Attitudes Driving Newsgroups:
Examining Perspectives in CyberSpace

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Subject: Man, that's only the beginning, dude
Re: Road Rage
Date: 1998/01/21
 

JUSTIFICATION FOR AUTOMOTIVE ASSASSINATION

1. "Mean People Suck" stickers. What's wrong with us??

2. "My child was student of the month at...." Instead, how about "My uncle was CIA hit man of the month," or "My father was inmate of the
month at San Quentin?"

3. People who look through their steering wheels instead of the windshield when they drive. Don't you just love to see a tuft of white
hair and the top of the steering wheel?

4. Convertible Geo Metros. Someone once thought that Pacers and Pintos would be cool too.

 

5. People who move into the slow lane AFTER you've passed them. Oh God,
PLEASE, just one kill!!

6. People with diesel engine cars. GASP! CHOKE! Thanks a lot.
COUGH! CHOKE!

7. Having to share the road with cyclists.

8. People with more stickers on their car than paint. And no Anita, I don't believe you.

9. Everyone's favorite group of drivers. No explanation needed here.

10. Purple headed warriors behind the wheel. PLEASE, stick to baking cookies, making shawls and playing with your cats.

Oh, man, that's just the beginning! That's what I see in suburban DC on a good morning, thank you very much. Let's continue the list:

11. "No Left/U-Turn" bandits. Bethesda Maryland has these signs that say that during a certain hour--rush hour if you will--you can't make a left or a U-turn at certain intersections. Guess what some cocksuckers do anyway? "Oh, yeah, I think I'll just block traffic for 2 miles back to I-270 and make them wait while I take a left turn on a street where I have no business being in the first place."

12. Double-lane pirates. TWO F*#KING WHITE LINES MEAN DO NOT CROSS!!!!!
(HOV lanes have this at the divide of I-270)

13. The "I think I'll cut this guy off. Who cares about right of way?" crowd.

14. Pedestrians who don't know what a lit red hand means.(Corollary: the brilliant one who came up with the flashing "WALK" signals in Chevy Chase, DC/MD and further into DC)

15. "YOU'RE DRIVING LIKE A BAT OUTTA HELLLLLLLLLL" a la "Mariott Fairfield"
(Explanation: This guy is on a two-lane road headed for a meeting that starts in five minutes. Gets behind this old beat-up car going 25mph. Wife is driving, strain-ing the transmission, husband is sitting there telling her to slow down, so she does and he says to her...)

16. "DON'T BLAME ME I VOTED FOR BUSH". Apparently, you didn't get a D/L, either in 1996.

17. I'm from the South (NC, to be exact) and know how to drive in snow better than the rush hour crowd in the mornings.

18. The "One microsecond of a turn signal is enough to signal for a lane change" crowd.

 

19. The "wait for three minutes after a light turns green and look stupid at the drivers honking behind them" crowd.

20. Construction crews. That Pennzoil commercial might be funny as hell to the non-suburbanites, but to the rest of us, it's reality.(Explanation: put up a sign that says "No passing for next 100 miles" on a 2-lane road, put up traffic lights every block and snicker while eating a sandwich at the
guy directly behind them).

Okay, keep adding to this list. This is great.

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Subject: Re: Road Rage - AA Survey [reply to various posters]
Date: 1998/01/19
 
 There have been a variety of reactions to the tale of road rage I posted a while back, and in my final message on this thread (and probably to the NG - the standard of 'discussion' on here is barely at playground level) I'd like to reply to some of the points made and make a few final observations.

Someone kept making the fatuous point that I was breaking the law by doing 80mph.

This is the speed recommended by police traffic officers to take into account any variations in the vehicle's speed measuring indicator of 10% plus/minus. Also provides an adequate stopping
distance on thinking & braking times.

That's true enough, but then the majority of motorway drivers break the law by speeding at some time,

Unless there is a visibly marked police patrol car in the immediate area then the majority of m-way users are exceeding the national speed limit, regardless of the type of vehicle they are driving.

so frankly I don't see what my speed has to do with the price of eggs, unless the implication is that as a lawbreaker I've got no right to complain about anything.

What they are saying is that you are probably a hypocrite.

Perhaps the poster is part of the small minority of the population who's never committed an indictable offence in his life.

There probably are some, somewhere. Those that are still living.

Others made the fair point that I was wrong to give the guy the finger, and it's certainly not an error I'll repeat. Some said that, if I'd done that in any other situation I'd have got a kicking, which is a sound point and one I've made myself a number of times ö it irritates me (dare I say it enrages me ;-)) when people make gestures or yell abuse from the safety of their little metal boxes which they wouldn't have the guts to do in real life.

Maybe had you been arrested for actions likely to lead to a breach of the peace being committed you would have thought differently. Especially having your name in your local papers.

It's probably fair to say that if you make aggressive gestures then you should be prepared to back them up with personal violence, and as I'm not so prepared then I'll keep my hands to myself from now on.

You should had thought of that in the first place. It works both ways. Did you also consider that your actions might have ended you up in hospital. Others think the same way you do.

Mind you, I wonder what the real-life equivalent of driving up someone's arse at 80 is...

But that's how they drive on the motorways every day.

Some sensitive soul wished that I'd been rammed off the road, to which I can only reply that you, pal, are part of the problem, and I earnestly suggest that you search the Yellow Pages for a good anger management course.

No, I disagree. YOU are the problem. It's you that needs the anger
management course. You are a danger to yourself and other road users. Do your insurance company know what you're like?

Some other guy wrote:

You already knew that the guy was a nutter because he was right up your arse. Then, after the incident, instead of just ignoring it, you thought you would overtake him again. Hello? Are you thick or what?

I overtook him again to try to get away from him because he was driving deliberately dangerously in front of me, periodically speeding up to 60 then slowing right down to 30. My biggest fear was that he would stop altogether, which on this stretch of road without a hard shoulder would have been extremely dangerous. I would suggest an anger management course to you as well, mate.

Of course you didn't consider stopping yourself, or turning off somewhere to cool down, did you? Or even doing a U turn.

So, let's get back to the nub of the matter. Does an offensive gesture by me justify deliberately dangerous driving by another which risks the lives of both myself and my blameless girlfriend? Does it justify said driver following us for over 10 miles, and quite possibly attacking us if I hadn't managed to lose him? If your answer to both these questions is yes, then I suggest you start smoking some good dope because you plainly need to chill out.

