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We deeply appreciate your willingness to serve as the American ambassador from Hawai'i representing the women to the whole world! We heard you on Good Morning America as you gave Katie an aloha goodby wish. Please continue to spread the Hawaiian spirit of good will to all.

It was reported that you're going to focus on character education. May we suggest that you also spread around the expression "Drive with Aloha!" It is featured in our new book, "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare." We are mailing the book to you and hope you will help reverse the current awful trend of aggressive driving that kills and maims more people every year than all the U.S. wars combined.

And especially, teen-agers are at the greatest risk. Let's help prevent our children from growing up as the next generation of aggressive drivers. As Hawai'i educators, we are especially motivated to bring this information to the public, to empower people with the knowledge of how to modify their driving habits.

Aloha, Leon James and Diane Nahl
Kailua, Hawaii

original here, with more letters

By PAUL ZIELBAUER

The New York Times

(...)

Steering bigger and more powerful cars and exploiting increasingly lax police enforcement, more drivers than ever are treating speed limits as suggestions -- and not very good ones at that, the experts say.

"There's no debate that speeds now are higher than they have ever been in the history of this nation," said Richard Retting, a senior transportation engineer with the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "There seems to be no stopping that trend."

The trend has drawn little public notice, overshadowed by more visible problems like drunken driving and, lately, the supposed "road rage" epidemic.

Another factor that may be veiling the national speeding binge is this apparent paradox: although some analysts and consumer groups insist that higher speeds cost lives, highway deaths have been falling steadily for years. Though Americans are driving more miles than ever, the fatality rate per highway mile has declined 11 percent since 1995, when the federal government abandoned the national speed limit of 55 miles per hour.

Whatever the reasons for the safer highways -- air bags, seat belt and drunken-driving laws and better-engineered cars foremost among them -- it is clear that those who drive on them have become emboldened to speed.

The evidence for what Mr. Retting calls "speed creep" -- the gradual process of going faster and faster on the highways, regardless of the posted limit, is striking:

Between 1980 and 1992, the percentage of interstate drivers exceeding 65 m.p.h. more than quadrupled, to nearly 23 percent from 4.9 percent, according to Federal Highway Administration data.

In New York in 1991, only 14 percent of drivers ticketed on Interstate 87, which runs from New York City to the Canadian border, had been driving over 80 m.p.h., state records show.

By 1996, 27 percent were.

On many stretches of Interstates 80 and 280 in New Jersey, fewer than 10 percent of drivers now obey the 55 m.p.h. limits, state speed surveys show.

And last year, state surveys of speeds along Interstates 95 and 84, two of Connecticut's densest traffic arteries, showed that so-called 85th percentile speed -- the speed a car should maintain to flow smoothly with all the other cars -- reached as high as 74 m.p.h.

Rising speeds are getting the attention of federal officials. On Jan. 9, the Department of Transportation is scheduled to host an all-day workshop in Washington to figure out ways to "restore the credibility of speed limits."

(...)

Utah troopers commonly allow drivers an 8-to-10 m.p.h. buffer zone above some limits.

"The emphasis now is on hazardous drivers," he said.

By raising the speed limit, and hence reducing travel times along a mind-numbing stretch of Interstate 80 in southwest Utah, Mr. Allred added, officials cut the fatality rates by keeping more drivers from falling asleep.

(...)

Other drivers, especially those steering burly sport utility vehicles with mammoth engines, seem ill- equipped to handle all that power, said Sgt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police. These days, his troopers see more drivers than ever fly by them at 80 and 90 m.p.h., he said. Once caught, more of those drivers now simply blame their vehicles. "They'll say, 'The car just got away from me,' " he said.

(...)

That is why some people want speed limits to go even higher, for safety. If speed limits went up, they reason, fewer drivers would speed.

"The heart of the problem," said James J. Baxter, the president of the National Motorists Association, a national lobbying group that is pushing for higher speed limits, "is that the legal speeds are not appropriate for what people consider to be acceptable.

"If you have a 75 m.p.h. limit on the New Jersey Turnpike, you're going to have 90 to 95 percent compliance," he suggested.

"Then you could focus on the 5 percent that are rolling down the road at 120."

(...)

Then there is idea of driving as video game, a phenomenon Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, believes now rules many drivers' approach to the road.

"It's almost impossible for most drivers to stay within speed limits," he said. "The traffic emotions are very intense and competitive."

Many experts say they believe speed is a factor behind a boom in dangerous and menacing driving tactics.

The latter problem became so bad in New Jersey, in fact, that in 1997 the state police established a special telephone number to report dangerous and aggressive drivers. It has already fielded more than 30,000 complaints, said Sgt. Al Della Fave.

Like many traffic experts, Mr. James believes the burgeoning "road rage" phenomenon will grow larger as the nation's roads grow ever more clogged, compelling more people like Amy Emke to speed even when she does not want to.

(...)

Viewpoint

Article on what Leon James says about the effect of violent games and road rage tendency in children and adults.

ROM rage

In the virtual worlds of car racing video games and online race simulations, drivers tear around freeways and racecourses to beat the clock or other drivers at three times the highway speed limit.

Speedsters in video games ranging from cartoon-wacky to movie-quality realistic ram other cars off the road and defy the laws of physics and society to reach the finish line.

In most of these games, drivers don't die in crashes. And players never get hurt.

Or do they? Some experts suggest a possible connection between adrenaline-charged racing video games and real-life aggressive driving and road rage.

"I believe it can be harmful and probably is for many people," says Leon James, a psychologist at the University of Hawaii and an expert on driver psychology and road rage.

"Aggressive acts during driving can increase in both frequency and intensity as a result of the cumulative effect of playing violence games."

James, who has a Drivers Behaving Badly Web site, is convinced the need-for-speed mindset of seemingly harmless racing video games and simulators can dangerously be carried over to the driver's seat of real cars, and perhaps even contribute to the future driving habits of children.

