My Driving Personality Make-over Plan

An Introduction To My Driving

Well, until I began taking this Traffic Psychology class, I thought I was a great driver. I learned to be a defensive driver while in Drivers Education and I've done a pretty good job following the rules of the road. However, throughout the course of this semester I have learned a new concept about driving. I have learned that there can be a level above defensive driving. This level, however, is more difficult to attain than the other two. The three levels of driving attitudes or methods of approaching the road are as follows: Level 1)Oppositional Driving At this level of driving, one is reacting to situations on the road and allowing these situations to dictate their driving experience. They are only concerned with their own well being on the road. Level 2)Defensive Driving Many people (myself included) felt that this was the ideal driving level, but as taught to me in class, there is one more level. At the defensive level, one learns to control one's impulses and drives cautiously, looking out for the other driver because they don't trust other drivers. This a more rational way of approaching the road, however, there is a more compassionate way as well. Level 3)Facilitative Driving This should be the ultimate goal of all drivers, but it is difficult to attain because it requires the adoption of a whole new attitude. This attitude involves taking care of the other people's feelings, such as the passengers and other drivers. At this level it is the driver's job to make it easier for others to do what they want; drivers must be more courteous in actions and attitude.

Because being a facilitative driver requires an attitude change, one must first understand the attitude which dictates one's driving persona. This self-awareness is difficult to attain because it requires taking an objective inventory of one's behaviors and deducing the attitude which fuels these actions. It is very difficult to be purely objective when it comes to self analysis because we all like to preserve our self-image. Well, it is this difficult task of observing, noting and perhaps altering my underlying attitude which controls my driving persona that I am about to engage upon.

In my initial assessment of myself, prior to observation, I find that I usually have a moderate temperament while I am driving. I say moderate because it has the potential of becoming hostile rather quickly if someone or something makes me really mad. However, it is usually not another driver which causes my irritation, but, instead, something else in my life and I usually project my anger onto other drivers. If I've had a particularly tough day or a fight with a friend or my husband, I get extremely annoyed with every other driver on the road; I think that no one else can drive correctly and they are all out to annoy me. My usual reaction, in this situation, is to yell at the other driver and call them names like stupid or idiot or if I'm really angry, I'll even cuss.

Now I must admit that there are times I will engage in this yelling and name calling behavior even when I'm not angry at someone or something else, but this is more rare, but not too rare, especially now that I live here in Hawaii. I grew up and learned to drive in rural Maine where it is rare to see another car on the road, let alone a traffic jam and, thus, am not used to driving in this traffic. The traffic drives me crazy and adds to my irritable moods. The traffic is so bad that I have to leave my house almost two hours before my first class to ensure I'll be on time.

That point brings me to the next aspect in my driving personality. Whenever I am running late, which seems to be all the time lately, I get irritated with all other drivers. I seem to blame them for making me late, although rationally, I know perfectly well it is my own fault. But, why blame myself when I can blame traffic?

So, in reviewing my driving personality, I find that, although I am a good driver mechanically, I am not a very kind driver; I curse at people, call them names and place the blame for my own tardiness on them. If I could stop engaging in this behavior, driving would be so much more pleasant and I would be a much better person. Thus, I've decided to try and make-over this aspect of my personality. I am going to try to stop calling people names and cursing while I drive. This should prove to be an interesting endeavor, since I have to face heavy traffic five days a week to get to class.

My Make-over Plan

My topic for my make over is to try and stop cursing at and calling other drivers names while I drive. Although they cannot hear me and this behavior seems pretty harmless, I feel I can be a better person if I didn't let these negative emotions control my driving personality. Instead of dealing with the subject that is really annoying me, such as; the heavy traffic, the fact I've left late for school again or that I've just had a rotten day, I usually project all my bottled up emotions onto the poor unsuspecting drivers around me. I don't like the fact that a car can provide a forum for me to become an evil person. I do not resort to name calling and cussing in the rest of my daily life and would, therefore, like to change this unsettling piece of my personality.