Of course not. However if you had not made the offending gesture in the first place nothing would have happened. Naturally I feel sorry for your girlfriend as an innocent bystander but the blame rests on you for initiating the whole sequence.

In all my years on the road (30-odd as cyclist and passenger, just a year as driver), my strong impression is that aggressive, irresponsible, and dangerous driving is usually committed by men (although I can think of a couple of women who drove like maniacs, including one white-knuckle ride that is burned into my memory).

My personal feeling is that this is a problem caused by masculinity ö we perceive ourselves to be in conflict/competition with other drivers and act as we're brought up to act, that is aggressively. When there is a direct conflict with another man driver, perhaps due to violent gestures, being cut up, or wotnot, it ceases to be a driving problem and becomes a man-man conflict. In real life, conflicts between men are resolved by the use, or threatened use, of violence, so it's not surprising that this ethos carries itself on to the road and that so many men get out of their cars to teach the other man 'a lesson'.

 

("I'll teach you not to be aggressive!" - SMACK!) . Now, if it was only the men themselves that got hurt there'd be no problem, but sadly this testosterone overdose (particulary in young lads) puts the lives of non-combatants at risk. Maybe we need a testosterone test instead of the breathalyser ;-(

I tend to put it all down to bad manners and frustration. Bad manners due to the lack of courtesy by both male and female drivers. The simple rule of the road these days is "get ahead at any cost".

The frustration comes into play when there are so many users on the road that you can't very well get to where you want to be at the time you would like to be there, because you left home later rather than earlier. Try planning your trips in advance taking into account the volumes of traffic you are likely to encounter and the time it's going to take you. Leave earlier and have a more relaxing drive.

Women, on the other hand, don't have this masculine baggage. For all their technical faults they are, IMO, by far the safer drivers, and when I've been offered lifts from people I've always chosen the woman driver. More often than not, when I've had to take a lift from a bloke I've wished that I'd walked home.

Again I'll have to agree and disagree with you both at the same time. There are some good male drivers and good female drivers, then again there is one hell of a lot of bad male drivers and bad female drivers. Many female drivers are unsure as to what the width of their car is, they are very hesitant also, and I think that the driving schools should stop training female drivers in little cars and start them off with Range Rovers. On the other hand there are quite a number of female HGV drivers.

I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that, as a man, you need to be prepared for violence from other men if you venture on to the road.

If you are going to prepare for it then I suggest you will meet it, but don't have your girlfriend with you next time. Or your children with you, if you have any. I've noticed that guys driving with their wives and children on board are very much less agressive on the roads and actually stop for Zebra crossings,especially in their own home towns.


Maybe things will improve as women make up a greater percentage of drivers, but I'm not going to risk it. So, those posters who think I'm a thicko idiot who deserves a kicking will be pleased to know that I'mgiving up driving, for all but essential purposes, and will either use PT, my pushbike, or prevail on my girlfriend to give me lifts. The benefits that driving brings aren't worth the risks of hospitalization or death just because some men have a hormone problem.

And you, it appears, are one of them.

My final, and very elementary, point, is that the purpose of driving is to get from A to B. That's all - the car's just a machine for that purpose. No one should have to suffer the threat of physical violence, or the stress of being shouted at, or have their lives put at risk, just because they want to get somewhere. Or maybe I'm just being naive.

I think that a course in defensive driving would pay you dividends. I'll agree that a car is just a metal box on wheels with a propulsion unit that will convey you safely to where ever it is
you want to go to. Its not the car that is dangerous it is the large nut behind the steering wheel that is at fault. It is all down to a question of attitude. If you start out with a bad temper and a chip on your shoulder somebody is going to knock it off for you.

Thanks to those few who have sympathised with me.

I sympathise with everybody who is on the public highway at the same time you are, and your girlfriend, I sympathise with her for having a pratt like you.

A Driver

Another driver.

If you'd like some advanced driving lessons or some coaching in
defensive driving methods then I'll happily volunteer.

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Subject: Re: Driving in Poland vs. Driving in The U.S.
Date: 1998/02/12
 
Driving European Style! And there's also a more muscular version ö Eastern

European Style! Count the casualties per miles traveled and you'll appreciate the US and Canadian way. I used to be a sports driver, I'm still doing really fine in Warsaw, Berlin, Boston or LA, but when I walk with my 5 yr old daughter through the streets and intersections of Warsaw, I'm simply terrified she may be killed.

The majority of drivers there show a complete lack of imagination, over-confidence, or just a basic carelessness. I can assess rather fast when their cars are going to loose traction during breaking under given road conditions and predict when they'll decide to cut a corner or jump thru lanes. My daughter can't, and I'm sure many people on the streets can't do that, either. Who needs Darwinian traffic rules with no mercy for children and old?

Of course, building more and better roads, highways, separating people and bikers from the stream of cars, etc., are necessary things, but until all this happens a rapidly growing number of Eastern European drivers must learn to be more rather than less careful than their Western European and N. American friends.

During my last visit in Poland I noticed that Polish drivers unconsciously make their cars become lethal weapon every time they get out on the road.

 

The speeds that they reach in the city and risks that they take running red lights and cutting each other off is incredible. Going 100 km/h (about 60 mph) in the city is not only potentialy lethal but also suicidal. The streets in old Polish cities are relatively narrow and in case of emergency there is really no place to go to avoid a collision. There is so many fatal accidents in Poland, really bad ones, where cars are damaged beyond recognition. ...

North American drivers are the worst. A bunch of defensive wimps who obstruct drivers who want to get somewhere relatively fast and by that they cause accidents. In the snow, canadian drivers are absolutely lost. I think its all this stupid defensive crap they are taught that makes taotal women out of them behind the wheel.

Americans driving like women? Defensive ? Come to L.A. and you will change your mind in 48 hours. L.A. must have the biggests collection of nut cases behind the wheel on the planet. Especially those guys with loud, twin exchaust
"muscle cars." They will show you defensive driving.

It so happens that I drive in LA every single day. American drivers are OK but when a fucking mexican gets behind the wheel I wanna empty my beretta in his brains no question about it. They dont respect medians, dividers, blinking lights, nothing. Sepulveda Pass (405 Freeway) can cause a heart attack and I am not surprised that many people in LA show symptoms of road rage.