"There isn't much research to prove it," concedes James, whose book, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare, is scheduled for publication later this year.

"Yet, theoretically, it's obvious that anything you practise many times lowers the threshold for that behaviour. Those who play games that allow them to express hostile acts as a driver practise the violence in their emotions and in their thoughts."

(...)

But when a crash-bashing video-game publisher asked James recently to endorse the idea that playing these kinds of games is an effective way of letting off steam, the psychologist refused, saying no evidence supports that contention.

"What we know, in fact, leads to the opposite conclusion," James says. "Medically, venting anger revs up your physiology in the direction of greater stress, and this is known to be bad for you.

"Psychologically, venting is just another way of expressing aggressiveness. The more you express it in a game context, the easier it is to express it when driving."

Henry Jenkins, director of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, disagrees. "The monkey-see-monkey-do hypothesis is really too glib to explain how we live in relation to media" such as video games, television or movies.

"It is much more the case," says Jenkins, "that we choose media that reflect our values, tastes, interests and emotional needs than that media shape and determine our behaviours and actions and beliefs."

Jenkins, author of the 1998 book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, criticises studies connecting media impact to real-world consequences as "crude insights" at best. Research shows that certain media images can indeed stimulate neural responses, create tension or arousal, even shift attitudes.

But, he explains, researchers must take "a series of interpretive leaps and speculations" to claim that media images cause real-world behaviour.

"A certain number of people may well play fast-moving video games and then drive their cars fast," says Jenkins. "Those things are not unrelated to each other. But to jump to the suspicion that playing racing games results in fast driving is probably to look at the phenomenon from the reverse end of the telescope.

"Everything from how you were taught to drive, and what sort of driving culture you were raised in, and issues of power and how you live your life, determine how you drive your automobile more so than playing a video game.

"I can't rule out that media have any impact on that, but to single it out as the most pervasive experience doesn't make sense."

Research shows that most people, most of the time, recognise the difference between reality and fantasy, he says. "We do things in our fantasy play we wouldn't want to do at all in our real lives."

But James insists knowing reality from fantasy isn't the only point. "Assuming you know the difference, does it lower your threshold anyway?" he asks. "I think so. The more practised you are at these games, the weaker your inhibitions get for the kind of aggressiveness that already exists on highways."

James also worries about the messages these video games may impart to the younger generation. He believes road rage is a habit acquired in childhood, that children are raised "in a car culture that condones irate expressions as part of the normal wear and tear of driving".

Children learn from their parents' behaviour that once someone is behind the wheel of a car, the rules change. Suddenly it's acceptable to get upset, lose control, use bad language.

"Something must be done," says James. "Perhaps a huge disclaimer at the start of the games stating that the game is only a fictitious setting and the driving portrayed must never be attempted in real life."

And, he says, after the game, players should "assess their emotions and conscience by asking themselves, 'How would real people feel if I did this to them?'"

Meanwhile, BMW is developing a Playstation-style joystick that allows drivers to adjust dashboard controls without looking away from the road. It has teamed with a US technology firm, founded by a former NASA scientist, which makes computer game joysticks that add realism by vibrating and resisting motion. A single joystick could adjust the radio, seats or heating, with different feedback for each feature.

original here

By ROBERT BRYCE
New York Times

AUSTIN, Tex. -- Mario Andretti won't give an exact number. When pressed, the race-car-driving legend will reluctantly admit that on some deserted roads, he has driven his bright yellow Lamborghini Diablo nearly three times as fast as the posted speed limit.

Of course, Mr. Andretti, who has driven more than 250 miles per hour on a Michigan racetrack and has won the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and dozens of other races, is no ordinary driver. Nor can his Lamborghini, which can reach 208 m.p.h., be considered an ordinary car.

But Mr. Andretti, who lives in Nazareth, Pa., is no different from millions of other drivers: he likes to go fast on the highway. And if he breaks the law? "I speed when it's clear," he said, "and I know what I'm doing. Responsible speeding is not dangerous."

Others disagree. But analyzing the risks of speeding through statistics is inconclusive.

(...)

Defenders of speeding -- and there are many (Web sites like speedtrap.com have information on how to avoid well-known traps) -- insist that it is not dangerous. But the laws of physics apply to speeders and nonspeeders alike. The amount of energy exerted on a car that crashes while going 75 m.p.h. is 86 percent higher than if the same car crashed traveling 55 m.p.h.

Despite the dangers of speeding, speed-limit laws are an impediment to the American dream. While most drivers would never break a store window for the thrill of it, those same drivers think nothing of breaking speed limits.

Mr. Andretti's definition of danger is likely to be different from that of a soccer mom in Tulsa, Okla. Therein lies the problem: drivers decide for themselves which speed is risky.

Leon James, a psychology professor at the University of Hawaii who has studied American driving habits for 19 years, estimates that 90 percent of drivers exceed posted speed limits.

Driving is tied to the emotions.

"If someone passes us, it's like a personal insult," Dr. James said. The constant urge to beat other cars, combined with busier schedules, a distrust of government and the belief that no harm is being done leads people to put the pedal to the metal. "You drive at a speed at which you feel safe regardless of the speed limit," he added.

Even with today's higher driving speeds, car travel in America is safer than ever. Last year, the traffic fatality rate -- which peaked in 1910, when there were only 469,000 cars on the roads -- continued its nearly century-long decline and dropped to its lowest level ever, 1.5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

(...)

The fatality rate is low probably because Massachusetts drivers are often stuck in traffic, particularly in the Boston area. They simply cannot go fast enough to get in a nasty wreck.

"Congestion is a friend of highway safety," said Chuck Hurley, the executive director of the Highway Safety Group of the National Safety Council.

He pointed out that the traffic-rich states of the Northeast have consistently lower fatality rates than in the West. Since 1995, Texans have been allowed to drive 70 m.p.h. on rural highways. But many Texans view that as a starting point.

