I am interested in this topic and have found your e mail address. I would like to hear from you if you have any current research relating to driving and aggression.

Regards Marcia
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool, England

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit! **DrDriving**

I am a senior at the University of California, Irvine, and I am doing a research paper on aggressive driving, focusing mainly on gender differences. Could you supply me with some statistics on this subject? I need to know "who" is actually driving more aggressively--males or females??

Thank you for your attention,

Donna

I enjoy your web site very much! Over the weekend, I tried making animal noises instead of my usual swearing, stomping and fist shaking. It was a blast! Especially the "moo" sound! That's the best! Thanks for your cool tip. I'm sending out a memo to all the car sales people reminding them to act like animals!

My name Roberto . I am a first year student at the University of Utah College of Law. I will be doing some research regarding a case that went to the Utah Supreme Court. What I am analyzing relates to the foreseeable consequences of Road Rage in the Salt Lake City area. Please brief the survey and if you have any information that might help my research I would greatly appreciate it. Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND CIRCLE THE CORRECT RESPONSE

Female / Male

Age group: 16-20 20-25 26-30 31-40 41-50 51 and over

How many years have you lived in Salt Lake City? 1 year or less 2-3 years 4-7 years 7-10 years 10 years or more

If you have lived less than 3 years in Salt Lake City where did you reside before? State ___________________ City _________________

Nationality; Mexican/Mexican-American/Hispanic Asian Polynesian

Caucasian/White African American/Black other________________

CASE SCENARIO

You are driving on I-15 (or any freeway) in Salt Lake City, at night, and a car behind you flashes his/her high beams at you then speeds up and passes you. Upset, you flash your high beams at him then speed up past him. This occurs a few times until you are so upset that when you are along side the other vehicle you decide to give him the middle finger and then he returns the favor.

(sample of possible questions)

1. Would it cross your mind that your life might be in jeopardy? Y/N 2. Would it cross your mind that he could possibly have a gun? Y/N If yes how extraordinary do you think this is in Salt Lake City? Often / Occasionally / Rarely

3. Would it cross your mind he might point a gun at you and possibly shoot at you? Y/N If yes how extraordinary do you think this is in Salt Lake City? Often / Occasionally / Rarely

4. If you answered no to all the questions above would you answer yes to any of the questions if it were a Friday or Saturday night at midnight and the driver of the other vehicle looked a little shady? Y/N To which questions? 1 2 or 3

Feel Free to write any comments on the back of this survey

I am an undergrad student at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota and I am doing a study with another student under the guidance of our social psyche professor on road rage. Specifically, we are studying how an aggressive personality is related with road rage. We are using the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry; 1992) and we would also like to use your Road Rage questionnaire.

We would like permission to use your questionnaire and also were wondering if it has been validated in any other studies. If you approve of our use of your questionnaire, could you please send me a copy of the complete questionnaire?

We are really excited to do this study. It is a fascinating subject and I have really enjoyed reading your web-site. Keep up the great work!!

Sincerely, Allison

It may sound funny but when I got into situations like that and somebody did something to slow my progress they were also impeding my rhythm of going down the road at the same speed of the music therefore, making me doubly angry. sometimes causing me to do risky moves just so I could get back to flying down the road before the song was over. I'm older now, still listen to great classic rock music when driving but have learned to not let that ego trip some of us get from a cut on the radio station to put me into a potentially deadly situation. My advise is, when you hear a tune that may have an effect upon your judgment behind the wheel, turn it off or change the station. Otherwise you may never get to hear that great tune again.

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit! **DrDriving**

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

I enjoyed reading the information that you have provided on this deadly issue.

Thank you,

Rick J

In case you don't already know, one possible lead might be the Oxford English Dictionary--New Words Supplement for 1997, which (I heard on the news) has road rage as a new expression entering the English language for the first time. I suppose they might tell you about its origins. Please let me know if you find out. I've posted your question on Dear DrDriving and perhaps someone might see it who knows the answer.

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit! **DrDriving**

letters@drdriving.org

What do the creators of these medias think the young people learn when they observe this? GOOD driving? I don't think so. I don't understand how so many so-called "intelligent" people running this country, and communities, haven't realized that part of the reason our children behave so badly, i.e. youthful crime, gangs, youthful rudeness in every arena, and lack of guidance...is that "WE ARE TEACHING THEM THESE BEHAVIORS WHEN WE DON'T CENSOR OUR OWN BEHAVIOR". It gets one big: "DUH" from me.