Avoid the Pass, 110 freeway, 5 freeway.

 

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Subject: Re: Beware Loaded Dump Trucks
Date: 1998/02/13


Whew...did I get a scare this morning on the way to work.

I hate to say it, but when I first got my Class A licence, I ended up in that same situation twice; once along highway 4 west of Stockton, CA; speed limit was 55 along this very small levee road; came around a blind curve loaded to about 50 tons (yes, *50 tons*, stupidly 10 tons over legal), came up on a car filled with kids STOPPED in the road waiting to make a turn! I locked up 16 wheels (the front two had ABS), kept it in a straight line, and watched those kids looking at me through the back window, terrified! I knew the entire time I could not stop in time, and since it was a levee road, there was no shoulder to turn to. The woman driving the car suddenly got one hellova clue, and barked rubber into a driveway off to the right, avoiding certain death. I was relieved to say the least! I had nightmares about this for months.

The other time I was empty (tractor and trailer empty still weigh about 18 tons, and because of the absense of a load, stopping traction sucks) comming out of Portland. Again, going too damn fast down I-5, I ran into totally stopped traffic in front of me, and got on the air brakes hard. Somehow I managed to keep it straight and in one lane, and boiled all 18 hides to within 2 feet of the semi in front of me. WHEW! I thought I was going to have a heart attack before I got it stopped, and I knew that if I ran into the trailer in front of me, my trailer would break loose, shove forward and go right through the cab where I sat,
killing me rather mercilessly.

My commercial driving skills have long since matured and no one on the road is in danger of that kind of crappy driving anymore, and I don't "shag ass" to make my employer happy anymore. If they have to fire me because I don't drive fast enough, so be it. (I've been fired several times because I refused to exceed the 55-mph speed limit.) Most don't know that commercial drivers last only about 1 year in this business, and turnover rates are unbelievable; at any given time, 20-30% of semi drivers on the road are rookies with less than 1 year of experience.(generally, 5 years or more is considered "experienced").

Using your mirrors will save your bacon! You obviously knew what you were doing, and getting the hell out of the way of an out-of-control truck was a very wise move!


 

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Subject: Things that Peeve and Road Rage
Date: 1998/02/10
 
An earlier thread talked about how while overtaking another driver ~5-10 MPH, the other driver will accelerate and match speed to pace you, thus preventing you from completing the pass. I see this all the time on 66 and 495. My explanation is this: I think some of these people don't even know they are doing it. They subconsciously speed up when they see you gaining, without being aware of accelerating. Then there's the opposite. Somebody passes you and then once they lose sight sight of you periphally, they slow and camp off your left front bumper.

All I can say is this: complete idiots. My driving style is to make sure that at no time, if at all possible, do I impede anybody else's progress. I make a run up 66E 3-4 nights a week to visit my girlfriend, and have seen it all. There are some nights that I'm the fastest driver on the road. About 20% of other drivers will change lanes out of the left to let me by.

And that I believe is because the headlights on my Pathfinder are blinding them. Mind you, I am not tailgating, just driving with a normal spacing. The others sit and force me to pass on the right. This is a 4 lane highway!! Then there are other nights where I am not the fastest. I ALWAYS change lanes into the right to let someone by, if I happen to be in the left-most lane at all. The idiot that started the other thread received his well-deserved abuse.

I have very rarely been passed on the right, usually due to gaps in the middle lane occuring before me, and then the middle lane speeding up. If I find myself stuck in a right hand turn lane but want to go straight, I'll turn right anyway, just to avoid slowing up other traffic, or cutting somebody off. The other night, I saw a guy trying to make a turn, completely stuck out in the perpendicular lane. About five cars ahead of me and then myself had to veer in the other lane jsut to clear his bumper. I slowed, honked, and held up my hands as if to say " WTF? ", and he flicked me off. I just laughed, not believing that this guy would not put his car into reverse. My philosophy is this: I'm not the only car on the road, so I make sure to be as courteous as allowed to other drivers.

I don't tailgate, I let people in when they signal, I stay right unless passing, and don't impede other drivers. However, that courtesy ENDS when it is not extended back to me. I have been known to tap brakes when 'gated, box in some asshole who previously cut me off, told people they were idiots at stoplights after pulling off some astoundingly stupid move, etc,etc. I know I'll be flamed for this, but there are times when I do lose my temper, and pursue things a little far. Scariest?

Blacked-out, rusting Suburban in D.C., when I slowed to a crawl after being tailgated at a distance of perhaps 3 feet on a one lane road. He pulled into a 7-11 to get around me, so I sped up. Then he backed off a little bit. Then he turned off with no further incident. Afterwards, I realized it was extremely dumb for me to do this, but I let my temper get the best of me. You see, I don't do that sort of thing to other people, but when someone starts it with me, I can't help but want to finish it.

Let me tell you, I almost always win. So if you travel 66E on week nights and squat in the left lane, and notice a Green Pathfinder travelling faster than you, get out of my way first chance you got. And if you happen to approach me from behind, don't tailgate, and I'll be out of your way in second or two.


 

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Subject: Re: Lousy drivers (people) on roads
Date: 1998/02/03
 
I'd be in favor of testing every four years, too (as well as EVERY YEAR above 65 or 70). But... exactly what do you intend to test people on other than what you mentioned above. Every little road rule? There is no such thing as a perfect driver in this country (or anywhere for that matter). Even if testing weeds out some obviously unfit drivers, I'm sure they'd still find a way to get behind the wheel and put the rest of our lives in danger.


Good point. It would be easy for some people to do what needs to be done to get the license, then drive like idiots afterward. But to answer the first part of your question -- no, not every little nitpicking traffic law. But things like: do they complete turns into the proper lane (90% of drivers don't, and I have nearly been sideswiped several times). Do they know what a merge lane is and how to use it (I've seen many close calls by people who don't use the merge lane, but come to a STOP at the very start of it and then try to merge into 60 mph traffic from a standing start). Will they signal their lane changes and make them preudently? Will they obey ALL posted speed limits? (Most people probably aren't even aware of what the posted limits are -- they just drive as fast -- or slow -- as they please).

There is much to expert driving that probably cannot be quantified on a road test -- the mental attitude, for instance. Skillful driving requires COMPLETE attention to the road (not to the radio or the cell phone or the cute tomato riding with you).