Given the pandemic of speeding, getting drivers to slow down may be a losing battle. Professor James says that the simplest solution is to encourage drivers to leave home earlier. It's a good idea. But for Mr. Andretti and drivers like him, it seems that the only good speed limit is a broken one.

Robert Bryce is a political reporter for The Austin Chronicle

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Why we speed
Dr. Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, discussed some possible reasons for motorists’ decision to speed when he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

....‘‘The pace of life has increased for the majority of the population,’’ James testified. ‘‘Many have commented on the general feeling of loss of control in their lives. And yet it is human and natural to seek a sense of control in our lives. We want to feel we’re getting somewhere, that we’re not wasting time, that we’re doing the right and just thing, that we’re free to pursue our own interests, unfettered.’’

....James, who specializes in traffic psychology, said during a recent interview via e-mail that ‘‘it’s easy to understand why people are going so fast, but more difficult to get them to stop.’’

....Motorists on their way to or from work are merely passing through neighborhoods they ‘‘care nothing about and think nothing of,’’ he said. ‘‘We are able to abstract the neighborhood into a crossover path. Since motorists are anxious, impatient, frustrated, preoccupied, it’s easy to see that their emotions will control the gas pedal.’’

Transport Topics Trucking's Electronic Newspaper

By George Abry
Staff Reporter

(...)

Road rage claims innocent victims as well as perpetrators. Mr. Emrick recalls one incident in which two cars collided in front of his truck after each tried to cut in from opposite lanes. Although he was able to avoid hitting the stopped vehicles, police officers blamed him for the accident.

Possible solutions cover as much ground as the causes of the phenomenon.

At a public hearing this summer on Capitol Hill, Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., called for more highway funding to reduce congestion and relieve driver tension.

"There are many ways to improve safety on our highways," said Mr. Shuster, who chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. "The construction of additional lanes, the widening of roads and the straightening of curves would decrease congestion and reduce the impatience and unsafe habits of some motorists."

University of Hawaii traffic psychology professor Leon James told the committee that "behavioral modification techniques" should be employed.

"The culture of road rage has deep roots," Mr. James said. "We inherit aggressive and dangerous driving patterns as children, watching our parents and other adults behind the wheel, and by watching and absorbing bad driving behaviors depicted in movies and television commercials."

Mr. James recommends a set of emotional management techniques he refers to as "inner power tools" for smart driving. They include: acquiring a supportive driving philosophy; acting positive even when you feel negative; regularly considering the effect of one's driving on others.

He suggests that instead of emphasizing defensive driving -- which may imply an enemy -- we should focus on "supportive driving." But most of all, Mr. James recommends "driving with the aloha spirit."

Some states are running programs to counter road rage. In Maryland, for example, the highway department has a campaign called "The End of the Road for Aggressive Drivers" involving stepped-up highway patrols and messages flashed on electronic billboards. Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have introduced special highway patrols targeting aggressive drivers.

Further, judicial authorities are taking steps to curb violent behavior.

On Sept. 18, a Virginia judge sentenced a motorist to one year in jail for forcing an off-duty police officer to pull her car over, and then choking her.

General District Court Judge Barbara L. Kimble said during the sentencing that she has been hearing more and more cases in her court involving aggressive driving.

original here

Digital' Answer to Road Rage

Scott Gellar has seen the light at the end of the bumper, and it's a friendly shade of green.

Gellar, a psychology professor at Virginia Tech, has developed a device along with some colleagues that he says could reduce road rage by letting drivers communicate with a system of flashing lights.

The Road Rage Reducer uses light codes to flash messages like "sorry" or "please" to other drivers, using either color-coded lights or a set number of flashes to convey each idea.

The researchers see their project as a positive substitute for obscene gestures and muttered curses that drivers typically employ to communicate anger with each other.

"We’re saying 'thank you.' We’re not saying 'screw you,'" said Gellar, who spearheaded the project with Jerry Beasley, a violence-prevention expert at Radford University in Southwest Virginia.

Their invention is currently winding its way through the US patent system.

(...)

There's just one drawback, as far as Gellar knows: The device is illegal.

While it's perfectly permissible to mouth "Move it, minivan-driving moron" to a passing motorist, flashing a friendly light asking for permission to merge into their lane is another matter entirely. Regulators have strict controls on the use of electronic devices to convey messages among drivers.

Gellar said he's not going to let a little problem like that interfere with his crusade against discourteous driving.

However, he'll have to deal with a few skeptics who say that more communication may not be the answer for overcoming road rage.

"When you increase communication between drivers, there’s always the problem that it can be misinterpreted," said Leon James, a psychology professor who teaches traffic safety at the University of Hawaii and is the author of a book on road rage.

James said he'd like to see more research into whether light flashing devices would be useful.

(...)

James said he expects the next leap in driver communication will come when companies start manufacturing cars with Internet access, which could allow drivers to send messages back and forth.

(...)

original here

By Jim McLain
Ventura County Star writer

It happened again Tuesday when Highway 101 was reopened after a 90-minute shutdown because of a fiery truck crash near Oxnard.

Legions of rubberneckers materialized as if on cue. Some of them gawked wide-eyed at the burnt-out Federal Express truck whose driver escaped nearly unscathed. Others cast furtive glances at it. All of them slowed down, making a hellish rush-hour traffic jam worse.

Even 12 hours after the crash, motorists were still slowing down.

"There was a big stack-up," said California Highway Patrol Officer David Webb. "Then once they started going, since they weren't going very fast, they slowed down more to get a better look."

Rubberneckers show up after even minor traffic mishaps, police say. Leon James, a University of Hawaii psychology professor who's written books on driver behavior, said Tuesday they can't help slowing down.

It's a safety reflex.

"If you take your eyes off the road, your foot automatically lifts off the gas," said James, who runs a Web site called DrDriving.org. "It's almost totally involuntary, a safety feature built into our driving self."