I fear the days when I am a senior citizen in this society, but maybe with some of the productive work you do, things will be better by then. Good luck!

Thank you! Carol

Jiri R Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health WSM, Wellington, New Zealand

So I was able to see that all drivers have an emotional problem in handling highway exchanges, and that they need to be trained in emotional intelligence. Please visit my DrDriving Web site where you'll find this and other articles by me, as well as much more. Then let me know how I can help you start some research on some subject you're particularly interested in.

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit!

**DrDriving**

Thank you giving us permission to use your questionnaire. We will of course site you and your website in our study. Take care and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather - we have about a foot of snow! 

Allison

> Hi E., let me know if you run across this answer...

Mr. J, thanks for your kind words! As to the origin of road  rage--good question. I'm surprised I don't know the answer--as I'm  supposed to be an expert on this subject!! Someone asked me if I knew the  origin of giving the finger among drivers--I didn't! In case you don't  already know, one possible lead might be the Oxford English  Dictionary--New Words Supplement for 1997, which (I heard on the news) has  road rage as a new expression entering the English language for the first  time. I suppose they might tell you about its origins. Please let me  know if you find out. I've posted your question on Dear DrDriving and  perhaps someone might see it who knows the answer. DrDriving

Happy Groundhog Day, DrDriving. I did a quick check of several databases; earliest references to road rage are given.

ABI/Inform: July 11, 1996 from the journal _Marketing_

UnCover: Oct. 1996 from _Police Journal_

Newspaper Abstracts: Jan. 18, 1997 from _Chicago Tribune_

Expanded Academic Index: June 2, 1997 from _U.S. News & World Report_

UH Lib. does not have the Oxford New Words Suppl. for 1997 (but I've recommended that we buy it.)

Let me know if you find anything else.
Ellen

Terry

All the best, Jessica

I AM WORKING ON WRITING A THESIS ON ROAD RAGE TO COMPLETE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR MY MASTERS DEGREE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. i WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE IS ANY SPECIFIC "ANGLE" I COULD COVER TO MAKE MY REPORT MORE INTERESTING AND MEANINGFUL. THANKS FOR YOU HELP

JOHN

P. S. I AM A STATE TROOPER, I PERSONALLY SEE AND HEAR FROM CIVILIANS STORIES OF ROAD RAGE MORE AND MORE.

I am to complete a research paper for my high school English class, and I have chosen the timely topic of "Road Rage." I am considering four areas of focus, 3 of which are needed in my final paper:

* Causes * Effects * Types of violence (probably to be used in intro) * Treatment/Solutions

I would appreciate any and all help you could give me in finding more information on these areas of focus (your Web site is so large and full of excellent information that it is somewhat difficult to find some of this information, for research purposes!) :)

Thank you in advance for your time and quick consideration (the paper is due in 3 weeks; my research is to be done w/i a couple of days)!

Sincerely, Adam

I am currently a Product Design degree student at the University of Central Lancashire, England. My current project involves generating a product solution to combat driver fatigue and the consequent accidents that occur because of it. At this stage of the project, I am researching the causes of driver fatigue and the possible methods of detecting fatigue applicable to a passive cabin device/product. As there are few if any existing products of this nature on the market, I have found difficulty in establishing a foundation on which to base the project.

I would be grateful for any feedback regarding your own views and opinions on the matter of driver fatigue, and any further suggestions you may have on the problem of combating driver fatigue. Thanking You in Anticipation, Jamie

Last night I was watching news and there was a small part on driving and road rage. A bunch of concerned citizen got together and talked about the how people nowadays are not driving with aloha. This means saying thank you to others on the road and not cutting people off. They said people in the past were more curious but now with more cars on the road, people are just darn rude! Now the government are trying to promote Driving with Aloha by airing commercials to remind people of their aloha spirit. What do you think of it??

Hi. I was wondering if there was going to be a new law that says kids can not get their licenses until the age of 18. Is this true? Thanks Erin

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit! **DrDriving**

Conari Press has already given us permission to quote material from their books.

Please consider my request. Thank you for your time.

Mrs. Amy G
Newspaper Advisor

DrDriving

I think that making animal noises is a great idea to cool yourself down, instead of cussing and doing things that you don't want. It would take some time for people to adjust to this new method, but I think it's worth it. I can say, even as a passenger you can do something about it. You as a passenger can also calm the driver down. I tried it once when my brother was cut off on the road. He was cussing and speeding up, so I just started barking. And boy, do I look like an idiot to my brother but then he started laughing and he forgot that he was angry.