It requires the ability to judge the positions, speeds, and moves of other vehicles, and to be aware of all the traffic around you (front, back, sides, even in the oncoming lanes) and to think well ahead of any potential maneuvers one wishes to make and what the consequences will be. It requires the awareness of all the other drivers on the road and the attitude of sharing that roadway and not endangering or inconveniencing others in a selfish way. Most of this, IMHO, is well beyond
the average driver. And that is what makes the road such a dangerous place.

I agree with a Highway Patrol cop who once told me that there is no such thing as an "accident" on the road. The word "accident" often connotates the idea that "oh well, something just happened and it couldn't be avoided."
ALL accidents are preventable, and not a single accident occurs that doesn't involve at least one party doing something stupid or illegal. I love the way newspaper stories about accidents use these bening phrases to describe what happened. Like "so-and-so apparently lost control of his vehicle and ran into the truck." How do you just simply "lose control" of your vehicle.

Do you suddenly throw up your arms and close your eyes and say "Oh, muy God, I've lost control!!" All vehicles can be controlled, save for a major mechanical disaster (like losing a wheel or something). Or "so-and-so crossed the center line and hit the oncoming vehicle." Why in God's name did he cross the center line? The only reason to DELIBERATELY cross the
center line is to pass, and if you're not 110% certain that you can complete that pass safely, you'd best just stay behind the blue-haired old lady in front of you and grumble.

Enough venting...I gotta get to work...

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Subject: Road Rage?
Date: 1998/01/06
 
You know, I've done my fair share of driving, mostly up & down the east
coast. Personally, I've never been the victim, nor have I victimized anyone
in the name of "Road Rage." I don't care what anyone says, but if I've been
driving for an extended period of time, I have no patience for the nonsense
& bullshit that some of my fellow contemporaries pull on the road.

I'll be straightforward. I am an aggressive driver. I say this because I'm a speeder, & for some reason, we're considered aggressive drivers. I'll tell you, speed limits are a crock. Why the hell should I do 65 on an endless stretch of straightaway on a perfect day? I feel that I can judge, on my own, the speed at which I should travel. Instead of worrying & looking out for "Mista Offica" I should be focusing on getting my vehicle from pt A to pt B in a timely & efficient & safe matter. I wish the Cannonball still existed..

Anyway, I love the "self-appointed" traffic officers who think it's their divine right to enforce their version of the speed limits.. True story; On the Cross-Bronx Expressway, there was a guy who was apparently lane blocking. A car came up on him, beeped his horn, flashed his lights. This went on for a cople of miles. The guy wouldn't yield & let the other guy pass, for whatever reason. Well, the guy in the car behind him pulled out a gun, fired shots into the offending car, hitting & killing the lane blocker's daughter.

Now safety nazi's you tell me.. You think it's worth it? You see a guy driving like a lunatic, let him pass. How hard can it be? I can tell you that these guys don't just appear out of thin air. You can see him approaching for quite some distance if you pay attention (Which is another trait lacking in many drivers on the road)

Just so you know, my biggest pet peeves:

1. Lane blocking= l get pretty annoyed when I have to pass people on the left. You aren't supposed to pass people on the left. That's why the left lane is the passing lane. Most highways have at least 3 lanes. The right lane is the passing lane, the middle lane is the travel lane, & the right lane is the merging lane. If you can't handle the passing lane, get out of
it

2. Cell phones= I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been cut off by people who deem it more important to carry on a conversation than to actually focus on driving. I can't stess enough that driving takes a lot of concentration, and that if that phone conversation is that fucking important, PULL OVER!!! Somebody's gonna get killed, one of these days

3. SUV's= Yeah, I know they're big, they're safe, & whatever. But a lot of people don't know how to handle them, which makes for a dangerous
situation on the road

4. People who insist on driving in your blind spot= These people should be shot on site

I can go on & on, but I've said enough for now.. See you on the road

 

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Subject: road rage article... is funny as hell!! ö its long though
Date: 1998/01/06
 
Hey all,

I know this doesn't belong on this newsgroup, but I thought it was
funny as hell. I think it is describing my driving! Read on...


Road Rage

Aggressive driving is America's car sickness du jour. But is
there a cure for thinking everyone else on the road is an idiot?


-----------------------------------------------------------------
----

It's a jungle out there. well, not really: it's worse than a jungle. It's a stretch of roadway anywhere in America, and in place of the ravenous tigers and stampeding rhinos and slithery anacondas are your friends and neighbors and co-workers, that nice lady from the church choir and the cheerful kid who bags your food at the local Winn Dixie--even Mom and Dad and Buddy and Sis. They're in a hurry. And you're in their way. So step on it! That light is not going to get any greener! Move it or park it! Tarzan had it easy.

Tarzan didn't have to drive to work.
It may be morning in America--crime down, incomes up, inflation nonexistent--but it's high noon on the country's streets and highways. This
is road recklessness, auto anarchy, an epidemic of wanton carmanship. Almost everyone from anywhere has a story about it, as fresh as the memory of this morning's commute. And no wonder. Incidents of "road rage" were up 51% in the first half of the decade, according to a report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Some occurrences are grisly enough to make the headlines. Last year a high-speed racing duel on the George Washington Memorial Parkway outside Washington killed two innocent commuters, including a mother of two, traveling in the opposite direction.

More often the new ethos of road anarchy manifests itself in the mundane:

the unsignaled lane change by the driver next to you, the guy who tailgates you if you go too slow, and the person ahead who brakes abruptly if you go too fast--each transgression accented by a flip of the bird or a blast of the horn. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a recent Coalition for Consumer Health and Safety poll say people are driving less courteously and
more dangerously than they were five years ago.

And the enemy is us. Take a ride with "Anne," a 40-year-old mother of three who would rather we not use her real name, as she steers her 2 1/2-ton black Chevy Suburban out of her driveway on a leafy street in residential Washington. The clock on the dashboard reads 2:16. She has 14 minutes to make it to her daughter's game. Within a block of her house she has hit 37 m.p.h., taking stop signs as suggestions rather than law. She has a lot on her mind. "I'm not even thinking of other cars," Anne admits cheerfully as she lays on the horn. An oldster in an econo-box ahead of her has made the near fatal mistake of slowing at an intersection with no stop sign or traffic light. Anne swears and peels off around him.