If they're not in heavy traffic and concentrate on doing it, some drivers can stop themselves from rubbernecking and pass accident scenes quickly, James said, but such drivers are rare.

Most slow down, contributing to what he called a traffic wave of slow-moving cars that builds to the rear of accident scenes, sometimes stretching back 25 miles. He's boarded helicopters to measure the distance of some.

"Forty minutes after you've gotten to your office, that wave is still traveling backward," James said. "If you calculate the effect of that, it goes all the way back."

Most police officers believe distracted rubberneckers sometimes cause accidents, but neither the CHP's Webb nor Oxnard Police Department traffic investigator Robin Whitney could recall on Tuesday ever handling one. A 1997 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey showed that 4 percent of drivers on the Beltway that surrounds Washington, D.C., believe rubbernecking is a major accident cause.

(...)

Aggressive Driving (Road Rage)

Almost every day the media report another horrible incident involving aggressive driving or, in its most extreme form, road rage. Speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, following too closely, yelling and gesturing are actions that characterize the aggressive driver. In some cases the behavior escalates into a duel between two cars, often with fatal results. Studies show an increase in these kinds of incidents over the past several years. Reported incidents of aggressive driving have in-creased by 7 percent every year since 1990, according to an American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety study.

Most drivers will tell you that they "know it when they see it." It is difficult however, to concisely define aggressive driving in one simple statement. Another issue is the distinction between aggressive driving and road rage. The difficulty in de-fining the problem has lead to questions about how prevalent it is and how to research it effectively. To thoroughly examine the issue, however, a clear definition of aggressive driving needs to be established. Once a consistent definition is found, targeting the behavior becomes easier.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as "the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner which endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property." A progression of unlawful driving actions such as speeding, weaving or unsafe passing can constitute "endangers or likely to endanger."

(...)

"Aggressive driving is not extreme any more; it has be-come a cultural norm on the highway," says traffic psycho-logy professor Leon James. He sees that more angry exchanges are occurring between drivers and that a culture of disrespect exists on the roads. James de-scribes road rage as the habit of aggressive driving.

James describes three types of road rage. Verbal includes yelling, gesturing, honking, and insulting. Quiet road rage involves complaining, rushing, resisting, and competing. Finally, epic road rage is cutting drivers off, blocking, chasing, fighting, and shooting.

(...)

With the growing attention on aggressive driving and the se-verity of recent incidents, many groups have come together to address the problem. Law enforcement agencies across the country are developing pro-grams to make the roads safer. Twenty-two states have implemented enforcement programs aimed specifically at aggressive driving. For example, the Ohio Highway Patrol started a statewide aggressive driver program known as "Targeting Reckless and Intimidating Aggressive Drivers" (TRIAD). The effort uses aircraft and ground units to pursue violators.

Recent media reports high-light the growing concern over aggressive driving. Aggressive driving has become very real and very deadly in many areas of the country. Safety and law enforcement groups have developed programs to target the problem. Legislators have introduced a flurry of bills to combat aggressive drivers. These actions have encouraged enforcement and increased the visibility of the issue. State legislatures play a key role in ensuring the safety of the roads and are in a unique position to address the worries and fears about aggressive drivers in each state.

By Trent D. McNeeley

May 1998 Issue, Vol. 144, No. 5

(...)

That speed might be slightly higher than the posted limit, and that angers Lisa Sheikh. “Automotive groups need to understand that the road is not the place for individual expression,” says the executive director of Citizens Against Speeding and Aggressive Driving. “A lot of men see driving as just another outlet for their energy and emotions; it’s part of their personality. If a man wants to take risks for an adrenaline rush he should go elsewhere,” Sheikh says. “It’s the ultimate expression of cowardice to do it on the road. I see [speeders] as wimps.”

AMERICA reached this flash point of harsh opinions due to multiple elements acting in concert, says Dr. Leon James, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii. “Greater space density on highways, our cultural sense of competition and territoriality, less driver’s education and training and greater civic activism are some of the factors that explain why road rage and aggressive driving are in the national consciousness today much more than before,” says James.

Another factor could be learned, as children witness how their parents react. That particular note struck a chord with Rep. Thomas Petri, who heads the House Subcommittee on Surface Transportation. During testimony, Petri came to believe that “this is a very real problem, not just something created by NHTSA.” The Wisconsin Republican remains unsure there’s a governmental solution, but notes many safety groups call for a heavier hand from Washington.

Richard Roberts would welcome it. The Gilbert, Pennsylvania, resident says he frequently encounters road rage. “Not a week goes by without a close call,” Roberts says. He claims to have been cut off, tailgated, passed on the shoulder at high speeds, nearly run off the road and even threatened with a handgun.

“I actually saw my life pass before me,” Roberts recalls. “He [the offender] stopped in my lane, causing me to stop. He pulled out his gun, waved it at me for a minute before realizing what he was doing, shouted some obscenities, climbed back into his car and eventually sped off.”

(...)

Those in the know suggest the best way to keep government and safety proponents at bay is to learn how to avoid letting anger boil over and how to avoid becoming a victim of someone else’s rage. While the order changes depending on the survey, the three most common catalysts for road rage are lane blocking, tailgating and failure to signal a passing maneuver. Following common-sense rules can keep drivers from becoming another statistic on a government bar graph.

If anger comes easier than contentment, experts tell motorists to improve the driving environment, turn the other cheek and allow more time to get around.

More than a century ago, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Youth and Love, “The untended Kosmos my abode, I pass, a willful stranger; My mistress still the open road, And the bright eyes of danger.” The romance lives; people love to drive more than ever. But open roads are rarer, having given way to congested bypasses and toll plazas. And the eyes of danger burn ever more brightly than before.

Every injury, every fatality—from road rage or simple carelessness—could have been avoided. “Every accident,” Roso says, “is your fault. A good driver anticipates others, creates escape scenarios and executes them when necessary.” He says these tragedies won’t be avoided with increased government interference that reduces all drivers to the lowest common denominator, but rather by renewed acceptance of responsibilities as drivers.

