Aggressive drivers on I-495 beltway

Date: 1997/07/04 Message-Id: <33bcfe45.6639@worldnet.att.net> Newsgroups: dc.driving,rec.autos.driving Dr. Driving wrote: To answer your question, "why would you want to trap a dangerous driver behind you, adding to their road rage", I think the answer is: "You would do it because you've got road rage." In other words, the driver who doesn't want to get out of the way is mad like hell, experiencing what I call "passive- aggressive road rage." It's not rational, of course! You might start a whole new thread with talk like this -- it reminds me of the old days when we all kicked in our bright lights to let the oncoming jeurk know that his brights were blinding us -- then wonder of wonder! -- it was slowly discovered that more than a chance counting of accidents were happening this way -- hmmm, perhaps *both* drivers get blinded, *neither* can see, and then BLAAMMMMOOO!!!! -- two less drivers to worry about -- perhaps we better come up with something else -- how about keeping our eyes on the edge of the road until the jeurk passes? -- at least we'll still be able to navigate, and at least the glare from his brights won't impinge on the very centers of our eyeballs, where it takes longest to recover -- at least neither of us will be blinded by glare, at least neither of us will be pushin' up daisies in the morning -- Road-Kills Two road ragers are badder than one, Two road ragers don't make a right; Letting others push-push your buttons Sends you head-on into your last night. Safely yours TJ

Daily gripe: profile of aggressive driver

Date: 1997/07/21 Message-Id: <33d41d6f.32e@richmond.infi.net> Newsgroups: dc.driving Dr. Driving wrote: (snip) Needless to say, the panel members (which included NHTSA's Administrator Martinez) did not offer a viable definition of aggressive driving. Here is the one I gave: Habitual road rage is a persistent state of hostility behind the wheel, demonstrated by acts of aggression on a continuum of violence, justified by righteous indignation. Road rage is the habit of a permanent style of behaving aggressively behind the wheel. There are three types: 1. Verbal Road Rage: yelling, cussing, gesturing, honking, insultings 2. Quiet Road Rage: complaining, rushing, competing, resisting 3. Epic Road Rage: cutting off, blocking, chasing, fighting, shooting Since Dr. Driving posted this to "dc.driving", I have a question to ask everyone. There was a well-conceived plan in the 1960s and 1970s for a network of urban Interstate highways in D.C. and suburban Maryland. Various mis-guided politicians were responsible for canceling these expressways. As a result, there is much more congestion, and much less mobility in the D.C. area, than there otherwise would have been. What would you call the combined irritation and frustration of two million motorists, caused by an inadequate metropolitan highway/expressway system? Would you call this "Collective Road Rage"? SMK

Motorist Pulls Gun on Bicyclist for Running Stop Sign

Date: 1997/07/28 Message-Id: <33dceaae.3262@bmcwest.nojunkmail.com> Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc Facts: A motorist in Boise, Idaho is charged with brandishing a loaded weapon in a traffic incedent last week. The incedent occurred on a residential connector street when a motorist became upset with a bicyclist who ran a stop sign. Angry words were exchanged and the motorist pulled and pointed a loaded .357 revolver at the cyclist. The cyclists father intervened and defused the situation. The motorist has a license to carry the weapon and has been released on $25,000 bail. The local news carried this story as part of a "road rage" sequence. Additional facts/details have not been available via the press. Opinion: The cyclist looked like your "average joe" citizen. Blue jeans, tee shirt, no helmet, just riding home from the store. He didn't look like the type someone would go after as "one of those damn bikers who think they have as much right to the road as I do." (per Bubba) I've decided the best response to motorists taunts/insults is smiling and waving like I recognize them (get their liscense and call in the incedent later). Maybe the police will take it seriously now. An you thought Boise was a quite town....Be careful out there. Dan

Critical Mass A Success!