Take care and drive with Aloha spirit! **DrDriving**

I spoke to Donne in your media relations department today. She suggested I e mail you directly. My name is Martin Pearson and I am producing an hour documentary for The Learning Channel called The Secret History of ... Cars. Amongst other things we are tackling the issue of Road Rage, as well as exploring the complex issue of our psychological relationship with our automobiles. I understand from talking to Donne and looking at your web page, that both of these subjects are very much within your area of expertise. I would welcome the opportunity to talk on the phone about both these issues, and perhaps at a later date to interview you on camera.

I do have one specific question at this time, that you may be able to help me with. I am wondering whether you, or anyone else for that matter, has done any research on behavior changes related to driving, using cameras hidden in the drivers' cabs? Does any videotape exist, to your knowledge, which shows drivers changing emotions in high stress driving situations?

Martin .

I am doing a term paper on 'Road Rage' for my Soc101 class. Your website is extremely helpful and I just wanted to thank you for your work. One of the reasons I chose this topic for my term paper is because I realized I have this problem. It's a very serious issue and I hope that it comes to be more recognized. I would venture to say this is the worst of all the driving issues.

I had been involved in a very serious accident where I attribute fault to the other driver involved. Since this accident, at times driving has become horrifying to me, to the point that I won't drive in weather conditions similar to when I was in the accident, I won't drive white or red cars and I won't ride in a car with someone I think is a horrible driver (many people). I also have had for many years (prior to and after this accident) nightmares involving dying in a car. It's my biggest fear and I believe this is why I get so upset at people when I am driving. Since I have recognized that this is a major problem for me things have gotten better. Again, thank you for all the hard work on the issue. I wish everyone could take a look at the site...maybe the highways wouldn't seem like an obstacle course anymore!

Thanks

Michael

Great to hear from you. Thanks for the encouraging comments. Thanks also for the links. I have to say that I find your site very interesting and thought provoking. I re-visit it often for inspiration !

 I work with the Greater Dallas Injury Prevention Center. We coordinate a coalition of traffic experts, police, nurses, etc. that plan a one week traffic safety public awareness campaign. I recently came upon the wonderful information on your web site and thought about how we might involve you in our efforts. Do you travel to cities to share your message? I noticed you have a new book coming out...do you promote the book in any way? The media work team designing the PR element of the campaign is interested in knowing your interest and availability in coming to Dallas for a few days during the week of May 4th. We are in very preliminary discussions and have limited resources...but Dallas really needs to hear your message...we're a mess here! Please let me know what you think.

Donna
Greater Dallas Injury Prevention Center Don't Wreck Your Week Campaign

I was surfing the web awhile back and came across your Random acts of kindness page.

I appreciated this and have added this site to my Kindness search engine  These are always timely, and hope that you continue with on this.

Many areas around the world are hosting Random acts of Kindness events during this special "Valentines week", and I would encourage you to put in a plug for this Kindness search engine someplace on your site, it would be greatly appreciated as well! This is a totally volunteered project, and does not earn any revenues what-so-ever!

Thank you for your consideration ... Dale, Canada

Sincerely, Virginia

Thanks Beth

Road Rage is very much a Public Administration problem from the point of view of State governments' and their agencies.

For example in formulating my plan to combat the aggressive driver I would suggest that the Department of Motor Vehicles change the current point system levied against violators of Vehicle and Traffic laws. Increase the number of points that goes on a persons driving record when they violate certain offenses which we believe to be traits of the aggressive driver.

Ex. Tailgating and flashing your highbeams simultaneously, weaving in and out of traffic or my favorite the guy who drives on the shoulder when traffic is at a standstill. The Justice system and the state's law making body would have to get involved to change the way we prosecute thesis cases, set mandatory fines and take away driving privileges for a period of time. If you have any other suggestions or if you could suggest what type of statistics I should be collecting before our state changes its current law , would be much appreciated.

Thanks

John

Given my perspective as a social psychologist I would like to see statistical data on the following types of variables: -- What are baseline occurrences for these driver behaviors? -- How do they vary across demographics, time, area, and attitudes -- Regarding attitudes: what are people's justifications for behaving aggressively -- What are the drivers' mutual perceptions of each other, and, how do they rank other drivers on these aggressive behaviors -- What is the accuracy or error rate in observing other drivers' behaviors as aggressive: by police in a moving car; by police in a stationary location; by surveillance equipment; by fellow drivers; by observers standing at the location; etc. -- What are the attitudes towards increased law enforcement activities including surveillance; how do people interpret what these actually consist of; how do people relate to the consequences for their community; their safety; their security; their privacy.

