My Experience with Newsgroups: Road Rage and other Complaints
Honda Drivers Rule!
Subject: Re: fast car, slow driver on freeway on-ramp? Re: big US vehicles guilty of pol
Date: 26 Oct 1998 00:03:50 GMT
The usual contributors to lane-blocking road rage are: SUVs minivans all GM and chrysler sedans the other mainstream sedans: camry, accord, taurus - but not as much as the others.. on the other hand, you almost never find anyone who is driving a japanese sports car or pocketrocket, or an oddball euro sedan, blocking lanes. Isn't that the truth! lol I really don't recall ever getting road rage over another Honda. Mazda owners, "maybe", but definitely not any Honda drivers. I have had this problem plenty of times with SUVs and American cars before. Or maybe it's just the fact that they all drive automatics . We stick shift drivers sure know how to pay attention to detail, unlike many automatic drivers .
My Comments:
This guy is claiming that he has never had any problems with any of his fellow Honda drivers on the road or any driver who drives a Japanese sports car. Furthermore, he also thinks that stick shift drivers know how to pay attention to detail better than automatic drivers. I think he has developed some ingroup biases. He classifies himself as a member of the "Honda drivers group" and the "stick shift drivers group." Being a part of these groups is beneficial to his self-concept. The people who drive automatics, SUV's, minivans, etc.. comprise the outgroup. These drivers may not be the ones causing all the blockage on the road, but he attacks them more readily than someone who is a part of his group.
Road Rage: Utter BS!
Date: 1998/11/29
Check this out. As I suspected, the so called epidemic of road rage and aggressive driving is just a crock. It's fueled by a combination of media hype, poor statistical analysis, and the propensity of the police to seize on any opportunity to get more funding!
Of particular interest is the definition that some bozo at the federal level used to talk about aggressive driving. He called it anything that isn't driver inattention or fatigue. So some dork who didn't look in his blind spot when he changed lanes now becomes an aggressive driver?
What a crock!
[ http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/frompost/nov98/roadrage29.htm--
Tony Wang ]
[ http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/2544
]
My Comments:
Mr. Wang does not provide any real evidence for his conclusion about road rage here in this clip. He's also upset about the poor definition of road rage that the "bozo" at the federal level has given for road rage. Perhaps he could give a better operational definition of road rage instead of just criticizing the other person's definition. Another thing I see here is that Mr. Wang displays hindsight bias (otherwise known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon). He claims that he knew all along that road rage was a bogus idea. This train of thought makes him more arrogant and close-minded.
Cramps and Road Rage
Re: Cramps and Road Rage
Date: 1998/11/08
When I get "road rage" I also get severe cramps that even make me have more road rage. What do you recommend to get rid of the cramps (I want to keep the road rage...)??? Ha! I thought you were going to say that listening to The Cramps gave you road rage!
My Comments:
I thought that this clip was interesting because someone is describing how road rage actually produces somatic effects. It is possible that this person has a somatoform disorder. These disorders are usually anxiety related with no apparent physiological reason for the ailments. The bad part is that this person wants to keep the road rage. Perhaps the person who responds to this clip will tell the driver that the only way to get rid of the cramps is to get rid of the road rage.
Road Rage Kills (sad story)
Subject: Re: -I- The cruel stupidity of road rage/stupid suggestion to fix
Date: 26 Oct 1998 22:28:17 GMT
WARNING: This is a very sad story. I'm not putting a spoiler on it. I've seen many reports on TV that have brought tears to my eyes, but my tears are easy. This story actually made my heart ache. Last week, a man died here as a result of a road rage incident. He had tapped his brakes when someone tailgated him. This just made the person behind him angrier. When the man pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store, the other driver followed, and proceeded to beat him. The violence ensued before the first man got out of his car. The man lived long enough to give the police a statement, but he died not long after. (The enraged driver has been apprehended; he had a suspended driver's license.)
