation in which he attempts  to discover which types of vehicular and physical communications are used and which are most effective. Andrew emphasizes that miscommunication is prevalent at four-way stops and that road rage is more than just an over-reaction, it is "a deadly problem on today's roadways."

Andrew conducted his observation at a busy intersection of Benjamin Holt Drive and Gettysburg Place in Stockton, California.  He examined drivers behavior's over a three hour period from 3pm-6pm since these were the hours of the most heavy traffic.  Andrew observed 28 drivers who entered the intersection in a perpendicular or parallel fashion to another driver; a situation which would provoke some sort of communication.

    Andrew noticed that young males used their "souped up", "muscle cars" to commit vehicular intimidation by rushing up to the intersection giving the impression of running it and others just rolled through the intersection without stopping at all.   He observed that almost always the on looking driver permitted the intimidating motorist to have the right of way.

    The most widely used gesture was the "finger beckon" or the "finger wave."  "This wave appeared to communicate to the opposing driver that the gesturing driver was yielding the right-of-way."  Andrew also found that this gesture was not understood equally to all drivers which did cause confusion in some motorists.  This miscommunication caused the "herky jerky" effect in car movement due to the  motorist's inability to understand the message conveyed by another.

    Andrew also encountered sort of universally understood neutral gesture conducted by three motorists.  "Two male drivers simply ignored their opposites, did not gesture and simply gazed off into space.  Similarly, a female driver, immediately upon reaching the limit-line, reached into her purse and proceeded to light a cigarette, effectively "shunning" the facing driver.

 
My Reaction

    Andrew set out to observe different forms of gestures at the frequented four-way-stop.  Overall, his report consisted of a very well documented and well described observation.  It must have been a difficult task to complete being that it called for three hours of data collection with many variables playing their part to hinder the completion (deciding which drivers to view, having many cars in the intersection and not being able to see all the gestures of each driver).
 
 
 

Mary Elizabeth Pacheco's "How Driver's Communicate With Each Other"
 
    In Mary Elizabeth's report she describes four main sections Introduction, Course of Study, Observations, and Evaluations.  Mary gives her summaries of reports by Kristin Subia and Andrew Shapiro who are also  a part of my report as well.  In her Course of Study section Mary describes the way in which she will retrieve communication amongst drivers through the use of a cassette recorder.  She predicts that communication will be misinterpreted and that communication will influence driving.  Mary expects communication to be one-sided and that communication will affect driving behaviors in negative and positive ways. In the Observation section of her paper, Mary gives examples of two situations of driver communication.  The first observation took place on Kamehameha Highway in which a Mustang driver (male) was overtaking a BMW driver (female).  The Mustang driver proceeded to pass the BMW when he slowed, looked at the woman in the BMW, smiled, and continued to pass her.  The second observation was of  a Lexus trying to change into the same lane as a Volkswagen (both drivers female).  The Lexus driver  put on her blinkers and also waved to get the attention of the Volkswagen driver.  In the Evaluation section of her paper, Mary discovered that hand gestures and blinkers are the most prominent forms of communication.  She goes on to add that positive hand gestures are "the wave" and negative gestures are "the bird".

My Reactions
 
    Mary Elizabeth's report was well documented and very organized.  I especially appreciated the prominent spaces between topics which made following each title and subtitle a breeze. I do believe, however, that she could have had more observations to add to her report.  Since the observations were the body, I feel it would have been to her advantage to describe more events in that section of her  paper. 

Kristin Evert's "How Driver's Communicate With Each Other" 

Kristin's report begins with a review of past generation reports by Kristin Subia and Andrew Shapiro which was a short review of their techniques and theories.  She then goes on to list predictions of her paper which include people in sports cars tend to use more "Car Communication" (by tailgating and such), Females are more likely to use waving a pleasant facial expressions than men, and Town drivers are more likely to use "Car Communication" than Windward side drivers.  Through her evaluations and observations, Kristin discovered that the short amount of time she was allowed to conduct her survey was insufficient due to the complexity of her predictions.  Kristin found that most communication was through "Car Communication" whether in town or on the Windward side.  She also discovered that most gestures were kind acts of smiling and waving.  An important discovery Kristin made was that interpretation plays a big role in whether the act of "Car Communication" is negative, positive or neutral.