Date: 1997/07/29 Message-Id: <870226939.2468@dejanews.com> Newsgroups: ba.bicycles In article <01bc9b9c$e072e1c0$99249ecd@pinhead>, a reader wrote: "Road rage" as newly defined by the media, is not caused by cyclists. (snip) so many cars, and that's why (snip) painful commutes are a major quality-of-life issue in most urban areas. (snip) Yes, painful. Road rage is just another way of saying "aggressive drivers." However, in my view, road rage isn't a direct result of increased congestion-- this is only a correlation. In other words, one can increase congestion and not see an increase in road rage. The real cause of road rage, or aggressive and hostile driving styles, is a cultural norm we grow up with, and see on TV, namely, it's OK to express my anger and hostility if I feel I've been wronged in some way. This is what drivers do to cyclists, and sometimes vice versa, as has been discussed in these groups. I think we need to re-train ourselves as a culture so that we start accepting the range and diversity of drivers. It will take emotional intelligence to remain calm and tolerant in the face of provocation. If interested, some exercises to help you do that and additional arguments on this can be found at the site below. Leon James Visit my Congresional Testimony on Road Rage and Aggressive Drivers Date: 1997/07/29 Message-Id: <33de0e21.50b9@cris.com> Newsgroups: ba.bicycles Dr. Driving wrote: Visit My Congresional Testimony on Road Rage and Aggressive Drivers I did. It should be required reading with 6 month mandatory retesting requiring 95% correct answers to pass or you don't get your licence renewed. I do believe that the solutions will be technological rather than psychological. It's far easier to install a few electronic components into vehicles than it is to do a "driving personality make-over". From your site someone wrote: I've seen ambulances held up at an intersection for half a minute, maybe a full minute, flashing their lights and creeping forward a foot at a time, while people continue to try to make it across, turn, whatever, right in front of them. This should be cause for permanent revocation of the driver's licence. Such a person should never be given another chance to hold up another emergency vehicle. From your site: 42% of the residents rate aggressive drivers as the biggest threat on the road, followed by drunk drivers (35%). The problem is so serious that insurance companies are devising ways to deny insurance to aggressive drivers and cut rates for peaceful drivers. Those stats are incredible. From your site: Driving and habitual road rage have become virtually inseparable. Why? What causes aggressive driving and habitual road rage? And everybody points to the same factors: more cars--->more traffic--->more frustration--->more stress--->more anger--->more hostility--->more violence. More cars leads to more aggression on the roads, sort of like rats fighting in a crowded colony. Yes. And now come the Critical Massholes from all over the Greater Bay Area -- they come to San Francisco on Friday evening rush hour. And what do they do at the worst possible time of the week in the worst possible place, the downtown area? Have you any thoughts about this? Date: 1997/07/26 Message-Id: Newsgroups: ba.bicycles,ba.transportation,ba.general aa@removethis.wco.com writes: I'm recovering from a broken arm when I was hit by a motorist while in a marked crosswalk on a green light. Good. I hope it hurts. Does this put the kibosh on your wanking, or do you use the _other_ hand? You can BET that I'll participate in the next Critical Mass. Maybe some motorist will actually do things right next time and actually *kill* your arrogant ass. I like to think of your head popping like a ripe zit inside your silly little plastic helmet as a the wheel of a car moves over it. Hopefully the contents of your skull will squirt out in a lateral pattern and not soil the car's tire and hubcap. The driver would probably be on his way home from work after a long week, and stopping at a coin-op car wash would only be an annoyance. At the very least, maybe you'll end up crippled for life like Brian "shorty" Willson, a fellow civil disobedience maven who got cocky and was run over by a locomotive at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. You call what happened yesterday a "success?" What you punks don't realize, being so full of yourselves and all, is that you've just dug your own "mass" grave. You've managed to piss off and alienate a group of people who are a lot more numerous and politically powerful than yourselves: the driving public. Not to mention the *general* public, with whom the first group shares a considerable amount of overlap. And when it comes to Willie Brown, I suspect that events will prove that you have no _idea_ who you're messing with. All things considered, the words of Admiral Yamamoto come to mind: "I fear that all we have done is to awaken a slumbering giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Prepare to harvest the whirlwind, you spokehead bastards. I'd like to encourage everyone who drives in San Francisco to start carrying weapons in their cars -- baseball bats, guns, machetes, whatever you prefer. If these punks want to cha-cha, then who are you do deny them their whim? Why, that would be insensitive and mean-spirited. You'd only be protecting yourself and your property, right? And the chances are pretty damn good than you'd even manage to slip away in the chaos. If there are other cyclists in the way, so what? You'll be in a riot zone, presumably fearful for life and limb, so just run the bastards down on your way out. I'm _really_ looking forward to next time. Hee hee! Date: 1997/07/26 Message-Id: Newsgroups: ba.bicycles,ba.transportation,ba.general A reader wrote: Maybe some motorist will actually do things right next time and actually *kill* your arrogant ass. you ignorant asshole... How do you feel when the same rude motorist opens his door on the freeway when you are splitting lanes? The motorist has the same justification against you, as you used on all cyclists. Murder is NOT justified by any sort of inconvenience. Date: 1997/07/26 Message-Id: Newsgroups: ba.bicycles,ba.transportation,ba.general How do you feel when the same rude motorist opens his door on the freeway when you are splitting lanes? That begs the question of whether I do, in fact, split lanes. I don't, and for a very good reason: I don't ride a motorcycle. Why would you assume otherwise? But to answer your question, I'd react in exactly the same way. And it's not terribly difficult to understand why: someone would be threatening my safety and the condition of my property. The miscreant's choice of transportation would have nothing to do with it. That's a stupid scenario in any case. Why would anyone risk damage to his car in such a way to begin with? The motorist has the same justification against you, as you used on all cyclists. Murder is NOT justified by any sort of inconvenience. Three points: o I didn't use the same justification against "all" cyclists. I used it against cyclists who are involved in a mob activity and who are acting in a threatening, hostile, and sometimes violent manner toward members of the public. You're no better than the rioters in South Central Los Angeles who beat Reginald Denny. All that differs is the matter of degree; the mindset, which is what counts, is indentical. o It's not murder if it can be interpreted as self-defense. And getting caught in the middle of a Critical Masshole ride like yesterday's, while exercising one's right to use the public streets, could easily be interpreted that way. To be fair, not all Critical Mass rides have been like yesterday's. But a precedent has been set, and people have been angered. They won't be taking any chances from now on. And do you know something? You have no one but yourselves to blame for this escalation. o Inconvenience is one thing. Inconvenience resulting from someone else's deliberate efforts is quite another -- especially when that inconvenience consists of being surrounded by a noisy, hostile, out-of-control mob, and is punctuated with taunts and violence. From the Page 1 story in this morning's Chronicle: "'They attacked cars, they stormed the Bay Bridge, and they had at least four or five routes. Their behavior was intolerable,' said Deputy Police Chief Rich Holder. 'What we have is a mob of people on bikes.'" [...] "At the same corner, police said a cyclist reached into the driver's side of a stopped vehicle and socked the man behind the wheel." Yup; Critical Mass is nothing but a bunch of fine, upstanding citizens who have nothing but the public good in mind, yessirree. Murder is NOT justified by any sort of inconvenience. That would make a great epitaph, wouldn't it? Of course, I wouldn't think of it even as homicide, so much as pest eradication. If you people want to act like subhumans, then you can expect to be _treated_ like subhumans. Date: 1997/07/28 Message-Id: <01bc9b81$49e3bec0$99249ecd@pinhead> Newsgroups: ba.bicycles,ba.transportation,ba.general A reader wrote: o It's not murder if it can be interpreted as self-defense. And getting caught in the middle of a Critical Masshole ride like yesterday's, while exercising one's right to use the public streets, could easily be interpreted that way... The evidence is mounting: Geoff has a secret fantasy to spend the rest of his life fighting a murder / vehicular manslaughter charge, and wondering why he thought it was important to attack the Trek from his Ford Expedition. Be careful threatening such violence. You can be sure you won't find bicyclists on this newsgroup discussing how to murder you simply because the traffic to which you contribute slowed their ride home. That's a special pedestal of intolerance you can occupy alone. Again, I hope you're feeling better.

