My Report 2: Managing a Quality Driving Circle:

A Test of Character

Table of Contents

Introduction: A State of Mind

Traffic Psychology Through the Generations:Generations of Wisdom

Setting up and Running My Quality Driving Circle: Mission Impossible

Driving Improvement Resources on the Web: Useful Knowledge

Introduction: A State of Mind

What! Managing a quality driving circle? This statement reflects how I feel when I first read the assignment. I was very confused and insecure about doing this assignment. How would I find three to six drivers and lead them during these sessions? In this report, you will find traffic issues that students from each generation dealt with and how some of these issues relate to drivers who participated in my quality driving circle. Then you will read about how I carry out my Quality Driving Circle (QDC), the problems I faced, and the questions I used in my driving personality test. When you get to the bottom of this page, you will find ten links of favorite sites that are related to helping drivers.

I learned a lot about my character, conviction, and my views on responsible driving when I carried out this assignment. I was able to understand my hidden thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I know that I am just like my participants. I have bad driving habits that I need to work on. But for the purpose of this assignment, I will fill the role of a leader. I expected this assignment to be difficult. Before carrying out this assignment, I was worried that I couldn't convince people to change. After doing it, I learned something more important than being influential, the ability to analyze objectively and to reason rationally about my participants' behavior and to unlock any subconscious negative attitudes. It is a test of character.

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Generation 1

Surfing through the Generational Curriculum, I found several interesting topics in generational students' report. I noticed a thread of links of similar topics. In Generation One, Shane Akagi talked about the issue of rushing. He spoke about how driving has become a less enjoyable experience for people because they are faced with a lot of aggression and hostility while on the road. He also mentioned how some people cause inconveniences for other people when they blocked up traffic, which results in frustration and hostility.

Unless under an uncontrollable situation, people should not block traffic. It is a common courtesy that everyone should know and respect. I recalled several similar incidents in the super-market and at the hallway or stairway at UH. Shane Akagi remembers when some people would block the pathway by stopping to talk to their friends. I noticed that I am more tolerant of them when I am not rushing to my next class or appointment. We live in a society that emphasizes and expects punctuality. Unfortunately, not everyone will be interested in our explanation for being late. We often receive labels that we do not want or work for, which affects our lives and how other people perceive us. Unless everyone miraculously become understanding and kind, we can't expect them to understand our reason for being late. Therefore, I try to give myself an extra half hour to get to my destination. It is always better to prepare for the unexpected. A few minutes early can determine whether you will have a relaxing or stressful day.

In my report 1, I mentioned about how drivers put pressure on other drivers to drive faster when they are in a rush. When drivers conform to other drivers' coercion, they experience what Dr. Driving called learned helplessness. Dr. Driving discourages learned helplessness because it is dangerous. When we conform to social pressure, we lose the power of our free will to decide. We go against our conscience. We would do things that we are not comfortable doing and know that they violate the law. Why do we speed just because someone else is tailgating us? We please people who have no respect for us and our rights. Why put ourselves in a situation where we might hurt ourselves and others? Since we are responsible for our actions, we should not allow other people to influence our good judgment.

Rushing is related to tailgating. In Kendall Matsuyoshi's report, he warned against driving on the fast lane if you're going slow and not to step on the break when someone is tailgating you. He suggested that you switch lanes. I think tailgating is driving harassment, forcing people to comply to your desire even though they don't want to. In most cases, people tailgate because they are in a rush. Some people tailgate for no reason. They do it because they are self-centered and enjoy seeing other people conform to their wishes. You also have people who tailgate to get even with other drivers. Then, you have some people who do not realize that they tailgate others. These people are either unaware of their driving habit or have some sort of perception deficiency. Whatever is the reason for tailgating, it is dangerous for both parties.

Any reason for tailgating is unreasonable. If you tailgate because you rush, then it would be faster to switch to another lane since you can drive at the speed you want. If there is only one lane and you can't pass, then tailgating will not get you ahead of another driver. You will still experience the delay even if the other driver conforms to your pressure and drives a little faster. You may go a little faster but you will experience unhappiness, since you are frustrated and angry at the other driver or for the lost time. You may get what you want but you will not be happy since the state of anger cannot coexist with the state of happiness. If you tailgate to free yourself from being trapped in traffic, then that few feet of difference will not get you far but put you at greater risk of getting into an accident. If you tailgate because other drivers make you angry, then you are just adding more fuel into your flame.

Although I agree with Kendall's idea of switching lanes to avoid tailgater's and not driving on the fast lane if you are going slow, there is still the problem with individual perception's of driving fast. For instance, person A may think driving 20 mph more than the speed limit on the freeway is driving fast. Whereas, person B, who is driving faster than person A defines person A's speed as slow. Since we can't change other people's behavior, it is best to avoid interaction with them. Interaction with people who have road rage will draw you into its vicious cycle of road rage. Hence, Dr. Driving advises that whenever we have opportunity to get out of people's way, then act on it.