The truth behind the hype is that most roads are safer than ever. NHTSA statistics show a fatality rate of 1.7 per 100 million miles traveled that hasn’t changed significantly since 1993, compared with a rate of 2.5 in the mid-1980s. Seat belts are worn by 68 percent of vehicle occupants. Alcohol involvement is down 29 percent from 1986, though still involved in 40.9 percent of cases. (Note that NHTSA includes incidents of drunks who stumble in front of sober drivers as “alcohol-related.”)

Road rage is real; aggressive driving happens. But it’s not pandemic. While traffic claims a fatality every 13 minutes, most result from careless, unbelted or drunk drivers—not enraged sociopaths ridding the world of lane blockers.

Civilization
and Road Rage

Many experts attribute much of the aggressive and anti-social driving, especially of younger people, to experiences with auto-racing video games and bad examples of their parents. Leon James, a psychologist at the University of Hawaii, explains, "I believe [driving games] can be harmful for many drivers. Aggressive acts during driving can increase in both frequency and intensity as a result of the effect of playing violent games" ("Driven to Rage?" Daytona Beach News-Journal, June 10, 2000, p. 1D). James adds, "Anything that you practice lowers the threshold for that behavior. Those who play games that allow them to express hostile acts as a driver practice violence in their emotions and in their thoughts."

One of the most stupid cases occurred May 22, 1998, when a motorist gunned down Jimmy Dean Williams, 41, at a tollbooth near Orlando in Orange County, Fla., for pulling into the exact-change lane without having the exact change. One expert informally uncovered 10,600 cases from 1990 to 1996 in which motorists have been injured or killed intentionally by other drivers, although Michael Fumento, writing in the May 1998 issue of Atlantic Monthly states that the roads are in fact becoming safer. Some places, like St. Petersburg, Fla.; Greer, S.C.; and state troopers in Maryland have increased surveillance for red-light runners, tailgaters, and other poor drivers. The best recourse, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, if you encounter an enraged driver is to try to steer clear, avoid challenging him or her, avoid eye contact and hand gestures, and report the license plate number, description, and location of the vehicle of an offender. In sum, apparently, especially avoid 20-year-olds from well-off families driving vans from New England.

original here

CALGARY (CP) -- Tailgating and the one-finger salute.

The most dangerous part on a car could be the wingnut behind the wheel.

With the steamy days of summer approaching, it will get hot under the hood -- and drivers may get even hotter under the collar.

Aggressive, hostile driving has become a way of life for many, particularly men, suggests an Internet study of North American drivers.

"We give ourselves permission to feel very hostile towards other drivers, to feel very territorial and competitive in the car," said Leon James, a Canadian psychology professor conducting the study at the University of Hawaii.

Called Dr. Driving because he has studied the road-rage phenomenon for 15 years, James said his study indicates women speed, tailgate, yell and slam brakes just as often as men.

But men tend to shift into road rage far more readily by cutting off, blocking and chasing other drivers -- some even use their vehicles as weapons.

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Pedestrians dodge rash of road rage

(...)

What has caused this onslaught of violent, angry drivers? Of course, the easy answer is all the inept drivers on the road. Hey, I might not have a car, but I know how stupid some of those drivers can be.

But a more reasonable explanation is the gridlock commuters face on a daily basis. The Texas Transportation Institute found in a report this week that the Twin Cities rate 14th in the nation in roadway congestion, up from 34th in 1990. Los Angeles has the most congestion according to the study, followed by Washington, D.C.

Professor Leon James at the University of Hawaii has studied driving psychology for 23 years and spelled out the cause of road rage to lawmakers at a congressional hearing in 1997. He said more cars lead to more traffic, which causes frustration, stress, anger, hostility and violence.

"More cars lead to more aggression on the roads, sort of like rats fighting in a crowded colony," he wrote in his testimony to the committee.

Fortunately, rats don't carry .35-mm handguns in their glove compartments. Things could really get ugly as the little rodents tried to find the cheese at the end of a complicated maze.

original here

By: Angela Owens

Many here at school awaited the year that they turned 16. That is when, a few get behind the wheel to show others who rules. Unfortunately, for this generation, the roads are full of reckless drivers that are getting even with road rage; a phrase that officially entered the English language in 1997.

Society in general has brought people up to believe that they should always be strong and never let anyone push them around. But, should societal beliefs be applied when driving?

During the second week of November, 60 minutes reporters Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson, did a report on a tragic case of road rage. Two middle-aged women, both who were married and had children, were driving on the highway in Alabama. While driving, one cut the other off and infuriated the other. The women tailgated each other and after a total of about four miles, they stopped at a rest stop. One of the women got off of her car and approached the other driver. The driver then pulled out a loaded handgun and shot and killed the approaching woman.

This story is the one of the many cases of road rage that happen in America each day.

On the Internet, there are numerous web sites that are available to help Americans deal with their problems associated with driving.

One web site was manned by Dr. Leon James, also known as Dr. Driving. His particular site is filled with information based on all the emotions and laws that pertain to driving.

James conducted a survey that asked men and women how they would react when confronted with a careless or reckless driver. When asked if they would swear at a careless driver, 59 percent of men said they would, while 57 percent of women would. When asked if they would shine their brights, 25 percent of men would and 13 percent of women would; 4 percent of men and 1 percent of all women would actually use their car as a weapon and attack another car or would get in a physical fight with the other driver.

When reading these statistics, it’s amazing how revengeful people can be. So, next time that you get behind the wheel, remember the outcome of the acts of the women in Alabama. If you get stuck behind a slow driver or get cut off by some reckless person, release your anger in your head or start singing the song that your listening to.

If everyone tries to stay calm, careless accidents caused by road rage will be less likely to happen.