Anne has a clean driving record with scarcely even a fender bender to her name. But when she takes to the highway, even her kids join the fun. "Make him move over!" they shout as she bears down on a 55-m.p.h. sluggard in the fast lane. She flashes her headlights. The kids cheer when the unlucky target gives in and moves aside. Back in town, Anne specializes in near misses. "Jeez, I almost hit that woman," she chirps, swinging the Suburban into the right lane to pass a car turning left at an intersection. She makes the game two minutes late. "I don't think I'm an aggressive driver," Anne says. "But there are a lot of bad drivers out there."

Too true, too true. But the example of Anne--prosperous, well-adjusted Anne, loving wife and mother--raises the overarching question of road anarchy.
Residents of late 20th century America are arguably the luckiest human beings in history: the most technologically pampered, the richest, the freest things on two legs the world has ever seen. Then why do we drive like
such jerks?

The most common answer: What do you mean we, Kemo Sabe? Of course, you don't drive like a jerk. Neither does Anne--just ask her. Very few drivers admit to being an obnoxious road warrior. There seem to be only three types of people on the road these days: the insane (those who drive faster than you), the moronic (those who drive slower than you) and...you. But this merely confuses the issue. Surely someone is doing all that speeding, tailgating, headlight flashing and abrupt lane changing, not to mention the bird flipping and horn blasting. There's enough in the phenomenon of road rage to keep a faculty-loungeful of social theorists thinking deeply for years÷or at least until the grant money runs out.

That won't be any time soon. With millions of victims and hardly any confessed perpetrators, road recklessness has become the car-related
sickness du jour, deposing (for the moment) drunk driving from its long-standing reign. Like drunk driving, the issue has energized America's vast machinery of social concern.

The Federal Government is spending money on research, Congress has held hearings, law-enforcement authorities have held seminars and developed special enforcement programs, and psychologists are treating it as a genuine, stand-alone disorder. There are Websites devoted to the topic, including one--the Database of Unsafe Driving÷that allows Web users to enter not only an account of their experience with an aggressive driver but also the "insane moron's" license-plate number, along with a proposed punishment. (Several of these--surprise!--are obscene.)

Aggressive driving, of course, has been around since the early decades of this century, from the moment when the average number of automobiles on any given roadway rose from 1 to 2. It is partly a matter of numbers. There are
17% more cars in America than there were 10 years ago, while the number of drivers is up 10%. More to the point: the number of miles driven has increased 35% since 1987, while only 1% more roads have been built.

But as the quantity of cars has risen, the nature of the problem has changed qualitatively as well. Maybe the congestion is making everyone cranky. Americans are famously attached to their cars; it's just the driving they can't stand. "Driving and habitual road rage have become virtually inseparable," says Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii who specializes in the phenomenon.

In the most comprehensive national survey on driving behavior so far, a Michigan firm, EPIC-MRA, found that an astounding 80% of drivers are angry most or all of the time while driving. Simple traffic congestion is one cause of irritation, but these days just about anything can get the average driver to tap his horn. More than one-third of respondents to the Michigan survey said they get impatient at stoplights or when waiting for a parking space; an additional 25% can't stand waiting for passengers to get in the car. And 22% said they get mad when a multi-lane highway narrows.

So not only are roads more crowded than ever, but they are crowded with drivers whom science has now discovered to be extremely touchy. Modern life offers plenty of ready-made excuses for bad driving, and here as elsewhere time seems to be of the essence: there's just not enough of it. When police departments in the Washington area launched a program to crack down on aggressive driving last year, cops handed out some 60,000 tickets in 28 days for offenses ranging from tailgating to passing on the right. The most common excuse: "I'm late."

So many miles, so little time. For Ron Remer, 47, a soft-spoken salesman, offensive driving was simply part of the job. From his home in New Haven, Conn., he logged 30,000 miles a year selling promotional products. "People on the road were an impediment to my progress," he says. "If I was late, it would reflect badly on me. Maybe the customer wouldn't want the products, and I'd be out of a sale. Getting there was the only thing that was important. If I met you in person, I might invite you for coffee or something. But on the road, you were in my way."

Remer says he's reformed now, having had one of those little epiphanies that sometimes come to people who are pulled over by the state police. He was stopped one night on the narrow and unlighted Merritt Parkway in Connecticut after a high-speed race with another car, and soon thereafter he enrolled in a seminar for aggressive drivers. "I was lucky to recognize my problem and try to fix it," he says.

Other road warriors are unrepentant. Alan Carter, 43, a computer specialist from North Carolina and a self-described "aggressive driver," has his own vision of a perfect commute: one with no other cars in sight. "I don't want anyone in front of me. Any time. I think maybe this type of thinking has its roots in the minutiae of territorial rights and typical American individualism. But I don't really think about the deeper meanings. I just
know that someone else is in my space or in the space I want."

Carter doesn't have to search for deeper meanings; that is a job for paid
professionals, of whom, in America, there are many. Their theories range from the sociological to the psychological to the quasi political. "There is a greater diversity of road users now than at any other time in history," says Hawaii's James.

"Therefore streets are not reserved for the optimum, skilled driver but accommodate a variety of driver groups with varying skill, acuity and emotional control"--jerks, in nontechnical lingo. And unlike in previous generations, the willingness to be a jerk on the road is no longer confined to a single sex.

Ed Sarpolus, the head researcher for the Michigan study of driving behavior,
was struck by the gender breakdown of aggressive drivers: 53% of them are women. "There is a tremendous cultural shift taking place," he says. "Men still outnumber women in pure numbers, but women are not only increasing,
they are not falling off as they get older. Women have fought to be equal in the workplace and in society, and now they're fighting to be equal behind the wheel. [Our] data are full of soccer moms."

This democratization of the highway has occurred simultaneously to a decline in traditional driver's education, once a near universal part of the curriculum in America's secondary schools--and a course beloved by generations of high schoolers, since the only way you could fail was by running over the instructor's cat. According to Allen Robinson, CEO of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, 15 years ago, nearly 90% of all new drivers had taken an official driver's education course. With budget cuts chopping the course out of many public schools, that figure is down to 50%, perhaps as low as 30%.