(snip--you'll see why when you read on)
And now, if you don't mind my ranting a little about something I'm never going to be able to do anything about: It's too fucking easy to get a license in the US. People think they have a *right* to drive. Driving is a privilege. There is no such thing as a "right to drive."
If it were more difficult to get a driver's license, the number of bad drivers on the road would decrease.
exactly HOW would your proposal have changed the road rage death? seems like making a license harder to get would not cause the kind of person who would drive on a suspended not be on the road.
A better fix, is that a person with a suspended license goes to jail! Then he/she would not be able to drive!!!!
My Comments:
It seems that L. Anne Browne is expressing a bit of learned helplessness. She sounds very frustrated when she mentions that she is "ranting about something that she will never be able to do anything about. In regard to the rest of the article, I must say that the man who beat the other driver to death has a SERIOUS road rage problem. His affevtive self must be way out of control in order to beat someone to death. I think that a suspended license is too light a punishment for this guy. I hope that this guy received a stiffer punishment than that.
Fast Food Order Rage!
Re: Road Rage
Date: 1998/11/17
How about fast food order rage???
Did I SAY with cheese?
If I wanted fries...I WOULD HAVE ORDERED THEM.
A small thing I know, but they really tick me off sometimes.
My Comments:
Justin shows some cognitive dissonance in his fast food order rage. He admits that it is a small thing to get angry about when he is being asked if he wants fries with his meal or cheese on his burger. He knows that it is not something to totally lose his cool over. He probably just doesn't like the fact that they are trying to milk him for every penny that they possibly can. At least he admits that it gets him angry, he's not fooling himself.
Parking Rage w/waiting music
Re: Rich, about our road rage talk...
Date: 1998/11/23
It's only inspired me to be an angrier driver. Toady as I circled through my entire village four times looking for a parking spot (while In Circles was playing, how appropriate) I ran into all sorts of idiots. And one point I came to a sudden halt and screamed at some woman. Fortunately there were no ice scrapers involved.
good going debbie. i had numerous bouts of road rage today, and i was a passenger. stay out of manhattan until mid january.
"hey....is this the cheapest toilet paper you got?"
My Comments:
In this case, it seems apparent that the driver made a connection between the music and her situation. She was already irritated, but the music, which she calls "appropriate" served to increase her feelings of irritation and anger. Thus, she ended up yelling at some woman. Music does affect our moods, and moods tend to affect the way we behave. Looking at the forum where this discussion took place in, I notice that it was under the genre of hard core. Much of the hard core music is designed to highlight these types of aggressive feelings. I wonder what would have happened if she was listening to something a little more mellow. Perhaps things would have different.
Road Rage is Nothing but Common Sense
Road Rage
Date: 1998/11/25
I'd like to read people's opinions on road rage in NZ.
I read an article which suggested there is no statistical evidence to support the notion that road rage is in fact on the increase (I thought, "yeah - tell Jim Hickey that" :-)
For those wanting a fuller look, it's at [ http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98aug/roadrage.htm ]
The writer's proposition was that, as we spend more and more of our time in cars, it's just common sense that the roadway will be the venue for more and more altercations. ie, altercations that we, as humans, would have wherever we spend time (home, work, sport etc). Ergo, it's not specifically a "driving" thing.
To go further, it was just the *increased publicity* that the trendy term was getting, that made people believe it was 'on the increase'.
[I wondered, did the Romans have 
"chariot rage", the cowboys "horse rage", and
do the Chinese presumably suffer rampant "bicycle rage"...?]
The other school of thought would suggest, yes, road rage IS a reality, and the reasons behind it are: we're worse drivers than before..we have shorter fuses than before, the road rules are poorly enforced, etc.
Any thoughts?
My Comments:
This guy is saying that road rage is almost purely social and dependent on social factors. He thinks that it is aoutomatic that as the amount of drivers on the road increases, so will the number of altercations. Thus, he wonders if Romans had "chariot rage" and so forth. I believe that road rage is caused by a multiplicity of influences, and it's not purely a social phenomenon. However I do believe that there is probably a positive correlation between increased amounts of drivers on the road and the number of bouts of road rage.