My Plan of attack is to first observe myself drive for a couple of trips and try to objectively note the instances when I begin to verbally assault the drivers around me. I shall carry my small tape recorder with me to take notes because I have a tendency to forget my driving experience as soon as I reach my destination. I will tape myself the whole time I am driving, so as to not miss an instance of the targeted behavior. To the best of my ability I will be speaking my thoughts and feelings aloud, so as to catch them on the tape.

Secondly, after my observations, I will try and stop this negative behavior by replacing it with a more positive action. Instead of yelling or cursing, I will attempt to say, "They have the right to drive here. They are not doing anything wrong." I am hoping that this more positive attitude will eventually become my habit instead of a conscious effort. I feel that once I become aware that it is not the other person at fault, but instead my own negativity projecting through, then I will be able to change. Thus this step of replacing my negative words with more positive words should make me more mindful of the situation I am in and how to avoid the problem in the future.

Thirdly, after attempting the reform for two trips, I will evaluate my progress and if need be alter my strategy by adding to it or changing it completely. My alternate plan is to introduce music as a way to avoid the negative emotions and thoughts. Perhaps if positive talk does not help, positive music will.

Observing My Driving

Going to school this morning shouldn't be too bad because there isn't that much traffic at 9:30 on Wednesdays. I'm so glad that my first class doesn't start until 10:30 today because I should have left at 9:00 to be on the safe side. No problem so far, I've left H2 and made it to H1 with no confrontations. H1 looks clear so far, but just wait until I get closer to school. Just as I thought, it's always backed up down here, people are always trying to get off the Pali exit or Kinau. They take forever and always block the rest of traffic. I'm getting irritated because it's getting closer to 10:00 and I know I still need to find a parking place and walk to class. I finally get clear of that traffic and then I get boxed in by a couple of complete idiots. This is when I start yelling and asking why they have to do this to me, don't they know how to drive the speed limit? Well, I finally get around the morons and make it to school. Parking wasn't too hard to find and I have made it to class on time, barely, but on time. As always I vow to leave a little sooner next time.

Boy this is going to be a killer trip! It's 5:00pm and there is going to be a ton of traffic. Well, I make my way to the highway and merge successfully, so far so good. As I inch along I listen to the radio and sing along with a few songs. I've had a pretty good day and am in a decent mood. I know when I get home it is my husband's turn to fix dinner, so that makes me even happier. Now there's a little break in traffic and some space to maneuver, but suddenly someone cuts me off. Damn fool! I cool down pretty quickly because I'm feeling pretty good today. Traffic just takes so long. I want to get home! I wish all these stupid people would get off the road!! Finally after an hour and a half I've made it home and all's well.

After listening to myself on the tape and recording this, I realize that my choice of a topic is a good one. These two trips were made on a good day, yet I still exhibited the target behavior. Despite the fact that there was minimal problems while driving, I still resorted to name calling. I now realize how terribly rude I am to people and although they can't heart me, I still feel bad because I'd hate to think of someone doing the same to me.

Implementing My Plan

Today is Thursday, so I need to be to school early. My first class is at 9:00. I'll need to leave the house by 7:00. Traffic will be bad, so I need to prepare myself mentally; I need to remind myself to remain calm and not let my emotions get in the way of me being a courteous person. Of course, the puppy needs to go out one last time, she runs off. When I finally catch her she gets me all dirty and I need to change. I'm leaving my house at 7:20--just a little late. I already feel the irritation rising in my body. I take a few deep breaths and try to calm down. It's taking forever to drive off post this morning; I hate driving 25 MPH. GREAT! Now the soldiers are stopping traffic to run across the road. I remember my project and take a deep breath and say out loud " They have every right to do that. They are doing nothing wrong." I also think to myself it's my own fault I should have put the puppy on her leash and I wouldn't be facing this problem. Then I also think this is kind of foolish, why can't I get mad if I want to. Why should I stop all my anger? Then I remember the project and try to quench my resistance.