An example she mentions is driving into Waimanalo and speeding up to merge left into the right lane between a van (in front) and a truck (in back);  as she maneuvered her way between the two automobiles the truck sped up behind her, turned off it's headlights, and turned on the fog lights which beamed directly in line with her rearview mirror, causing Kristin to re-position her mirror.  She goes on to say the truck was very close to her until she turned on to a side road leading to her house.   Kristin was first offended by the truck driver's decision to tail her with the fog lights on however; she then decided that many other variables may have played a part in the truck driver's decision. For one the truck driver could have assumed that the headlights had more of  a blinding effect than did the fog lights and secondly, maybe the driver felt they were in a well lit area. Whatever the reason may be, Kristin learned that she is quick to jump to conclusions and takes things too personal when driving (Sound familiar? ). Kristin goes on to describe her searches on the Web and on Eric/Uncover, a fairly successful venture I might add ( Same problem I have now :).

My Reaction

I felt Kristin's report was very comprehensive in that she stated her predictions, listed her outcomes and restrictions as well. I was pleased with the close resemblance her report shared to a scientific experiment, complete with theories, hypothesis, and conclusion.  This made her paper well rounded in that she listed faults and obstacles with time restriction to complete the project, not having as many incidents of "Physical and Car Communication" as previously desired and struggling to find references on the Eric/Uncover databases.  This made Kristin's paper an overall well covered analysis of her topic.

 "Motorist Grateful to Four Strangers"   a reaction to the article by Susan Angst
  
    In this article the author, Susan Aungst, writes a thank you letter to four men who kindly saw her stalled car and volunteered to help a woman in need.  The first man assisted  Ms. Aungst by pulling up behind her vehicle and turning on his hazard lights to warn other drivers coming up from behind.  This form of vehicular communication is a very crucial one in terms of preventing further accidents however; while this signal does indicate that  there is trouble up ahead and people are suppose to proceed with caution, this is not always the case.
 

My Reaction
 
    Furthermore, kind acts of assisting motorists in helpless situations is not often observed on this island. On the Big Island it is not uncommon to see a motorist stop and assist a car with flashing hazards displayed.  For me it is the thought that if it were a loved one of mine in distress I would certainly hope that a motorist would not hesitate to lend a helping hand.  For that reason alone I feel obligated to help those automobiles with their hazard lights displayed.

"Other Motorist in Traffic Dispute Found"  a reaction to the article by United Press International 
 
    SYLMAR, Calif., Jan. 15 (UPI) _ Investigators have found the driver of a van who was involved in a traffic dispute in Sylmar, Calif., with a motorist who was killed minutes later in a head-on crash. California Highway Patrol Officer Doug Sweeney says 47-year-old Pierre Gaucher of Northridge notified officials today that he was the driver of a teal van involved in a dispute with 42-year-old Delfina Gonzalez Morales of San Fernando. Morales was killed Wednesday along with her 25-year-old daughter, Maria Laura Morales Gonzalez, when their car re-entered Interstate 5 in the wrong direction and hit a delivery van. Gaucher realized investigators were looking for him after he saw a TV news report on the deadly accident. Sweeney says the man is considered only ``an involved party,'' not a suspect. Investigators say Morales and Gaucher exited the freeway after an altercation in which Morales flashed her car lights, honked at and tailgated the teal van, which pulled to the dirt shoulder at the bottom of a freeway off-ramp. Witnesses said Morales drove up alongside and accelerated as if to spray mud on the van. Her car spun 180 degrees and struck a 1990 gray Honda Accord before she drove up the off-ramp and re-entered the busy freeway in the wrong direction. The car crashed head-on into a delivery van, which overturned on top of another vehicle. The drivers of those vehicles suffered minor injuries. The Western Insurance Information Service says Morales' alleged actions are an example of a ``growing trend of women drivers involved in incidents of aggressive driving.''
 