Using the "LAW" to Combat Road Rage
Road Rage Revenge...
Date: 1998/11/22
Driving down a crowded highway in CT, this ASSHOLE from New Jersey decides he is GOING to cut me off. Wrong move for him. I speed up a bit. He can't pass me. He waves what looks like a very convincing .44 pistol at me. I slow down quite a bit. Nearly stopping. Let him get in front of me, get his license plate #, exit the highway, and locate (conveniently) a COP sitting near the exit. Tell him the ordeal. He races off and about 20 minutes later, he returns to tell me they caught up to the guy with the gun. It turns out to be a fake plastic gun. HOWEVER, it is still illegal to wave or threaten anyone with such an item. Being a Saturday, this guy had to spend THE WHOLE WEEKEND in some shitty jail cell in STAFFORD SPRINGS, CT. If you've ever been there, you know...
Well, Monday morning comes along, and the police chief calls me wanting to know to what extent I wish to press charges. He could have faced quite a stiff penalty, but I figured having some ASSHOLE from Jersey mad at me FOREVER would not be the best thing on Earth, so I figured two nights in jail three hours from home in the LAST place on Earth you would want to spend two nights three hours from home was enough punishment.
ROAD
RAGE is out there.
There is a CURE.
It is NOT a gun.
It is called WIT.
OUTSMART the asshole.
There are LAWS
USE them.
My Comments:
This person justifies aggravating the other driver by saying that they were driving down acrowded highway. Therfore, he/she didn't feel that it was necessary to let the other driver in. When the other driver waved his gun, it was obvious to this driver that it was time to let the situation go. This driver then went to the police because he/she felt the situation was beyond his/her control. This displays an external locus of control, but also good senses. Justice is served!
Road Rage and Type A Drivers
Re: are Madison Police patroling 565???
Date: 1998/11/11
Please "Driver's State of Mind" which affects Driver's Capability. In other words, drivers who are Type A and suffer Road Rage over someone getting in front of them and then are incapable of reacting as a human being.
Agreed...but just call it what it is--"being an asshole." "Road rage" is a euphemistic meaningless term born of a need to label anything and everything even remotely identifiable as a phenomenon upon which we as a society can hang responsibility for our actions, since it's so unfashionable to take it for ourselves anymore.
Not that I am bitter.
My Comments:
I agree with this guy in the sense that road rage is not strictly limited to those who have a Type A personality. I catch myself doing things on the road that can be categorized as road rage and I don't have a Type A personality. I do think that it is possible that people with Type A personalities may get more disturbed when something doesn't go their way on the road, or they may get more edgy than a normal person sitting in traffic.
"Driver Communication"
Re: $3.25
Date: 1998/11/25
ok I guess htats it for now as a sidenote the newspaper a week or so back came up with a brilliant idea of having a universal hand-signal to use when you do a stupid driver move to decrease road rage. There already is one. It's called the bird. Flipping someone off. The middle finger. Don't fix it if it aint broken.
I read this as the driver who commits the stupid act would use the signal to note that he is aware that he has fucked up and is sorry about being so stupid. OTOH, if the stupid driver is too stupid too realize that he has committed some really dumb maneuver, then the finger would apply in that instance.
My Comments:
This article speaks of something that's always been difficult for me to understand. Someone makes a mistake while driving and they are clearly wrong, but they still believe they are in the right. They may give someone the finger, cuss at the other driver, or even tail the other person until they pull over (at which point a fight may break out). In any case, these drivers have no right to be so upset because they are the ones who made the mistake. These drivers don't know how to take responsiblity for their actions and they are looking to blame someone else for their bad driving. They display a sense of denial. As far as coming up with a signal to communicate your own fault, I'm sure that it should not be the middle finger. This does not help the problem of road rage, it only makes it worse. In my opinion driver communication does need a lot of fixing.
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ike@hawaii.edu