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by Marilyn Kali, Public Information Officer

STATE TAKES AIM AT HAWAII'S DANGEROUS SPEEDING MENTALITY

In March, the state Department of Transportation is partnering with State Farm Insurance to emphasize the message that "speed kills" as part of its yearlong traffic safety program, "Drive Safely, Arrive Alive."

Excessive speed is the highest factor in fatal crashes on Oahu, resulting in 36 fatalities in 1999. Motorists' chances of being seriously injured or even dying in a traffic crash double for every 10 mph they drive above 50 mph. The stopping distance for a passenger car on dry asphalt increases from 310 feet at 55 mph to 470 feet at 70 mph.

"Aside from the incalculable cost in lives, we estimate that the economic loss each year due to traffic crashes is more than $200 million - a cost of $300 to each person in Hawaii," said DOT Director Kazu Hayashida. "If we can convince Hawaii's motorists to just slow down, the direct result will be saved lives and money."

(...)

In a recent statewide survey initiated by the DOT, more than 50 percent of Hawaii drivers surveyed said they generally drive 5 miles per hour over the speed limit on the highway, while another 23 percent said they usually drive 10 mph above the limit. About one third of Hawaii drivers speed in residential neighborhoods "often or sometimes." The most common reasons given for speeding were being late for a meeting, being in a hurry, or out of habit.

Even if a crash is avoided, other costs may be incurred by drivers. "Depending on the circumstances involved, speeding violations can significantly impact the amount drivers pay for auto insurance," said Dick Koenig, State Farm Insurance agency field executive.

University of Hawaii Professor Leon James, who teaches traffic psychology at UH, advises drivers to monitor themselves by checking the speedometer every 15 seconds or so using a quick glance at the speedometer and repeating the number out loud. "After some practice, you won't need to check the speedometer that often. Observe when you tend to break the limit and by how much. This constant practice will give you the control you need over the rate at which your vehicle travels, one of the chief responsibilities of a driver.".

(...)

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Par Claire Morissette

Le Monde à Bicyclette, Vol XXIII no 3, Automne 1998. Montreal

(...)

Rage dedans

Arnold Nerenberg, un thérapeute clinique de Californie, tente de faire reconnaître officiellement la rage au volant comme un nouveau désordre mental(4). Le fait de menacer au moyen d'armes à feu ou contondantes, ou d'utiliser un véhicule pour menacer ou blesser autrui peut certainement être considéré comme pathologique. Le professeur Leon James, spécialiste en psychologie de la circulation à l'Université d'Hawaii (connu sur le Net sous le nom de Dr. Driving)(4), souligne que, comme pour bien d'autres désordres mentaux, reconnaître l'existence du syndrome est le plus difficile. Il faut réussir à s'observer comme un témoin ou accepter les témoignages d'autrui et faire le constat nécessaire pour pouvoir ensuite harnacher ses chevaux émotifs, corriger ses comportements et... vivre plus relax!

En effet, vivre sur le «mode mécontent» est reconnu comme néfaste pour la santé et, selon le Dr. Redford Williams, du département de la médecine comportementale de l'Université Duke et auteur de «Anger Kills» (Harper Perennial, 1994), les conducteurs colériques sont de quatre à sept fois plus sujets à mourir de problèmes de santé après 50 ans que les gens qui maîtrisent leur émotivité(5).

On observe aussi que l'apprentissage de cette attitude commence chez l'enfant qui, pendant de nombreuses années, observe comme passager un tel comportement chez les parents conducteurs. Ce modèle serait ensuite renforcé par les bandes dessinées, films et publicités où les conducteurs intempestifs font figure de héros(6). On peut même trouver sur le Net un logiciel de jeu, «Carmageddon», qui consiste à écraser autant d'autres automobilistes, de cyclistes et de piétons que possible.

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SUVs inspire fear & loathing, but people buy them

(...)

Michael Morrissey, a spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association said the desire for four-wheel-drive behemoths with blustery names is unprecedented. Names like Ford's Excursion, Explorer and Expedition are appropriate. So is Chevy's Suburban because it is used in suburbs to haul kids. Names like the GMC Yukon, Mercury Mountaineer and Rodeo are misnomers for pavement sojourns.

Leon James, psychology teacher at the University of Hawaii, did a study on SUV drivers. He found that people behind the wheels of SUVs are among the most confrontational. They see themselves as more aggressive than other drivers.

But, people like big SUVs if they can afford them. And it appears some can afford $41,000 or more with accessories.

And dealers can't seem to make enough of these vehicles. Ford is delivering more than 28,000 SUVs a month to showrooms through United States. The Excursion is the SUV most in demand.

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According to Dr. Leon James, a Canadian psychology professor at the University of Hawaii, nearly every driver is capable of road rage. He disagrees with the public conception that road ragers are maladjusted anti-social individuals in need of therapy. He claims that road rage is a generic, cultural problem rather than an individual mental problem. He has cited a New York Times poll which suggests that aggressive drivers who rage against other drivers are perceived to be a bigger threat on the road than drunk drivers.

Some may argue that, if it's an offence to drive when one's ability is impaired with alcohol or drugs, it should be an offence to drive while emotionally impaired. Unfortunately, it's hard or almost impossible to gauge a person's degree of emotional impairment making any law in this regard almost impossible to enforce. So this leaves only education as a possible option. We should start now and look at our own driving habits - are we all guilty of impaired driving?

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Freeway frustration unsafe at any speed:
It may be a `guy thing,' but we all pay
for belligerence on the roadways

By Hollis L. Engley / Gannett News Service

Maryland's year-old "Aggressive Driver" program targets those who tailgate, change lanes unsafely, flash lights to clear the lane in front of them and exhibit other aggressive behavior.

Maryland troopers wrote 60,034 speeding citations on 55- and 65-mph highways from July to September 1995, up from 43,519 from the year before. Traffic deaths on those roads were down 77 percent.

(...)

So, where does all this belligerence come from? People who study anger and the roadway recite a list -- poor parenting, meanness in talk radio and companies laying off workers.