I make it to the highway and have no problems on H2. Then the traffic slows down at the Aiea exit. Now I prepare myself for the slow drive to school. The rest of the trip is pretty uneventful, I just drive along slowly listening to the radio and thinking I won't get to school any quicker by worrying and yelling. So I push my tape into the player and sing along. I managed to get to school barely on time, but much calmer than usual.

Evaluating My Success

Resistance to change is a hot topic because everyone is to some degree resistant. I, at first, thought that this project was inane. Why did I need to change my driving personality? I am a good driver and don't need any alterations. If that's not resistance, I don't know what is. I even went so far as to think that I would write a report about how good a driver I am instead of trying to change myself. I have a pretty arrogant attitude when it comes to my driving because I am the first to point out to my husband that he is being unkind or threatening to other drivers or pedestrians, but when it comes to myself, I subscribe to the fallacy that I can do no wrong and everyone else is at fault. Because of this arrogance and resistance to the idea of changing myself, I thought I would have a tough time with this project. However, I did pretty well in overcoming my resistance for the few days I was observing myself. Now the trial I face is trying to continue the attempt to reform my ways while I am not officially observing myself. I don't know for sure that I would have been successful if I hadn't been tape recording myself. The recorder may have been the positive stimulus which illicited my change in response for the observed days. I don't think I was totally objective because I was trying to do well. Realizing that this was a limited attempt at behavior modification, I was pretty successful.

Despite my limited success, I don't think my initial plan of saying aloud, "They have every right to do that and they are doing nothing wrong" worked very well for me. What did work was to concentrate on music and sing along, especially when I played my Christian tape. Another little trick I used that helped to a certain degree was to say that the other driver made a mistake and I have done the same thing before. It helped to a degree because I remembered that no one is perfect and mistakes do happen and most people are not out to deliberately harm me. Music worked wonders when I was really angry because I found that while I am concentrating on music or singing along it is more difficult to get or stay angry. Although my initial plan of repeating a specific sentence to myself did not always work, I found some other effective techniques for reducing my incorrigible behavior behind the wheel. I found that music was my best defense against the irrational, savage behavior I engage in during driving. I also discovered that if I would try and be more punctual, I would alleviate a lot of the stimuli which trigger my evil side.

Review of Prior Generations

While reading the reports of the students from prior generations, I discovered that I was not the only person with these driving faults. It was comforting, yet disturbing to discover that I was not the only person who has such an awful reaction to other drivers. I was comforted to know that I was not alone in my deviant behavior, but again it is disturbing to know that there are so many irate drivers on the roads. People like, Brian Yucoco and Curtis Nakao also suffer from the swearing bug. They, too, fall prey to the irritations of the road and curse at people who do them wrong (or at least are perceived as having done them wrong). Curtis also states that he must learn to better manage his time and once again, that is one of the underlying causes of my outbursts in the car. As Caroline Balaticostates in her labreport, our emotional state effects our driving because our emotions effect our behaviors. This is why when I am feeling rushed or angry I will project these emotions onto the neutral stimulus-other drivers. The realization of my true nature behind the wheel and that many others are just like me has made me grateful for having taken Traffic Psychology. I feel that I am now better equipped to deal with and try to continue changing my behavior.

Implications for Traffic Psychology

The fact that so many people have trouble controlling their emotions and thus their behaviors while driving, shows that the field of traffic psychology is needed. It seems that these undesirable behaviors that we've all been working to overcome are a natural part of the human character. Being that character is the most base human feature, it is the most difficult to try and change. People naturally resist the attempt to change their basic humanness, but with endurance and the right methodology, it can be changed for the better. One day, with the spread of traffic psychology, we will all become facilitative drivers, rather than defensive or oppositional drivers. When that day comes the roads will be a safer and more friendly place. Perhaps there will be fewer accidents because people will be thinking beyond their own sphere and be concerned with the other drivers. This sounds like a fantasy, and perhaps it is at this time, but some day it could happen.

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