Well I hope some of these suggestions might be helpful. I'd be interested in hearing about your progress! Thanks.

Leon James
DrDriving

Dear dr driving,

i just wanted to thank you for your web site. With your insite and some other reference materials, i am putting together a safety meeting for our road and shuttle drivers on this topic and the laws that are in place now concerning this matter. I found a lot of humor in your presentations and good ideas. Thanks again. Do you cover the area of trucking transportation? This has been my area of mgnt for 18 years now and i play a very active role in our safety council and safety program. We have exceeded our goals in safety in 1997, the first time ever. I want this trend to keep on improving and exceeding. Sincerely

alanna

Leon James
DrDriving

John

what a nice idea indeed! At the moment we are working on developing YARR (Youth Against Road Rage).  I'm sending a copy of this to Dr. Richard Kirby, Founding Director of YARR who may wish to write to you as well. I would be interested in seeing the selections you think are relevant. I created a CARR Page summarizing all the links that will take you to what's available now on DrDriving regarding children and driving.
DrDriving.

I discovered your website after reading a brief article in our local paper and I have read your overview. I just wanted to touch on one point. While I agree with several of your observations about bad driving being a learned activity, and your suggestion for early and continuing education, I was very disappointed at fact that I saw absolutely no reference to the law. ]

My experiences on the road show a total and complete disregard for the laws. People treat driving as a right, it is a privilege, and that privilege should be taken away if the laws are not followed. We have the technology to observe and ticket people for offences without every other car being a police car. If the offender does not comply with the ticket, their tabs can be revoked. People need to take personal responsibility for following the rules of the society in which they choose to live. Maybe on a day when I have more time I will tell you my story of how I went from a typical driver to one who obeys each and every law to the best of my ability. And I did it without counting, thinking happy thoughts, or doing random acts of kindness. I simply decided to obey the laws and you would not believe the difference it has made for me.

Thanks for your time.

Margaret Minneapolis, MN

Leon James
DrDriving

Is it fair to punish them? Yes, that is how our society works. We make laws for the good of the entire society, and if you choose not to follow those laws, you are punished. The form, or severity of the punishment depends on the crime, the intent and the risk to others.

There are millions of them...exactly why it upsets me so. Although it is very difficult to make people understand this, choosing to follow the rules makes for a much less stressful experience in the car. There are times when my way of driving angers others to the point where they do something that puts lives in jeopardy, but those moments of fear are still fewer than the tension I used to feel when I drove like everyone else. In our state this year, they voted to increase the speed limit to 70 mph on the interstate and from 55 to 60 on the metro hwy. The reason...because everyone is already speeding, so lets make it legal. As you can imagine, I was very much against this move, and now people are driving 75 to 80 on the interstate, and still tailgating as if if something happened to the car in front of them, or 4 cars in front of them, they would actually be able to react fast enough at 75 mph to avoid an accident.

What bothers me most, I think, is how many of the cars breaking the laws and putting people in danger have little kids in the car. They are just not thinking. Education, as I stated in my first note to you is important, I am all for it, but it does not take the place of simple responsibility. Bad driving is not a disease, people have the choice.

Thanks Margaret, Minneapolis MN

My name is Jim. I am on the Safety Focal Team at Boeing Renton. Renton is a town at the south end of Lake Washington. Seattle is on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland are on the east. and Bothell and Lake Forest Park are on the north of the lake.

We discussed road rage in our last Safety Focal Meeting and I am interested in pointing my safety page at your website. I would not do that without your blessing.

My website is on the Boeing intranet behind extreme security firewall. We can communicate out, but outsiders are stopped by whatever can be seen from www.boeing.com.  Sorry, but my website cannot be seen through that site.

Thank you, James H. J

 go ahead and link to DrDriving. Thanks!

Leon James
DrDriving

Thank You
Shawn

I have not yet completely read your report, so you may have addressed what I am about to say. If that is the case, just call me a twit and throw my letter in the trash.

I am one of those that is very short tempered on the road. I am all for cutting drivers some slack, but to what extent? Here in Idaho, it is ridiculous. On the commute to work I drive about 5 miles of rural 55mph road. At the times I drive (6 am and 6 pm) there is little traffic. People insist on only driving at 45mph. Yes that irritates me greatly.