Inept Drivers

Date: 1997/07/31 Message-Id: <01bc9dbe$6c3b3d60$ca401ecc@default> Newsgroups: alt.peeves A reader wrote in article <33dd784c.711f@usaor.netcom>... The driver that insists on driving in the left lane at 50 in a 65 mph zone. Will they move over, NO - that is Hell NO. It makes no difference to them that they are backing up traffic on the interstate. The just keep putting along at 50. After a while you just want to kill the sob. Check it out the next time your on the interstate, any interstate. Most of the time its some senior person who needs to be retested. Try flashing your lights, and if that doesn't work, go around. Don't be a road rage participant!

PA. road rage

Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 16:24:37 -0700 Organization: epix Internet Services Newsgroups: misc.transport.trucking Hi, This is my first time posting, but I thought what I heard on the news was important enough to share with driver's traveling through Pennsylvania... They were serious about this too. I hope I am posting it in the right place??? The topic was Road Rage, and their going to be watching for you! If anyone is caught flashing their lights to on coming traffic or when they are coming up on another vehical they will be stopped and fined. If they are caught riding in the left hand lane (passing lane) other than to pass they will be fined. Blowing the horn at slower traveling traffic, or at any other vehical, including the kiddies we blow the horn for to see smile ... you will be stopped and fined. Tailgating , weaving, etc. you will be stopped and fined. They said, this will be enforced to the fullest. And if I posted this in the wrong place please tell me gently and tell me where I should have posted ok? Have a Great holiday Weekend and travel safely :-)

 

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