And Robinson questions the use of the courses that are still in place.
Having simplified the instruction of reading, writing and arithmetic, the American educational establishment may have finally managed to do the
impossible: it has dumbed down even driver's ed. (What's next? Dodge ball?) Some states have backed off mandatory driver training altogether, and elsewhere most courses demand no more than six hours behind the wheel.

In what was no doubt an exceptional case, last September a North Carolina driver's ed teacher allegedly told his trainee to chase a driver who had cut
them off, then got out and punched the offending driver. The teacher (who later denied he had urged the student to step on the gas) was arrested. The student was not ticketed, and the assault charge against the teacher was
dropped. "Our driving schools teach the mechanics of driving," says John Larson, a psychiatrist who lectures at Yale Medical School, "but they teach almost nothing about the psychology of drivers."

Driving is a curious combination of public and private acts. A car isolates a driver from the world even as it carries him through it. The sensation of personal power is intoxicating. Sealed in your little pod, you control the climate with the touch of a button, from Arctic tundra to equatorial tropic.

 

The cabin is virtually soundproof. Your "pilot's chair" has more positions than a Barcalounger. You can't listen to that old Sammy Davis Jr. tape at home because your kids will think you're a dweeb, but in the car, the audience roars as you belt out I've Gotta Be Me. Coffee steams from the cup holder, a bag of Beer Nuts sits open at your side, and God knows you're safe. The safety belt is strapped snugly across your body, and if that fails, the air bag will save your life--if it doesn't decapitate you. Little bells and lights go off if you make a mistake: don't forget to buckle up!

Change your oil, you sleepyhead! The illusions--of power, of anonymity, of self-containment--pile up. You are the master of your domain. Actually driving the car is the last thing you need to worry about. So you can pick your nose, break wind, fantasize to your heart's content. Who's to know?

The fantasies are shaped not only by the comforts of the cars but by their
sheer tonnage as well. The organization man of the 1950s might have been satisfied with a workadaddy DeSoto; in the 1970s the aspiring hipster could relieve his mid-life crisis with an Italian sports car the size of a Shriner go-cart. Affluent Americans of the 1990s--so responsible at home, so productive in the workplace--want a car designed for war. With its four-wheel drive and tons of torque and booster-rocket horsepower, today's sports-utility vehicle would have come in handy at the Battle of the Bulge.

On the road its driver faces no obstacle more menacing than a pothole, but he knows that if he wants, he can swing off the highway and climb a sand dune, ford a raging river, grind deep into a trackless wilderness. Of course, he never does. He has to drive the kids to soccer practice. But the unused capacity hums beneath the pedals at his feet and feeds the fantasy.

Watch him roar past you on the road, and see the set of his jaw and the squint of his eye. This is not some corporate paper pusher at the wheel;
this is no sensitive dad who does the laundry. This is Patton leading the Third Army. This is Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier. Disrupt his fantasy at your peril. "There is a real illusion of anonymity combined with
potency because you have a machine you can command," says Jack Levin, a sociologist at Northeastern University's Program for the Study of Violence. "Top it off with the stress of work and people perhaps feeling insecure there, or with troubles at home, and it can make for a dangerous combination."

Road-rage experts have come up with various solutions to the anarchy of our streets and highways. We could legislate it (lower speed limits, build more roads to relieve congestion), adjudicate it (more highway cops, stiffer penalties), regulate it (more elaborate licensing procedures) or educate it away (mandatory driver's ed). Others suggest an option perhaps more typical of America circa 1998: therapize it.

"The road-rage habit can be unlearned," says James of the University of Hawaii, "but it takes more than conventional driver's ed." He  dvocates teaching "emotional intelligence" as part of any thorough driver training:

how to "deal with hostility expressed by drivers" and "how to be accepting of diversity and how to accommodate it." He calls for a new driver's ed program from kindergarten on--to teach "a spirit of cooperation rather than
competition"--and grass-roots organizations called Quality Driving Circles. These, he told a radio station, would be "small groups of people meeting regularly together to discuss their driving problems and help one another do driving-personality makeovers."

Will it work? A better question might be, Do we want it to? Road-rage therapists come perilously close to calling for a transformation of the
national character--remaking our rough-and-tumble, highly individualistic country into a large-scale version of a college town where everyone recycles kitty litter, drinks latte, listens to Enya and eats whole grains.

Is that really what we want? For all its dangers, road rage may simply be a corruption of those qualities that Americans have traditionally, and
rightly, admired: tenacity, energy, competitiveness, hustle--something, in
other words, to be contained and harnessed by etiquette and social censure rather than eradicated outright. Until then, alas, anyone braving the streets and highways of America would be well advised to employ a technique
older than therapy: prayer.

[ --Reported by Sally B. Donnelly /Washington ]
----

Why It's Crazy Out There

Don't talk with your mouth full; say please and thank you; and for goodness sake, use a tissue. We are taught from the crib to avoid bad habits and cultivate good ones. But not on the road. There's nothing wrong with our highways that an Emily Post can't fix. Traffic-safety experts have noted the most common (and annoying) bad habits of bad drivers everywhere (i.e.,
everyone else):

Using the cell phone. O.K., Hotshot, we get the idea: you're important. Now can't the lbo wait till you get back to the office?

Eating in the car. Do you drive in your dining room?

Screaming, cursing, using obscene hand gestures. Yo. This is a highway, not a Marilyn Manson video.

Tailgating. Is that your hood ornament, or are you just glad to see me?

Cutting off other drivers. Cutting in line at the movies is rude; cutting in front of someone armed with a three-ton sport ute is suicide.

Driving too fast. The only thing more dangerous than driving too fast is...

Driving too slow.

Failing to yield to pedestrians. Yes, walkers are a menace. Yes, they should buy a car like everyone else. But they can still sue.


 

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Subject: Re: 65 MPH! The Finally Did it!
Date: 1998/01/13

 

Why should I risk getting a ticket because you're unable to handle following a simple rule?

If it's in that particular situation, I would not expect you to drive at anything other than a speed which would be, _prima facie_ safe for that situation.

If however, you're on dry pavement five lanes wide and everyone else is
running ten-over, I _would_ expect you to have the courtesy to stick to a rightmost lane if you're going to stick to the double-nickel.

