This purpose of this report will be to elaborate on the defintion of Traffic Psychology. This report will quote at least three separate defintions of Traffic Psychology from the Generational Curriculum Area in the reports from previous generations of the Traffic Psychology Student Area.

During my first "ride" while "surfing" through this Traffic Psychology Database, I came upon a lot of reports that dealt with a wide variety of subtopics. But what I noticed was how most of these reports defined Traffic Psychology. The first report I came to that caught my eye was Dr. James' introduction into Traffic Psychology. In the section titled Principles of Traffic Psychology, I see not only what Dr. James sees Traffic Psychology as being, but I also see its influence on the world. In this passage, Dr. James talks of how Traffic Psychology does not have to be be in a vehicle. Traffic occurs anywhere where people interact while using any type of locomotion. This certainly opens up a field that would certainly have been constrained if it were limited to only the traffic as it pertains to automobiles.

Another aspect of Traffic Psychology that Dr. James goes into is the fact that like clinical psychology, behavior modification occurs allowing a subject to "better" him or herself. By keeping these principles of Traffic Psychology in mind, not only will I be able to understand this specific field of Psychology, but I may in the process be able to modify my traffic behavior for the better!

From Dr. James' definition of Traffic Psychology, I begin to see why more study in the field of Traffic Psychology is needed. In the first lecture of this semester (Fall 1996), Dr. James lectured on the National Costs associated with driving in the United States. Three amazing statistics came into view:

1. There were about 40,000 deaths last year from traffic accidents.
2. There were a total number of around 5 million accidents last year.
3. The total costs resulting from traffic accidents last year were over $135 billion.

These statistics not only surprised everyone in class, but shows the obvious fact that driving is a major problem. But this is a problem that seems to be addressed by politicians and insurance companies and even then without much effect. Although this problem is tremendous, it is hardly, if ever, addressed by psychologists. These statistics, and plain common sense dictate that this problem is to big to go unnoticed by the field of psychology.

The next definition of Traffic Psychology comes from Aaron Takahashi's Report 1. Although this defintion is rather terse in it's explanation of Traffic Psychology, it does reiterate the point that Traffic Psychology studies all form of traffic from vehicular to pedestrian. I think this is an important aspect because not only does it open up this field of psychology, it also shows the broad range and influence that Traffic Psychology has over everyone.

While walking through The Mall (a major pedestrian pathway) here at the University of Hawaii, I am assaulted by a mass of other students coming and going around me in all directions. I, and the rest of the student body, navigate through the intense midday traffic without so much as a thought. Walking and thinking of it as "traffic" really never enters my mind at all. But this interaction of masses of people coming and going certainly qualifies it as being under the perview of Traffic Psychology.

The third and final definition of Traffic Psychology I found is in Berna Collado's Report 1. Here, Berna refers back to Dr. James' definition of Traffic Psychology. But Berna concentrates on the fact that in order to "modify one's old driving persona, one has to do some self-observation." This point is probably the most integral part to the basis of any field of psychology. Psychology is not only the study of the mind, it is also a field of science where aberrant behavior is studied for the purpose of changing or modifying that behavior. Traffic Psychology seems to focus on not only bad driving habits, but bad driving thoughts and actions. Once these things can be identified, then the process of change can begin.

The hardest part of Traffic Psychology seems to be identifying the problem. The cause of this is simple resistance. The only way to overcome this resistance is through training your mind to verbalize what it thinks. This is rather difficult in normal cicumstances, and it becomes even harder while navigating through traffic. This self-observation, as Berna points out, is the key "...to alter one's driving behaviors." As will be seen later in Report 4: The Driving Personality Make-Over & Change, and Report 6: The Mini Self-Witnessing Experiment, this type of self-observation will play an integral role in the modification of my own driving behaviors.