This report will show myself doing a mini self-witnessing experiment. This experiment will involve self-observations of my driving personality, identification of specific negative driving behaviors, and modification of these negative behaviors for the better.

Before starting this Traffic Psychology class, I thought I was a very good driver. I have never gotten into any type of traffic accident, I've never gotten a single ticket for a moving violation (only a few parking tickets), and none of my friends openly complain about the way in which I drive. But over the past month or two, I've been casually observing my driving behaviors. Through these observations, it has come to my attention that I can, at time, be a very impatient driver. It is this impatience with other drivers that greatly motivated me to observe my driving behaviors, paying particular attention to my impatient behavior.

I chose Saturday, October 19 as the day in which I would observe my own feelings, thoughts, and actions while driving. I had awakened at around 7:00 am and I felt very tired. The previous night I had stayed out until 2:00 am (this morning), knowing full well that I had to wake up early to go to work. Although I felt very tired, I wasn't overly grouchy or upset. I had had a very restful night's sleep (about 4 hours worth anyway). I left my house at exactly 7:40 am which gave me 20 minutes to get to work. This is just enough time, assuming normal traffic conditions for a Saturday morning. I had recently installed a new CD player into my car, yet I decided to simply listen to the radio. When I reach Pensacola Ave., a car is already in front of me. This street is a long, gradual slope that goes downhill. The driver in front of me immediately starts to brake. This would be fine, but although he is applying pressure to his brakes, he is not slowing down one bit. This particular driving behavior I call "riding the brakes" greatly irritates me. But I am too tired to really care this particular morning. I get to work on time feeling just as tired as I had when I left home.

I finished work around 12:00 noon and I preceded to head back home. I was now awake and I even had some food in my stomach. I was feeling much better than I had when I had driven to work earlier this morning. I decided to play a CD that I particularly enjoyed. This CD is "Adam Sandler-What the Hell Happened To Me?" My favorite song is titled "Ode to my Car". It is a comedy CD, but this particular song always cracks me up (makes me happy). When I come to the intersection of University Ave. and Maile Way, there is a car in front of me. The light is green, but I need to turn left and in order to do so, I have to wait for a gap in the traffic of oncoming cars. Instead of moving into the intersection to get a head start in which to turn left, the driver in front of stays behind the white line. I'm pretty agitated at this point, but I simply sing along with the CD. When the light turns yellow, a gap in the flow of oncoming cars appears allowing enough time for both the driver in front of me and myself to turn left before the light turns red. But this driver just stays behind the crosswalk very unaware of my increasing impatience. I was thinking that this driver was just plain stupid. I couldn't believe he didin't turn left. I started yelling at the driver. I nudged my car up real close to his hoping to scare him or something. When the light turned green again there was no oncoming traffic so we both turned left immediately. But I was still seething with anger and I proceeded to pester this driver. I tailgated him in part because he was driving too slow, but also because I wanted to teach him a lesson for being a stupid driver. When I finally had to depart from his company, I passed right next to him and gave him a mean stink eye. I was somewhat angry the rest of the way home, but the rest of the trip home proved uneventful. Fortunately I didn't have to drive for the rest of that day.

Now that I had my observations of my own driving behaviors, I was now set to try and drive in exactly the opposite way that I was used to driving. Instead of being impatient as I usually am, I will try to be more forgiving and altruistic to other drivers. I chose the following Saturday (10/26) as the day in which I would attempt to become a more patient driver. I had driven to my friend's house up on Alewa Heights the night before. I was too inebriated to drive home that night so I slept over my friend's house. I decided to leave his house around 12:00 noon. I was feeling fine and I decided to listen to my No Doubt CD. Alewa Heights, as its name precludes, is located on a mountain. All the way downhill there was a car in front of me. This hill is actually quite difficult to drive, especially if it's driven by someone for the first time. Knowing this, I assumed that the driver in front of me had very little, if any experience at driving through Alewa Hts. I consciously told myself to "be nice". And to my surprise, this actually worked. I also found that whenever I started to become impatient, if I sang along with the CD or the music I was listening to, my mood would improve. So whenever this driver started to "ride his brakes", instead of getting upset, I simply sang along with the CD. When this driver and I finally parted ways at the bottom of Alewa Heights, I was relieved in both because he wasn't in front of me anymore, and because I didn't become impatient with him.

As I continued to drive, I came upon the onramp to the Pali Highway. This merge is very tricky because you are most likely starting from a dead stop and have to accelerate up to at least 45 mph. The fact that it is a downhill highway makes all drivers go a bit faster than normal. There were 2 drivers ahead of me at this merge. The first driver went without incident, but the second driver (the one directly in front of me) took forever to merge. I could see that there were at least 2 times in which he could have merged onto the highway but he just waited. I kept thinking to myself, "be nice", and I fast forwarded to the song "Excuse Me Mr." on that same "No Doubt" CD I was listening to. This song is fast and has a catchy tune. Sure enough instrad of getting mad at this driver in front of me, I simply sang along with the CD. I felt energized by the beat and tempo of the song. Before I knew it the driver in front of me had gone and I was speeding along home. When I got home, I felt very proud of myself. I felt in control of my feelings and I was confident that I would be able to use my new CD player for something much more than just listening to music.

Ride the brakes: The act of applying just enough pressure to the brakes causing the brake lights to come on, yet not enough pressure to actually slow the vehicle down. Can lead to serious brake damage.

Stink eye: To squint your eyes at someone for the purpose of showing your aversion or distate for that person either for that person's character or for some behavior that person performed that negatively affetced you.