Only if that's the safest lane in which to travel. If it is, I do. Part of the problem of so many drivers breaking the law is that it's not always safe or at least comfortable to drive the limit in any lane. Why should I be forced to choose between breaking the law and being harrassed? running in _prima facie_ mode at a relative-velocity of 20 MPH, they are clearly _way-beyond stupid_. That's "willful destruction" as well as "impeding the reasonable flow of traffic" - the fact of the matter is that they willfully decided to take an action that will result in a lot more damage than letting a bunch of people use the road to its capability.

 

You're simply ignoring the fact that the pack can go at 30, at 55, at 99 miles per hour. They can choose. They're not robot drones who are
programmed to only go 78 mph. They willfully decided to take an action that they know is illegal.

No, I am not ignoring the fact that the pack can go whatever speed _is reasonable for the conditions_. If the road and all else warrants 10-over, I can't see anything wrong with it. If the road warrants that 10-over, and not MPH more, anyone driving over that is pushing the limit. See, the speed-limit is, IMHO, intended more as a _guide_ in most cases, rather than as a hard-and-fast unbreakable limit.

In your opinion, but not in real life. Not in the cop's ticket book.
 
It's been a long long time since any cop around here passed out a ticket for exceeding the speed-limit by five MPH, unless it was maybe through a school-zone, which is one of the few places that speedlimits should always be
honored and enforced.

 

If you want laws like that then write your elected representatives. Don't you think they'd be incredibly popular if they backed higher speed limits? If your evidence is so unassailable they'd be heroes, and you along with them!
Ticker-tape 70mph parades!

 

It's supposd to be a guideline, It's a law! Are you pretending to be dense or what?

 

No, I think you're neither giving the law any flexibility, nor the cop who has to decide whether he's going to ticket an entire highway or only the worst offenders.

which is after all why most cops don't ticket someone for exceeding by five or ten MPH, unless they're driving erratically or cut it too close to someone and cause a dangerous situation.

The cops like these kinds of laws because it means they can pretty much pull over anyone they like. Does that sound like a police state? I
thought it might.
 
They can pretty much pull over anyone they like at any time for any reason, like maybe just because they think that nobody would be impeding traffic like tht if they knew how to drive well enough to be possessed of a valid license... Does that sound like a police state? I thought it might.

Actually, if the person's speeding, they could have been pulled over anyways. So that particular rhetorical approach to the argument is pretty silly.

 

And that's the concept you need to get clear about - "right of way".

 

I already understand that, asshole. You need to understand that I have a right to drive 55 in a 55, and that if some asshole like yourself rear-ends me because I won't exceed the speed limit it is your fault, not mine.

If they rear-end you, it's certainly their fault. but if you're going to drive slow, do the rest of the world a favor, silly person, and stick in theslow-lanes.

Which are defined as what? Unfortunately there are no "speed limit only in this lane" lanes. Speeders travel in any and all lanes, many weave in and out to gain that extra 3 seconds. Too much Mario Andretti on the brain.

 

Again, not arguing to the point. But in my opinion you're probably somewhat confusing aggressive drivers, dangerously aggressive drivers, and people exceeding the speedlimit. Sometimes people could be all of the above. This last case is what the cops should be after.

 

Does it bother you that some people can follow a simple law and you can't? That some of us are blissfully free of fear of police cars and red and blue lights and radar guns?

If I was afraid of them, do you think I'd be exceeding the speedlimit? And believe me, I _can_ follow a law and for the most part I do - my lack of an arrest record would tend to indicate that.

So you speed right past them? Don't worry about getting a ticket? Don't look out for officers and don't have or want a radar detector? You may not be viscerally frightened of them but you do wish to avoid them, don't you?
 
"Mr./Ms. Policeman is your friend" you know.

For one, I do look out for police vehicles, but not specifically. I'm looking out for _all_ vehicles. If one happens to be a police cruiser I'm not exactly going to speed up and I do check my speed. If I'm driving with the pack, I maintain speed, no point in locking up my brakes and looking like the sort of dangerous driver who overreacts. I do not have nor do I want a radar-detector, I _usually_ am not speeding at any rate sufficient to warrant the expense of the radar detector nor the tickets you can get for having one.

 

Are you happy being a member of the zebra herd waiting for the police lion
to choose which among you in the pack is to be picked off? Wouldn't you rather be higher up in the food chain?

This is silly, but I'll spit the bait right back at you. How do you _know_ that I'm not the police lion?

 

Not sure how you would be if you're not in a police car. Do you never go anywhere in your own car? Have you always been a policeman?

 

Have you ever considered that making such assumptions, either one way of the other, might not be a good idea?

 

By the way, your analogy is inapt, while the zebra pack runs, it is the straggler who gets picked off, not those that keep up with the herd. And this is true in real life situations as well.

 

How can my analogy be inapt and then fit reality perfectly? In what way are the "stragglers" = speed limit driving drivers "picked off" and the speeders are not?

 

If the speeder is off of the highway by the time the officer can get into the traffic flow, (s)he's going to be plenty mad I bet, and will probably snag the very next person who violates anything.

 

But I know if I were an officer, and I saw traffic running at 8-over and someone cruising along at exactly the speedlimit, I'd personally consider that vehicle and the driver to be acting suspiciously. And I'd dog them until they did something I could pull them for, simply because I'd want to find out why they're acting suspiciously and there's nothing like a good close-up look whilst calling in the license and so forth.

 

I'm reminded of the way some animals avoid being chased and killed. They don't run! Running excites the predator response.

 

The only animals that use that strategy are ones that have armor or quills.

 

So perhaps my analogy is not perfect. The victim is not the one who falls behind but one who runs with the pack. I'm some other species entirely,
which doesn't have meat the lion wants. He can't give me a ticket for obeying the limit and driving safely.

 

No but he can pull you over for driving like you had something to hide. Did you know that driving exactly at speed limit is an item on a drug-courier profile?

 

If obeying the limit is defined by him as driving unsafely, then you'll see one hell of a court case, as that puts every driver on every highway in Maryland in a trick bag no one can escape from. Guilty if you speed, guilty if you don't. This is essentially the situation I balk at, and attitudes like yours, that everyone should speed, encourage this kind of thinking.

 

I'm not gonna get upset if you drive the speedlimit, as long as you don't just set cuirse control on and blithely ignore everything else around you! There's just no need to be so pathological about it.

 

Why place blame on the person who's doing the right thing? Mob rule on the highway? Oh yeah, that's a great idea.