Although it is difficult to prevent road rage experience, our hope lies in our ability to overcome and recover from it. We all have the power within to control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Dr. Driving shows ways we can utilize this inner power to modify negative behaviors and attitudes that affect our health and happiness.

I believe that the ability to be free from negative influences or habits is the ultimate form of free will. Technically, we don't have free will if we allow for our negative behaviors to control us. Free will means having the power to control or to decide our actions. Having free will means not having road rage, since road rage is a negative and unhappy state, and our free will desires for a happy state. Justifying our reason for resisting to change is a defense mechanism. It is our reaction formation, which is rejecting the goal because we are blocked from the goal. Our fear of change blocks us from achieving the goal, since change is a difficult process. Change demands commitment to abandon the comfortable habits and adopt the uncomfortability.

According to Dr. Driving, the source of road rage is self-focus. When we think only about ourselves, we don't care about other people. We fail to give them respect. Under the same situation, why do people react differently? Some people are impatient and hostile and some people are easy-going and happy. Self-centered people expect everything to go their way. When they are faced with a reality that the world does not evolve around them, they become angry and blame others. Since road rage comes from a character flaw within the individual, only the individual has the power of self-modification. Road rage is an unhappy state. Self-modification is the key to unlock this unhappy state. And every individual has a choice to be happy or to be unhappy.

Generation 2

Another driving issue that I found is in Alan Furukawa's report about switching lane. He talked about the students' comparison of Hawaii drivers and Mainland drivers. One of the generational students commented that Hawaii drivers tend to be self-centered, not letting other drivers cut in even when they have their signal on, whereas Mainland drivers will usually allow for lane switching. Alan Furukawa's explanation for this difference is due to the distance of the drive. He attributes that people in Hawaii rush since a few minutes make a difference in getting to their destination, but people in Mainland have to drive for hours to get to places, so they don't rush and are not bothered by a few minutes difference.

I witnessed several near accidents on the road involving switching lanes. I think a lot of it has to do with the miscommunication or the lack of communication between drivers. It is difficult to communicate on the road since we can't see the other driver's face clearly. We sometimes assume that other drivers are letting us in their lane, but perhaps those drivers do not see our signal or are inattentive. I feel nervous switching lanes in heavy traffic, because I don't have much space to move. Perhaps I am claustrophobic. If I slowly creep in, then other driver may think that I am hesitant, hence, speed up. But if I switching lanes quickly, then the person behind might not have enough time to stop. Some advice I learned from different people about switching lanes are 1) always turn on the blinker before switching lanes; 2) acknowledge or wave to say thank you when other drivers let you cut in; 3) look for clearance before switching and don't hesitate; and 4) don't wait to last minute to change lanes.

Berna Collad has several suggestions on how to drive. There are a lot of good advice given, but someone must use them. Everyone can give advice, but very few can take advice. Dr. Driving talked about the 3 steps to change known as AWM (Acknowledge your feeling, Witness yourself as a driver, and Modify your behavior). Change will not take place until you go through this 3 steps process of change. Whatever advice you decide to take up, before you apply advice you must go through these 3 fundamental steps of change.

Change cannot happen until you observe what needs to be changed. Conrad Monero mentioned his method of self-observation. To observe my thoughts, I use a tape recorder when driving. To observe my behaviors, I use a friend. Regardless of the techniques you use in your self-observation, pay attention to possible bias, influential factors, and selective discrimination. Before carrying out any task, you will need a plan. Claudette Oller explained how to do a self-modification plan. Having a plan is crucial, but carrying out the plan is the most essential and difficult task.

Generation 3a

Do you know which behavior to modify? Grant Muranaka has a list of the different behaviors to work with. One of the behavior that may seem unimportant involves wearing a seatbelt. Some people don't wear seatbelts and don't think it's necessary for their passengers to wear a seatbelt. I feel this is an important issue because it reflects the drivers' lack of concern for their own and their passengers' safety. It is a form of recklessness and a social responsibility issue. Whenever you step behind the wheel, you are responsible for the safety of everyone around you. This includes yourself, your passengers, pedestrians, and other drivers. You have a social obligation to the lives you affect. Wearing a seatbelt is a law. When you don't wear seatbelt, you break the law. Your action reflects your lack of respect for authority. This is road rage because you rebel and rage against others. You display your anger against the authority's will by not wearing a seatbelt. According to Dr. Driving, road rage is resulted when there is opposition of will. This is a struggle between your will of not wanting to wear a seatbelt and the lawmakers' will.