My Reaction

    The incident mentioned in the above article is tragic and sadly not uncommon.  In this altercation vehicular communication was used in a negative way to express aggressive behavior onto another driver.  Lights flashing, honking horns, and tailgating are all perfect examples of road rage as described in this article.  While this unpleasant form of vehicular communication is not condoned by the majority of motorists; I am sure we all can remember incidents where we were either expressing disapproval of others driving behaviors through such antics or have been a victim of such abuse.
 
 
 
 

"Slowing, Stopping, Stopped."  a reaction to an article by The League of American Bicyclists and Effective Cycling TM
 
    A form of communication not used often is arm gestures that indicate stop, left turn and right turn.  If I remember correctly the actions are described as such.  When making a left turn the driver should extend his/her arm straight out of the driver window to left.  When making  a right turn the driver is required to hold the arm in a 45 degree angle, out the window, with the finger tips facing the sky and palm facing forward (like when sworn into oath).  Lastly is the stop gesture which is similar to the right turn except that the finger tips face toward the ground with the palm facing to the back of the vehicle.

My Reaction

    These gestures are usually used in cases of emergency when the turn signals in the car you are driving are not operating. In the "Slowing, Stopping, Stopped" article, the author is attempting to convince his fellow bicyclists that hand gestures like the stop gesture need to be displayed accurately and with enough time to prevent bicycle rear end accidents.  I believe this form of communication is a must for bicyclists as well as motorists for one never knows when the turn signals will fail.
 
 

A Quote from Marini Singh's   "Cyber-Therapy, Driving Therapy, and Cyberspace Counter Culture" 
 
 Marini Singh believes:

"You can get shot or run off the road in today's world for even trying to get eye contact. Your facial gestures might be interpreted as threatening, and, if you happen to provoke an unfriendly driver, then trouble is inevitable."
 

I agree with Marini that certain facial gestures like the "Stink Eye" may provoke aggressive drivers to do crazy things like challenge you to a brawl or maybe even pull out a gun. I feel this type of gesture is definitely a no-no in Hawai'i especially.  Our culture here is different from most areas of the mainland in that looking at someone in the wrong way or too long means that you have a problem with that person (or so it seems).  Most locals assume that look is a threat and usually retaliate in an unpleasant manner.  It seems the "Stink Eye" here in Hawai'i is sometimes equivalent to the meaning of the "Bird" in the mainland.  Don't get me wrong, I know we all get defensive at the sight of the finger it's just that emotions run very high in local people when it comes to nasty looks.

A Quote from Michelle Ota's Lab Report 
 
 Michelle Ota, in her lab report, speaks of Lianne Wongs Feelings when driving.
 

"She (Lianne)  mentions that when she lets a driver cut in front of her, she usually expects some sort of thanks, a little wave, or shaka. When people don't give a curious thank you, she gets upset and feels taken advantage of. This feeling then seems to carry over for the rest of the day, she will feel that people every where are taking advantage of her."
 

My Reaction

I feel the exact same way when I am behind the wheel.  If  I let someone in front of me on the freeway or allow a motorist to cut in to traffic from a side street, I would like to be acknowledged a little bit for what I believe is driving generosity (but I don't let the situation bother me like Lianne says it does for her throughout the day).  It really irritates me when I am cruising down the freeway in bumper to bumper traffic at 20 mph and feeling like "okay I'll let you in, little red convertible Miata with the top down."  And then, as the driver is allowed, by myself, into the lane I am traveling in, he/she doesn't have the common courtesy to wave thank you; that really pisses me off sometimes. Of course if I really think about it, maybe the driver of that car was to busy making sure the way was clear or maybe he/she did not feel comfortable removing their hands from the wheel while driving.  Whatever the case may be, it's just a pet peeve, I'm sure a lot of us as motorists share.  Moreover, the "Shaka" is the thank you wave I am partial to.  It makes me feel like "Yeah, this person recognizes that I am not a tourist and expresses his or her thanks in a local manner." (Whoa, getting carried away huh?).  Well, I guess you could call that  extreme but for me the "Shaka" makes me appreciate living in Hawai'i and if it helps me deal with the traffic in a more sane manner, then so be it :).
 