 

Actually, as stated above, traffic is a pack condition. Just plain can't go with the flow? If you're incompetent to drive, get off of the roads. If you're using legalities to bolster your point, go for it - just do everyone a favor
and stick to the right lane and whatever you do, _learn how to drive so that

 

I already know how to drive. Better than most since I have to stay out of the way of idiots like you.

 

Actually, we may be the better drivers since we have to not only cope with our own brand of idiocy, but yours as well.

 

We all have to cope with all the drivers on the road.

 

you don't block people's "outs" and don't sit in the fast lane doing "stat" or whatever problems there are, you'll be causing_.

 

The right lane is for merging, and with short exits and small engine cars it can mean 40 mph or less, and I don't care for that.

 

The center lanes are those packs you so love and wish to be a running-zebra member of, and I can't always go 55 there safely.

 

Is a running-zebra sort of like a running-dog as in lackey of the capitalist imperialists?

 

I should hope you wouldn't go 55 in the center lane. Especially not if the speedlimit's 65.

 

I was speaking of roads that are limited to 55. Obviously I should have said 65 for 65 mph roads.

 

So sometimes you will see me in the left lane -- when there's not a lot of traffic, speeders avoid it because they think that police point their radar guns at the left lane. In fact, I have to do the left lane, if I'm using a left exit.

Same with big trucks.

 

Your point being?

 

Maybe they oughtn't to have so many left-exits.

 

At a left exit I have to use fairly often, I used to try to get out of everyone's way, and that meant either speeding or missing my exit. I am to the point where I don't care if you like it or not and I just go 55 in that left lane when it becomes the left exit, 80mph european blinking light fuckwits notwithstanding. If you're any kind of driver you can handle it.
If you're not, I'm aware that people who can't drive 55 and have no defensive driving skills are out there and I'm always ready to avoid you.
As I am occasionally forced to.

 

Not me you aren't, not bloody likely. As for handling perosns such as yourself in traffic, I'm used to it. However, in this era of aggressive driving, wherever possible it's an excellent idea to go with the flow if it's at all readsonable. However, I don't think that you're being all too reasonable. In fact, you seem to be showing all of the symptoms of road rage - read back in this article and you'll see that without any provocation you've had to resort to assorted curses, etc, all of which I could do as well.

 

I'm just a foul mouthed kind of gal. But really, you are presuming that I should be happy being harassed on the road. I'm not. Do you never get angry at anything, anywhere? Are you Spock? I kind of doubt it.

 

I get plenty mad all of the time. Get me started on illegal immigrants sometime. Get me started on illegal immigrants in beat-up cars driving ten MPH less than the speed limit, and you'll be amazed. Get me started on an entirely overloaded car packed full of an entire extended family of illegal immigrants driving on the freeway in the left lane at ten MPH less than the speedlimit and you'll be more than amazed.

 

But when you're in control of something as deadly as a car it ain't time to get mad.

 

But I'm not - I'm going with the flow. And I'm not getting mad, and starting to drive erratically, and jumping all over the place in complete disregard of the flow.

 

I don't drive erratically. I am very observant in changing lanes, I change decisively once I decide it's clear, I accelerate rapidly to the speed limit, I signal, I don't stop and go and weave and duck through traffic.

 

I'm going a steady legal speed when the 80 mph fuckwits come up on my bumper. Nothing erratic about that.

 

I do hope you don't drive like you argue, you'd definitely have to be classifed as a road hazard.

 

Why, because you can't handle either one? I seem to be handling both rather well

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually happy if they raise a speed limit to a reasonable one. But I don't want to exceed the limit. As we know
insurance rates go up when you get speeding tickets and I can't afford any points on my license at all.

 

And how did that come to be?

 

I live in the city. I have zero (0) points, no chargeable accidents ever. The one accident I was ever in was six years ago caused by a driver entering the road without looking at all (he was in a hurry to get to the bar), and it was 100% his fault.

 

So you can afford (but don't want; entirely reasonable) tickets! City residents pay quite a lot in car insurance. Check it out some time,
it was the topic of another thread. We as Americans are not only entitled to, but have a duty to, resist laws that we feel to be unreasonably intrusive, senseless, or even merely annoying.

 

Resist annoying laws? I think I suggested changing them. Ignoring them is just allowing the police a good way to arrest and harrass anyone they want to. It's called selective enforcement, and it's wrong. The same laws should be enforced the same way for everyone.
14th Amendment Section I, I guess you've got an okay memory.

 

As to changing the speed-limits, believe me everyone voted for the increase but it still didn't happen, something about Federal highway dollars.

 

I remember that at one point in time, in Kansas there was a _prima facie_ rule and people did 90MPH all of the time and they hardly had any wrecks. They dropped the speed limit down to the double-nickle and they started falling asleep at the wheel and dying like flies.

 

How about some statistics for this? What's the technical term for dying like flies?

 

It's anecdotal. Anyone from kansas want to back this one up?

 

Maybe Toto will bark something up for you...

 

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Subject: Re: Road Rage- Justified!!!!
Date: 1997/12/23
 
Driving is a privilege, not a right....and eventually, you'll lose your license for being so self-righteous and barreling down already unsafe highways. I don't have to get out of the way of anyone who is threatening to rear-end me, besides if you do, YOU and your insurance company will be the ones paying for my new car.

You're supposed to drive Defensively, not act that way. Grow up.


I have come to the realization that some cases of "road rage" are justifiable actions of people tired of stupidity on the roadways. The person who thinks it his/her "civic duty" to stay in the left lane and ensure other drivers obey the speed limit deserve EVERYTHING that happens to them. Get the hell outta my way and I will stay out of your way.

Milwaukee has some of the worst drivers on the road, usually between the hours of 930am and 300pm. This is when all the "Q-Tips" (white hair old people that look like q-tips as they drive) take over the streets and screw EVERYTHING up. This state should require yearly driving skills tests for everyone over 68 years old or older. These old people rab the left lane and stay in it becasue they have NO perception where their car is, in realtion to the roadway, so they hug the left lane because it is the easiset to judge from.

The speed limits are enforceable laws, but NO ONE has a right to impede my legal RIGHT OF WAY. Many of these people are traveling SLOWER than the posted limit. I think that each well publicized case of road rage does ALL of society a service, by providing a warning to everyone WHAT MAY happen to those who get in the way of others... and if you are one of those people..watch out.