"There seems to be a climate of complaint and of picking on people, of devaluing people, of blaming people," said Redford Williams of Duke University Medical Center, and author of Anger Kills (HarperCollins, $12).

"What's really happening is you've had your reptilian brain going without the cerebral cortex involved; you've gotten pushed, and you're lashing out. What you have to do is bring your cerebral cortex into the picture here and force yourself to ask three questions:

* "Is this situation really important to me?

* "Is my anger or rage right now justified by the facts of the situation?

* "Is there anything I can do to fix or change this situation so I don't have this anger?

"We do workshops teaching people hostility and anger control. Just asking those questions gets rid of a large percentage of the situations that make them angry, particularly the petty traffic things."

At the University of Hawaii in the car-clogged paradise of Honolulu, Leon James teaches a course called "Traffic Psychology."

"I always raise the issue of morality and fair-mindedness," he said. "It's inevitable in traffic psychology to deal with ethics or morality. One of the ways to teach yourself to be more civilized on the road is to remind yourself that the other drivers have the right to be there. If I tailgate, I am intimidating and using power tactics against somebody who has the right to be there.

"Ask yourself: Do you want to be the kind of person who ignores fairmindedness?"

(...)

The preceding information came from congressional testimony by Leon James on road rage. You can read the full testimony at http://DrDriving.org/articles/testimony.htm

In the coast guard we face dangerous situations in the line of duty. We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our families, to our shipmates, as well as the public to make a concerted effort to be careful and patient in every aspect of our lives in order to preserve and protect life. We should not give into the normal pattern of react first/ask questions latter urges that lead to ad/rr.

Drafted By: Mk3 Wilson George
Released By: Capt Gil Kunken

A UH professor is trying to educate the public of the danger of such behavior
By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A confrontation over a traffic incident between two motorists on the H-1 freeway near Honolulu Airport ended tragically in October 1996.

Gabriel Kealoha, a juvenile at the time, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of off-duty police officer Sgt. Arthur Miller.

Violent confrontations like that are occurring daily in America, where road rage is bringing out the worst in human behavior.

In a national report, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said road rage killed at least 218 people and injured 12,000 from January 1990 through August 1996. Firearms were used in 37 percent of the cases, vehicles in 35 percent.

"Everything happening on the mainland is happening here on a smaller scale," said Leon James, a University of Hawaii-Manoa professor who teaches a course in traffic psychology.

"Most of the aggression is done right in the car. For example, if you cut in front of somebody, that driver may chase after you or tailgate you. It's a reaction. The other driver feels insulted and thinks there should be a pay back."

James, also known as "Dr. Driving," has two Web sites on the Internet dedicated to educating the public about road rage.

"We're unprepared for the situation that could happen to any of us," James said. "If someone knocks over your cup of coffee in the office, we see it as an accident and it's forgiven.

"But anything on the road is seen as intentional, an insult to us. The highway is a war zone, hostile. Everybody is scared and we learn to be angry. We're going down a path where this generation is more aggressive than the previous one, and it's getting worse."

James, a UH professor since 1971, started studying drivers' attitudes about 15 years ago.

"One Sunday, my wife told me, 'Grandmother doesn't think you're a good driver,' and I rejected that until she started pointing out things I was doing wrong," James said.

"I started using a tape recorder (while driving). I was so hostile, constantly critical of other drivers. When I made a mistake, it was always 'oops,' and I excused myself right away.

"That's called attribution bias. If someone hits us from behind, it's his fault and when we hit someone from behind, it was the fault of the car in front for stopping. It's never our fault."

James said a person's "automatic self" becomes the driver.

"Once you know how to drive, you don't pay attention," James said. "Driving is a Jekyll-and-Hyde phenomenon. We need to take over and teach ourselves to correct mistakes and bad habits and be in charge.

"Many times, the auto-self imitates what is seen in movies or commercials - driving too fast or too closely."

The first step at taking control is to observe yourself, James said.

"You can do that by asking your passenger, 'Are you scared when I drive?'" James said. "I do partnership driving with my wife, who tells me if I'm following to close or speeding. Everyone has Dr. Driving in them."

James proposes life-long driver's education to combat road rage, with classes starting in kindergarten and "quality driving" neighborhood groups that meet once a month to discuss driving - something he thinks should be mandatory to get a license.

Youth Against Road Rage will make its debut June 19 at Edmunds College in Seattle and its organizer, University of Washington professor Richard Kirby, hopes the organization can have the same kind of success as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

"It took 15 years for MADD to change the norm for drinking and driving," James said. "Kirby feels some movement needs to take place with aggressive driving."

Dr. Driving can be found on the Internet at www.drdriving.org.

The New York Times contributed to this report.

By Mike Leidemann
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

When Leon James gets into his car each morning, he sees an opportunity to connect with his fellow man.

During a 30-minute drive from Kailua to Manoa, he thinks of himself as a participant in the community of the road. His commute is a chance to make a connection, to share an encounter with several thousand other like-minded people.

It might be as simple as a little eye contact, or as big as a near collision. Over the course of a year, he makes more than 1 million decisions in the car. Stay quiet or honk the horn? Hold his space or let someone slip in? Speed up or slow down? Smile or frown?

"You can take all those little interactions and make them anything you want, warfare or community," said James, a University of Hawai‘i psychology professor and author of a book on controlling aggressive driving. "I feel like I’m taking the opportunity to be a community building force. The whole effort is about civility, the glue that holds the nation together."

Hawai‘i is jammed full of such opportunities.

On any given day on O‘ahu, nearly 600,000 cars are registered to be on the road, traveling more than 5.5 million miles. Every day, more than 83,000 cars pass ‘üinakoa Avenue on Kalaniana‘ole Highway; 120,000 cars use the H-1 Freeway interchange at Fort Weaver Road; and more than 222,000 cars cross the Kapalama drainage canal on the H-1 Freeway.