 
 

Ryan Mitsui's Report 6, "Mini Self Witnessing Experiment" 
 
 On Ryan's first day of self witnessing his own driving behaviors he came across this situation:
 
    "As I was driving down through Nuuanu, this guy was in the right lane and signaled to turn into my lane. But I knew that he had gone into the right lane to get ahead of all the other drivers then at the last moment moved back into the middle lane to get on to the freeway. But in spite of the fact that I thought that he should have waited in the back like the rest of us, I let him in anyway, by waiving him in. After that he didn't, wave back to thank me! (we do that in Hawaii) Automatically I got really angry because, I was already late and I was nice enough to let him in and he didn't even have the courtesy to say thanks. I said out loud, ass hole! and stuck middle finger at him under the dash board so he couldn't see it. I didn't want him to see it, I just wanted to get out some frustration."

My Reaction

    I can personally relate to Ryan's frustration with impatient drivers who cheat their way to the front of the pack and only end up being right beside you ten minutes later.  It irritates me when other drivers do not thank me for letting them into my lane; Dr. James says one shouldn't take it personally and that maybe the driver just doesn't feel comfortable removing his or hands from the steering wheel while moving.  However; before thinking the best of the situation and cutting them some slack; I usually think the worst and react the same as Ryan does.  I guess I have some driving behavior makeovers to do for myself too :).
 
 

 "Beep Beep"
 
    On page 27 of the Rothe text, the author speaks of an incident in Brazil and how people were tooting their horns in displeasure because a driver was stopped at an intersection when the light turned red. He says it seems as though the red light functions as a stop sign in Brazil.
 

My Reaction

    This is very odd for a person like me who grew up in Hawai'i and always obeyed traffic lights.  However; while discussing a similar topic in class, some students were saying that in certain parts of the mainland, people run red lights all the time.  It seems if people notice that no one is traveling in a perpendicular direction to theirs, they will proceed through the red light.  The closest I have seen to that happening intentionally is when  people are in a turn only lane and they speed up when the yellow light is posted thus, they end up in the middle of the intersection while the light turns red.  I guess we in the U.S. may be more similar to Brazil driver's than previously thought.
 

"Media Affects"

    On page 151 of the Rothe textbook, the discussion is on media influence on social interaction and standards.

My Reaction

    Although this seems to have nothing to do with driving communication; Dr. James said to show the correlation we fill is pertinent in a similar situation.  I found that watching high speed car chases on television may play a part in how people convey certain messages.  It seems that one may be influenced to flip the police off and provoke a high speed encounter to occur.  While this may seem far fetched there are those who undoubtedly have little concern for others on the roadways (young testosterone prone males, bank robbers, and people without car insurance being stopped for no safety sticker). I believe the more we are exposed to such behavior the more people will mimic these stupid acts.
 
 

 
Hargett, James. (1989).  Riding Technique:  Keeping drivers friendly:  Eight Common Sense Tips for Sharing the Road, v30n7,58.
 
Giles, H. One for the Road Then? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1992, 2, p.139- 165.

Malfetti, James L. Young driver attitude scale: The development and field-testing of an instrument to measure young driver risk-taking attitudes New York: Columbia University, 1989.

Schulz, Wolfgang. Traffic Management Improvement by Integrating Modern Communication Systems. Ieee Communications magazine. Oct 1, 1996, v34, n10 p56.

Smith, Angela. How to be a Great Communicator. American School board Journal. V178, n8, p31-33. Aug 1991.

Vail, Kathleen. Drive safely. American School Board Journal, 1996, 49-52.