If your feelings influence your behavior, then your behavior should also have the same influence on your feeling. Christy Forsythe advises about turning on your signal or waving even when you are in a bad mood. According to Christy, behavioral change can produce an invert effect on your attitude as well. Try to smile when you are angry, you may find it difficult to stay angry.

Generation 4

Sandra Scarbrough explained how to do a driving personality make-over (DPM). According to Sandra, DPM is a modification of the bad attitudes and behaviors one has while driving. There are three areas to modify in a driving personality makeover. These three main areas are the thoughts (cognitive), feelings (affective), and actions (sensorimotor). There are three zones for each level and together you have nine zones. You can find more detail about the zones in Dr. Driving's Chart of Nine Zones .

Shane Cobb-Adams discussed about the speeding debate. Some people favor an increase in the speed limit, and some people oppose it. In my opinion, increasing the speed limit will increase the death rate from automobile accidents. There are chances that you will get into an auto accident, but your chances of survival is greater under a slower speed. Increasing speed means reducing your chances of survival. There are a lot of violence and hostility on the road, and the last thing we need is another contributing factor to the death rate.

Setting up and Running My Quality Driving Circle: Mission Impossible

My Driving Group:

My quality driving circle group is composed of my husband, our close friend, and my parents-in-law. They don't know it yet, but I have elected them to be in my group. My plan is not to let them know of their participation in this quality driving circle until all observations are completed. I felt this would be the best way to observe their natural driving behavior. This would also eliminate any possible bias or confounding variables in this experiment.

Observation:

My observation starts with my father-in-law. He drives the family to a Sunday breakfast. During the Spring break, we had many relatives from the mainland visiting, which provided a great opportunity for us to get together. However, I experienced difficulty in getting my participants together, so I decided to observe these participants at different times. I jumped at the opportunity to observe my mother-in-law's driving behavior when I went shopping with her. Then, I got a chance to observe a friend's driving habit when he drove my husband and I to lunch. My husband is my easiest participant, since he drives most of the time when we go out.

Driving Habits:

Note:

All my QDC participants are one of the nicest people I know. They are not those people who disrespect other people, but like anyone else, they have driving habits that need modification. Everyone has driving habits. They could be very subtle or obvious, good or bad. Having a bad driving habit doesn't make you a bad person. It just means that you need a driving make-over.

Participant 1:

My mother-in-law is one of those people who are not aware that they tailgate other drivers. She drives about two yards behind other drivers and denies that she was too close. She was not rushing. She didn't do it out of anger or revenge. At the time she was carrying on a happy conversation with me. My guess is that she has an inaccurate perception.

Participant 2:

My father-in-law is one of those people that has very subtle bad driving habits. He drives carefully and calmly. My only concern is that he drives a car that has a broken meter. He drives according to the flow of traffic. He guesses his speed.

Participant 3:

It is easier to spot my friend's driving habits. He does things simultaneously like driving and dialing his cellular phone. Under heavy rainpour, he doesn't turn on his headlights and loves to talk on the cellular phone while driving.

Participant 4:

My husband is very opinionated. When he sees drivers being inconsiderate to another drivers or breaking laws, such as trying to pass another driver by driving on the shoulder of a freeway, trying to pass the red light and blocking traffic, or stopping to observe an accident on the middle of the freeway, my husband sticks his head out the window and yells at them "OH, look at that idiot!" or "Rubbernecks!"

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Session 1:

My first session took the longest amount of time since I had to create an opportunity to meet with them. The purpose of this session was to observe my participants' driving behaviors. My plan was to suggest an activity to do together like going to a movie or out to eat. Then, I would take mental notes of their behaviors. I had a problem of getting my participants together since someone would be at work or tied up with other engagements. My solution was to observe each participant at different times. It's better to do something than to do nothing. This session took a total of six hours divided into four days.

Session 2:

A few days later, I decided to conduct my second session. The purpose of this session was to get my participants aware of their driving habits and my goal was to get them to acknowledge these behaviors. My plan was to have them discuss about their driving habits and what they thought are some bad driving habits they should work on. Then I would have them take my True/False questionnaires. My questionnaires are composed from Dr. Driving's chart of nine zones. For my parents-in-law and my friend, I would give her questionnaires that focused more on safety issues with emphasis on alertness and knowledge. I would also include social responsibility issues. For my husband, I would give him a questionnaire with emphasis on self-control issues. Then I would go through the results with them and discuss about my observations of their driving habits. I expected this session to be very time-consuming.

