I was surprised to find that a little change in wording when asking
people to change made the whole difference in the world. Instead of
asking them if they wanted to help them change their bad habits while
driving, I used the word "adjust". I would say that we are all perfect
drivers in our own eyes and I would just like to help "perfect" it even
more. With this change of wording I finally found two brave souls to
participate in my study. The first person was very reluctant to
pariticipate but decided to do it when I asked her using my different
line of questioning with the new words. This person is my wife. She
me not to mention her name while doing this assignment because she didn't
want her name broadcasted all over the internet and around our God
forsaken earth. I will just refer to her as my "Wife" or Subject A. The
second
subject is a person who I car pool with every now and then. He was even
more reluctant to change due to his job; he is a taxi driver. I thought
this would be a great opportunity to help someone in a field that is
stereotypically known to have horrible drivers.
This person is my neighbor and will be refered to as Mike or Subject B.
I first asked my wife if there was a certain driving behavior that
she wanted to change. At first she didn't feel there were any. I then
suggested some of her behaviors that I thought of as negative. She was
surprised to hear that the list was so long. After a period of
resistance we finally came to an agreement. She has a big problem of
planning ahead when it come to exiting a freeway. She always waits for
the last minute and becomes a big road hazzard. The worst part about her
problem is that she spend the most of her time in the fast lane. This
means that she has to come all the way to the most right exit lane. The
big problem is that she dosn't start switching lanes at least 1 mile
before exiting. Usually she starts to make her moves at about the 1/4
mile mark or much less. She ends up cutting everyone off that won't let
her pass. Many drivers on the road know when another dirver is making a
last minute move and tend to rebel by not letting that driver into their
lane in front of them. Another big hazzard that she causes is that she
ends up crossing solid white lines that are on her side of two lanes.
Many fo the freeway ramps here in Hawaii are dangerously being used as
multi exit and entrance ramps which constitute a hazzard. Most of these
ramps don't allow drivers to enter when comming near the end of these
ramps so that the drivers that are trying to enter the freeway can do
so. A "no change lane" indication is directed by a solid white line. My
wife doesn't seem to ever see this solid white line and constantly
crosses it when exiting a freeway. Again, this is due to her last minute
planning.
I explained to my wife that by doing this she is being a road
hazzard. Many accidents occur on multi on/off ramps. I asked her how
she felt when doing these last minute changes. She admitedly said that
she can always feel her heart racing everytime she needed to exit a
freeway. My wife feels that since she drives a car with more power than
the average car on the road, she has a lot of time to get to the ramp. I
reminded her of her many instances that she missed her off-ramp because
she waited to late to exit. I told her that this behavior adds to the
already high stress in her life. She is always a nervous driver and not
a very confident one to start with. Her driving record has a few
blemishes on it which adds to the cost of our insurance premiums. She is
also not accident free.
I asked if she would adjust this certain behavior to be less of a
traffic
so she wouldn't indanger her life or the lives of other drivers and
passengers like me or our son. I also reminded her that she builds up
unnecessary stress that is very unhealthy. I mentioned that we could
save a lot of money not paying the high insurance premiums that we pay
and on the gas that she wastes when she has to go all the way down to the
next off-ramp to exit and backtrack to her initial destination.
We then dicussed what were we going to do to help adjust this
negative driving behavior tha my wife has been doing for so long. She
mentioned the fact that she didn't think she could change this behavior
since this has been her style of driving as long as she can remember. I
then had her think about a few thing that could help her change. I told
her to put herself in the seat of all the other drivers and how they feel
having their lives indangered by a car that is forcing itself into their
lanes. I then asked her to think of some reasons why she didn't want to
adjust her driving. She responded by saying she has always done
everything at the last minute. Being aware of this behavior, I then told
her that it may be time to not just make an adjustment in her driving
behavior but a lifetime adjustment in her life. She responded by saying
that I was right but wanted to make these adjustments just one at a
time. I made her realize how everybody else felt on the road and in her
car when she does these last minute moves. I mentioned that driving
isn't just a process where one just points their car in a certain direction
and guides it by steering but a constant thinking process. I made it
known that she has to be thinking about whats going on around her at all
times. To help her, I put a red sign near her dashboard that reads "STAY
ALERT" to remind her to start changing lanes at least a 1 mile or more.
Everytime we would have to go out together, I would always make sure
that we would take her car to make sure she was the one who would end up
driving. At first she resisted by saying that this whole thing is silly
until she noticed the reminder that I had made for her. She was kind of
glad to see that I was serious about this whole adjustment exersise. It
took a few trys for her to get used to planning ahead. Everytime she
would wait until the last minute, I would give her a friendly reminder to
look at her reminder on the dash. At one point after doing such a great
job at planning ahead she showed some resistance when she mentioned one
of the reasons why she doesn't like to plan ahead. She mentioned the
fact that the slow lane moves too slow. I responded by saying the speed
is a big factor in many accidents and by driving slower she can avoid the
hassle of becoming involved in one. I told her that is was better to
drive relaxed than stressed out and also she was less danger to everybody
around her and inside of the car. I contantly praised her everytime she
executed good moves on the road and constantly reminded her whenever she
would forget. I made sure to mention to her that the "beast in her was
going away. We started this driving behavior modification in mid
April and has been going on until now.
The result has been a positive one. Even thought I don't know what
she does when she is alone, it is noticable that she has made some
adjustments to her driving (at least when I am around). Whenever she has
to exit the freeway, I have notice that she now does it without thinking
about it...as she was doing when she was changing lanes like a maniac.
She has also concluded that the change was a positive change since now
she notices other people doing exactly what she used to do.
My neighbor Mike has been a taxi driver for last three years. He
does this job full time and attends The University of Hawaii in persue of
a liberal arts degree. Mike and I are about the same age (27) and we have
been car pooling on and off for the
last year and have noticed that many of his bad driving habits that
were
acquired from his job has crept into his personal life. When I asked him
if there were any habits in particular that he wanted to change, he
responded by say yes. He showed no resistance when naming a few of his
bad driving habits until he mentioned that it would be almost impossible
for him to change due to the competitive nature of his job. Taxi drivers
are well known to do totally illegal moves on the road like stopping in the
middle of a flowing lane to grab a customer (especially in Waikiki). He
admits to pariticipating in such a dangerous behavior but resisted any
adjustment to it. He claims that he would not be able to earn the
majority of his "bread and butter" because picking up clients that are
"wave downs" (people who wave a taxi down instead of making a telephone
reservation) are usually charged more than clients with reservations. He
resisted to the point were I decided that I didn't want to play around
with anybody's livelyhood and the money that keeps them sheltered and
fed. After going through a brief imaginary list of driving behaviors
that he wanted to change, we finally agreed on one that he was willing to
modify.
Since Mike is originally from New York City, he learned a certain
behavior that is not practiced here in Hawaii. This behavior is the
constant use of the horn while sitting in traffic. Mike say that