The number of traffic lights on Fort Weaver Road increased from one to 10 in the past few years as ‘Ewa’s population grew, from 4.6 percent of O‘ahu’s total in 1984 to an estimated 13.3 percent by the year 2010.

By one estimate, only 20 U.S. cities had worse congestion than Honolulu in 1996. Trips by residents are expected to increase by 30 percent by 2025. Planners think there will be a 435 percent increase in the number of daily trips starting in ‘Ewa alone.

"We aren’t going to be able to eliminate congestion. We can only manage it," said Gordon Lum, head of the O‘ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, the group charged with coordinating traffic planning on the island.

"New York, Chicago, Los Angeles -they all have lots more resources - and they haven’t made congestion go away," he said. "We have to manage the congestion we have now. We have to do whatever it takes."

More buses. Wider roads. Zipper lanes. Van pools. Free ferries. Bicycle lanes. Double-decked freeways. Express buses. Ride sharing. Video monitoring. One-way streets. Better signs. More (or maybe fewer) traffic lights. Whatever it takes.

(...)

"Commuters want predictability," said Cheryl Soon, Honolulu’s transportation service director. "They say, ‘I bought into this system, and I expect to get it.’ "

That means people are willing to endure a 45-minute commute from Mililani to a job downtown in return for the ability to buy a single-family home. Or they’ll get up at 5 a.m. to ride an express bus, if it gives them the freedom to enjoy life on the North Shore or Leeward Coast.

Except things don’t always go as commuters expect.

Studies show an average Hawai‘i driver spends 24 hours in traffic delays every year, costing each one an estimated $550 annually in extra fuel and other costs. That adds up to an estimated $285 million in expenses and lost income for the entire state.

(...)

"Stop-and-go traffic is not fun at all," says Hawai‘i Kai resident David Welhouse, who works in downtown Honolulu. "I like being able to just go. I hate sitting in traffic. It doesn’t get you anything. You can’t do a lot of other things when you’re stuck in traffic."

"I used to commute from ‘Ewa Beach to Mapunapuna, 18 miles," said Pam Lee Smith. "It would take anywhere from 25 minutes to one hour. If traffic is flowing well, I’d get there on time. If there was a little accident or rain - oops. It would be terrible not knowing what to expect."

"All it takes is one little accident to back everything up," said Heather Hutchinson, a Waikele resident who works downtown as a legal secretary. "You never know if there’s going to be something that holds everybody up."

Psychology of delays

It’s the uncertainty that drive commuters crazy - or worse.

Each minute a car is disabled on a road causes five to 10 minutes of backed-up traffic once the car is moved, according to Lum. That means a car stalled on the freeway for 10 minutes can cause a traffic jam that lasts more 90 minutes, he said.

"Each moment spent waiting in traffic is worth four or five in your mind," adds Soon. A 90-minute delay can seem like an eternity when you’re stuck in it.

"People have a preconceived idea of what they are willing to accept," Lum said. "They might think their drive should only take 22 or 23 minutes and they are comfortable with that. But when things happen to make it longer - or seem longer - they get upset, or change their behavior."

James, the psychology professor, says one in four drivers is upset by the time he gets to work or home.

"People are enraged when there is something they cannot cope with on the road," he said. "You feel like a prisoner, trapped. You think they promised you something, and now they are letting you down. That’s when the frustration turns to rage sometimes."

(...)

Tom Smyth, an administrator with the state Department of Business and Economic Development, gave up commuting years ago. He traded in an hourlong drive from Kailua to Campbell Industrial Park for a job and a home downtown.

"Now, I get up and walk three blocks from home to work. My whole world is pretty much downtown," he said. Transportation was probably about 75 percent of the reason for making the switch, he added.

Hawai‘i-style

Despite these and many other alternatives (bus, bicycle, motorcycle, vanpools, etc), Hawai‘i’s commuters are typical of the nation in one important respect: The vast majority, more than 80 percent, commute in automobiles.

What sets Hawai‘i apart from other big cities, though, is the unusual number of family members sharing a car and the way they combine trips together - what traffic planners call trip-chaining.

"We don’t just drive from one spot to another," Lum said. "We drop the kids off at school, go to work, go to the store, take the kids to soccer practice, go shopping, then go home. That makes it more difficult for us in Hawai‘i to use other kinds of transit. Lives are more complicated now than they used to be, and that complexity determines the type of commuting we do."

(...)

Arrival of congestion

In 1941, when it was revealed that there were an astonishing 54,000 motor vehicles in Honolulu, residents began asking how things could get worse. By the end of the decade they found out: The number of cars and trucks had more than doubled.

Ever since, planners and consultants have proposed managing O‘ahu’s traffic problems with carpools, overpasses and underpasses, hydrofoils, helicopters, bridges, tunnels, reefways, monorails, light rails and more roads.

Based on the projected growth in travel, one report suggest the city would need to build 13 freeway lane miles and eight principal arterial lane miles every year just to keep congestion at the present level. That’s the equivalent of a new H-3 Freeway every five years.

(...)

What can be done? You can change your commute or learn to accept it, maybe even love it.

"Congestion is probably going to be even greater in the future," Soon said. "It’s bad and getting worse. Once you accept that thesis, you start to think about the little extra things we can do make it better, whether it’s providing more buses, wider streets or whatever. If you want to stay in your darn car, fine, but don’t get angry with us when you get to town and it’s all congested. Accept it."

Or embrace it.

"There are a lot of people who love traffic," said James, who admits that he was once an aggressive, hostile driver. "You can learn to love traffic, too. You can make a decision to drive with aloha spirit. I tell myself I don’t mind spending a little extra time in the car because I’m going to be a supportive, pleasant driver.

"The crowded roads are going to stay with us forever. Today’s 30-minute drive might take 45 minutes in 10 more years. So what? It’s not a life-threatening experience. It’s not a crisis. We might as well take the higher road, learn to be civil, to enjoy it and be safe."

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