What is Traffic Psychology? If you ask anyone who is not familliar to this term they will say they never heard of it, or there is no such thing. I myself have recently discovered it as well as many other Psychology 459 students like generation three's Sondra Blake. I never imagined that Traffic Psychology should be an important aspect in life until I took Dr. James Psychology 459 class.
Dr. James states "Traffic psychology refers to the knowledge one aquires about how to use behavioral principles to modify one's own style of conduct in traffic situations including driving, bicycling, walking, and other forms of locomotion in shared places. Aaron Takahashi also has a similar definition.
Many people really don't think traffic psychology is important however if we look at the past you will see that traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of deaths and injuries. The cost of car insurance has gone up because of traffic accidents, this has become an economic worry for many Americans. Looking at all of this depressing information, we have to realize that traffic psychology is important.
My opnion is that traffic psychology is important, and not just because of the economic costs, and accidents, but also for the sake of our own mental well being. Driving can be very stressful if you let it get to you. Who knows what we are capable of doing? A good example is the tragic death of an off duty officer in October. According to the newspaper an alleged traffic confrontation between the off duty officer and a 17 year old man led to the death of the officer. According to witnesses the two men pulled over on the freeway to argue and, the 17 year old man with no prior history of arrests pushed the officer off a freeway viaduct. Unfortunately the officer did not survive the fall and the young man was arrested, and is now waiting for trial. We can all learn from this as well as many other types of similar inccidents that traffic psychology is important. I think traffic psychology should be included in drivers education in high schools as well as drivers education in the judicial system.
There is a good amount of negative energy out on the road, this is the reason for the dread people feel when they have to drive somewhere. I believe the impatience and hostility some drivers feel is due to the fact that they are fustrated. The fustration is caused by the lack of control of their emotions felt while driving. What many of these drivers don't understand is that there negative attitude usually rubs off on the other drivers, thus making the highway hostile. Dr Barry Larson makes this example quite clear in his book "Highway Madness." Dr Larson has a term for some aggresively hostile drivers, the vigilante driver. Dr. Larson points out that the anger spread by the vigilantes make a domino affect, making the highway hostile. I believe this is an accurate theory, and thus a good reason for traffic psychology.
However we should not expect people to be absolute angels all the time, we are all human. Rudolph Adolpho has a good point when he states that it is natural to be a little fustrated in traffic especially when you are late for something. I totaly agree with Rudolph, and I think it would be unrealistic of us to think we can be perfect human beings on the road. However many make the mistake of dwelling on their anger or impatience on the road. I think letting all the negative energy out in some way. I personally talk about what a bad day I had on the road, and voila, all the irritation escapes. I'm not a perfect driver, I still call people jerks and dorks, but I usually realize this and chill out. I think thats what we should all do, just chill out.
I think everyone could use a little traffic psychology in thier lives, we must admit we could all use a little self improvement. Like many types of therapys we must admit to having a problem and try to modify that problem, when we can do this we are on our way to good mental health, and a peaceful state of mind.