My feeling is that if you can not obey the "rules of the road", take the bus. Like I said, I can forgive mistakes, heck I make them too, but a daily, blatant disregard for others desire to arrive at their destination in the same calendar year really frosts me.

Thanks,

Jay

In terms of your suggestion for clinical psychology or counseling in relation to driving problems: excellent suggestion. Thus, if you are a clinical student in psychology at Hawaii (or elsewhere) you could convince your supervisors to let you specialize in driving problems or traffic psychology or "driving therapy" (type the last two words into a search engine...you'll find some).

I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of the biggest cities in the world and one of the worse (maybe the worst) traffics. Well, as you can imagine, we need to deal with a lot of road (and street) rage here. As long as I know, we don't have any figures about this phenomenon, just about how many people died in our traffic. In 1996, 26.903 people died in our traffic (9,03 per 10.000 vehicles).

A new and harder "set" of traffic laws have just been released, and it seems it's working to make our roads less dangerous. But we have a lot of other factors that make road rage a problem that is far from disappearing: bad streets and roads, little and bad public transportation in the bigger cities (Rio and Sao Paulo), an "happy, uncompromised" attitude, corruption, thousands of new cars in the streets, and little, very little, respect to each other. I myself acknowledged feelings of road rage, and all the feelings of pride, "they're wrong", "they must be punished" are familiar for me. That happened to me today, again, and a coincidence brought me some news about road rage. I search this subject on the Internet and found your articles.

Well, thanks a lot to help me understand and control these feelings, that, I know, are dangerous for everybody, not just me. If you want more data about Brazil's traffic, feel free to ask me and I'll try to get. Thanks, again, and "aloha"!

Joao
Sao Paulo - Brazil

I am a doctoral student in Psychology at Carleton University. As part of my dissertation, I am examining the issue of driving anger. In a recent Time Magazine article on road rage, reference was made to a survey by a Michigan firm called EPIC-MRA. They found that 80% of drivers are angry most or all of the time while driving. Do you have an e-mail address for this firm so that I may be able to obtain a copy of this report.

Thank you
Dan

I am working on a high school research project through which I hope to show that speeding - or an attempt to do so for fairly short distances - as in to and from school - does little toward in improving the amount of time it would take versus going the proper speed limit. The purpose of this is to demonstrate that, while most accidents happen close to home, most are preventable and are for really ridiculous reasons. Going five miles an hour over the speed limit really makes very little difference in how much sooner I get to school - but a great deal of difference in developing the wrong attitude toward driving and aggressive "Road Rage." I am interested in any information you might have relating to this concept.

Thanking you for any assistance you might be able to provide - or direction you might give in my search for information - would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely

 don't know of the studies you asked about regarding proof that you don't get faster if you rush in traffic. I myself have determined this and believe to be so.  I wrote about here
Go there and then give the Search Page command and type in "minutes" -- you'll get to the passage I'm thinking of.

DrDriving

Leon, thanks for your quick and informative reply. I have read most of your Internet info + am VERY impressed! As I mentioned to you, I am planning to do research in the area of Road Rage. When I discussed that with the Head of the Department he was not very impressed - no need to elaborate.

I had an idea and thought I'd bounce it off you. Last year I was managing a huge research project dealing with evidence-based health promotion. As part of the project a colleague and I wrote a document on the social costs of road traffic crashes, having prevention of death, injury and disability as the main focus. If I e-mailed you the document would you be interested in looking at it? If you would like to tidy it up with me I'd LOVE to have you as co-author.... I thought this way I may inch my way slowly to road rage.

Please let me know how you feel about it. Thanks for your time...

BTW, I am originally from Prague, Czechoslovakia and my first marriage ceremony took place in Honolulu - I love Hawaii and was there last a few months ago.

All the best, Jiri

May I submit a couple of suggestions for it?

1) In the list of things people can do to counteract road rage you did not list the remedy I have found most useful for myself: to reduce or eliminate your driving, at least for a while. Take a rest. I have learned to let other, less impulsive people drive when I must travel the urban freeways where road rage is worst, and I have taken up walking as many places as possible, which is better in many ways. It reduces your own opportunities to act aggressively, it helps in a tiny way to relieve congestion on the roads, and it gives you much healthier exercise.

2) I suggest eliminating the animated email icon, which is very distracting and makes it hard to focus on reading the very worthwhile text of the document.

Thanks again for your good efforts,

Tim