I followed through my plan and gave them questionnaires. They didn't cooperate at first until I begged them and explained what it was for. I didn't plan for that part. I felt that they didn't answer the questionnaires honestly. They answered them ideally, which is checking the answer that sounds correct. We talked about the questions afterward, and I asked them the reasons for their answers. They answered reasonably. Perhaps my questions were a little to common sense. I ran out of questions to ask. I decided to forget about the questionnaires, since most people know what is right and wrong. It's a matter of doing it or not. I focused on the incidents where I observed their behaviors and asked them to defend their behaviors. My mother-in-law's reason was that she felt she was not too close and that she could stop in time. I asked her how far she was from the car in front and she told me that she was about 50 feet away. She felt that she shouldn't change lanes because she thought that other driver would change lanes soon. The rest of my participants felt that they are comfortable with theirdriving habits and didn't think that they are dangerous.

Session 3:

After long discussions over the incidents, they finally acknowledged their behaviors. They agreed to work on those habits. I felt that they were just being polite. I expected the third session to be short since they would readily comply to get me off their back. The challenge is to get them to work on their assignment. My plan was to ask them to keep a journal and log down the number of times they attempted to follow their habits while driving. Their DPM assignment was only for three days. I realize that change is a long process. My goal is not to monitor their changing process. When they commit themselves to change, then they will regulate their behavior. My plan is for them to become aware of their negative driving behaviors and to want to change. I want to plant a seed. When they decide for themselves that they want to change, then they will know what to focus on. I know they wouldn't change right now, because change takes the commitment and desire to change. It is a commitment to yourself. In order to change, you must desire to change, because your free will reinforce your desire. As expected, they were hesitant of doing the driving makeover assignment. I didn't expect them to change over night. I felt that change involves bringing subconscious driving habits to a conscious state. When they are aware of their habits, they can break them. According to Dr. Driving, driving habit is a subconscious "automatic self." Your automatic self picks up habits subconsciously without guidance of your cognitive process. Because it takes a while to develop habits, it takes a lot of conscious efforts to break these habits.

Click here to see examples used in my questionnaires.

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The role for the questionnaire was to observe the participants' thoughts. Behind every action, there is thinking process. The questionnaire serves as tool to understand the participants' reasoning, feelings, and attitudes. Because the three domains (affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor) interact with each other, it is important to test all three domains to understand the motives behind the behavior. My participants reported in their journals that they caught themselves doing their negative driving habits about 5 to 10 times a day. Their average amount of driving a day is about 3 to 4 hours.

I don't have any suggestions for spreading QDCs throughout our society. It doesn't matter how many people you can teach in the QDC. It is easy to find teachers and leaders but difficult to find learners and followers. I learned from doing this QDC experiment that everything starts with yourself. I can lead a QDC and tell people what to do, but if I can't do it myself, then I am a hypocrite. I must learn to be both, my own leader and follower. I think a driving personality makeover is more effective than having the quality driving circle, because you only have to focus on influencing one person, which is yourself. You control your decision to follow through or to back out.

My suggestion for G6 when doing a QDC is to manage your time carefully and to stick to your plan. If your goal is to finish session 1 by the end of the week and there are external factors that cause complications, then you should adjust your plan but don't delay it.

Driving Improvement Resources on the Web: Useful Knowledge

1. Learning to Drive

This is a site for anyone, especially parents, who teach high school teenagers to drive. I think it is important to know because it provides safety tips and hints to help teen drivers become competent and safe drivers.

2. Vehicle Safety System

What is more important when driving than safety? I think this site is useful for carowners to know about sophisticated driver-aids that help drivers to avoid collisions and other accidents. These technologies reduce accidents particularly rear-end collisions in poor visibility conditions.

3. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

I like this site because it gives facts and driving topics that are beneficial for both beginning drivers and experienced drivers.

4. Beat All Traffic Tickets Drivers need to know traffic laws that would cost them a fortune. To prevent receiving traffic tickets, one needs to know traffic laws.

5. Drivers Education and Testing in America Everyone should know what education and testing drivers receive in America. Perhaps there is something they neglected to teach us that could save lives.

6. High Performance Course, Ltd This is a good site to know if you are looking for courses that teach about driving proficiency.

7. Grin and Take It: Defensive Driving...Comedy Style Humor is an important part of life. This is a good site to learn ways to handle driving hassles in a more enjoyable way.

8. Real World Driving Tips At this site, you can find universal driving tips on passing, speed, lane courtesy, anticipation, and more. This can be very useful if you plan to drive on your vacation trip.

9. Driving Tips Shell company provides questions and answers about good driving.

10.Teen New Driver's Homepage Ryan Buckholtz , a new driver in high school, composed a list of tips and advice on safe driving for new drivers. He has tips for driving in different situations such as around the school, in town, in the country, in bad weather, on parallel parking, when to pass and not to pass, and much more.