Report #3: Traffic Psychology on the Internet
For the final report of the semester we are supposed to search
the Internet for topics that we had talked about in report
#1 . The topics that I wrote about were on Age
, Tailgating
, Convoys
, Accordion
Effect, and Back Seat Drivers . For some of these
topics, I could not find things on the Internet specifically,
so I just wrote down my opinion on the subject matter.
Age: how age effects driving
The first subject is on age and how it effects driving. I could
not find anything on the Internet dealing specifically with age
and driving. I know there is information out there, at least
our class information and past generations talk about it, but
nothing turned up.
I think that age plays a big factor in how people drive. As a
person gets older, sight and hearing tend to deteriorate. It
makes perfect sense that reflexes also should become slower with
age. Age should be studied by traffic psychologists because I
think that it is interesting that many of our elderly drive very
passively. They do not take offense to people going around them
and tailgating them. Seniors just seem to be such calm drivers
and mostly drive on the defense. They only seem to get upset
when they are a passenger and the driver is driving very aggressively.
I think that they don't feel very safe when this happens. This
is in total contrast of younger drivers who seem to drive very
aggressively. Most of the younger generations tend to drive offensively.
They get very upset when they are cut off and they don't like
to be tailgated. If anything happens that they don't like, they
have to get "even" with the other driver in one way
or another.
There is a definite difference between the elderly and young drivers
on the road. The differences are definitely something to be studied.
Tailgating:
For the subject on tailgating, I used the
Lycos Search Engine . The results that I got were from
the Generation One and Generation Two students. So those are
the ones that I am going to report on.
Laura
Izutsu's report about tailgating talked about how she
can't help tailgating others even though she knows that it is
wrong to do it. Laura says that when the car in front is going
too slow, she will tailgate them to try to make them go faster.
She also tries to justify tailgating by saying that everyone
does it. It that attitude that since everyone else is doing it,
it is okay for me to do it too.
Another person's report that showed up in my search results was
Sol Valdez's
report. Sol talks about how it seems that everyone
tailgates and that it can be very fun at times. He goes on to
say that although it can be fun, it is also is wrong. Sometimes,
he says, it is just better to let the person pass you because
you do not know what kind of state of mind the person is in.
Sol gives for reasons for why being tailgated can be frustrating,
which came from an article called Stupid Drivers. These reasons
are (1) when you are in the right lane, (2) when there are open
lanes to pass, (3) when there is no way for the car to go any
faster, and (4) when there are only two lanes on the road.
Denise Tanaka's
report also showed up on my results. She admits that
she is a tailgater herself and hopes to be reformed. Denise writes
about a person named Timothy Lee who feels that tailing someone
when that person can't possibly go any faster is wrong. Denise
agrees with Timothy that people should not tailgate in this kind
of situation. She feels that every person has the right to be
on the road as no matter what speed they are traveling. It just
would be nice if people weren't going too slow.
I think that tailgating is definitely a form of aggression. It
show how people's personalities can be totally different when
they are driving. In person, someone can be very nice and gentile,
yet when that same person is behind the wheel, he can become an
aggressive and mean person. I think that most people feel a safe
distance from other people when in their car. They must think
that they can do anything and not be personally involved since
they do not know the other driver and will probably not see them
again. This is in contrast to meeting someone face to face and
knowing that they know your face and could remember who you are.
If they remember your car, that is not at such a personal level.
Convoys:
Using the Webcrawler
Search Engine , I looked for things associated with
convoys. Again what turned up was mostly links to our class,
both generations.
Braden Kato's
Report on convoys was very interesting. He says that
next to tailgating, convoys was the most talked about subject
this semester. Sharla Supnet said that most of the time she likes
to be the leader of a convoy because she controls the speed.
Another person said that convoys make that person cluster phobic.
Braden says there are good things to convoys. One of the good
things about it is that it helps a lot of people avoid speeding
tickets. Another good thing is that it provides a sense of security
for some drivers allowing them to sit back and relax while they
are driving. The one bad thing that Braden has to say about convoys is
that it can cause you to be blocked in behind a big truck.
Or you could, in fact, be sandwiched between two large vehicles.
I personally do not intentionally drive in convoys. Sometimes
I am in one, and sometimes I am by myself. What usually happens
is that I am driving a long, and a convoy will catch up to me,
then it will pass me by and another convoy will catch up to me.
I don't really care if I am in one or not. It does not bother
me. Psychologically, I think that for most people convoys offer
a sense of security while driving. There are so many factors
that can cause stress while driving, I think convoys may possibly
offer a way to relieve some of that stress.
Accordion Effect:
As for the accordion effect, I tried several different search
engines and did not come up with any results. I do not understand
why our own class reports did not show up, but it didn't. Very
strange.
The relation to traffic psychology is that I think that people
do not like the feeling that someone may cut in front of them.
When they see the gap getting bigger, they have to speed up to
block someone from cutting them off. Most of the time people
only save a few minutes by blocking other cars from cutting in,
but it's just in their minds that they are going to take a lot
longer to get to their destination if they allow the car to go
in front. People are so time conscious now that every little
minute counts. They cannot waste one precious minute, even though
it means being nice to another human being.
Back Seat Driver:
Again, there were no results for this search. I think it is a
very interesting topic and I thought there would be information
or stories about back seat drivers. I was wrong.
So far, there is no one that I know that has not experienced having
a back seat driver in their car. What amazes me is that I know
someone, who shall remain anonymous, that cannot think quickly
while driving. While driving she is always asking, "what
should I do?", "which way should I go?". But when
she is a passenger, she is the most irritating back seat driver
imaginable. She cannot stop telling you what to do. Then when
I confronted her one day and told her about this, she would not
admit to being a back seat driver. I wonder if most people would
not admit to doing it. Is being a back seat driver a bad thing?
I do not think it is bad as much as it is irritating for the
driver. As a driver I need to concentrate on what I am doing
and where I am going. It does not help to have someone telling
you what to do. I think that people like to be back seat drivers
because it makes them feel like their in control of what is going
on. Most back seat drivers probably like the feeling and do not
like to be a follower. Basically, that is what passengers in
a car is, a follower. They have to go where ever the driver takes
them, they have no choice. This probably annoys many passengers
and that is why they become back seat drivers.
In conclusion, all of these subjects have relevance to the topic
of traffic psychology. These, plus a few others, form the base
of study for traffic psychologists. I think that if more people
thought about the way they drive and why they react the way they
do, then decide to make a change, the roads would be nicer places
to be. If more people were considerate, people would not be a
stressed in traffic and they would in turn be better people overall.
Happy driving!