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• Introduction
  

• Part 1: Defining the concept of aggressive driving
  

• Part 2: Driving Observation Exercise
  

• Part 3: Good and bad passenger behaviors
  

• Part 4: Aggressive driving behaviors and their consequences
  

• Part 5: Evaluation Sheet for Drivers Behaving Badly on TV (DBB Ratings)
  

• Part 6: Driving Informatics
  

• Part 7: Safety Facts
  

• Part 8: Road Rage Formula
  

• Part 9: Driving Slogans to Remember
  

• Part 10: CARRtoon Vignettes

The Back Seat of the Car Can Now Be Called Road Rage Nursery

The following activities can help children become more aware passengers by focusing their attention on when and where they are being exposed to aggressive driving practices of the adults around them. This learning activity in the car will provide the children-passengers with an opportunity to become aware of the social categories our society uses to define the role of the driver.

This is critical knowledge for them to have in order to protect them from the high fatality risk they will be undergoing as teenage drivers and passengers of teenage drivers.

Children, as passengers in cars and buses, are at risk of absorbing the hostile attitudes and risky practices of their adult drivers. This is an unconscious cultural  transmission from one generation to the next that is injurious to the children now and later, when they become aggressive drivers. Road rage is a cultural temper tantrum learned in childhood in road rage nursery strapped to the back seat and quietly imbibing the adult's verbal ranting and raving against the traffic, the construction workers, the government, other motorists. This recurrent stream of verbal road rage may be reinforced with gestures and sudden vehicle movements like sudden acceleration or darting across lanes. These modes of behaving and driving are shared by the entire generation and reinforced on television and in driving stories that drivers tell each other to vent their anger.

Giving children an increased awareness of the verbal and mental components of aggressive driving, can act as a psychological inoculation mechanism to prevent the unconscious absorbing of aggressive and risky personality traits behind the wheel. When the children are more aware of the behaviors and attitudes that they are exposed to, they are given a choice they do not otherwise have. And the choice is to reject hostility towards other road users.

We need to teach children supportive driving attitudes and concepts.

These exercises and activities will be welcomed by parents and teachers everywhere, indeed by all who love children enough to want to protect them against absorbing road rage. They are given the opportunity and the assistance to avoid becoming the next generation of road ragers.

Parents and teachers can use these activities as a fun and valuable learning exchange with their children, instructing them in good driving concepts.

Authority figures of love and respect need to tell them that supportive driving is your ideal, and that it has to do with character, responsibility, and morality.

Urge them to love this ideal. Let them fill out the Driving Awareness Form, then discuss the results with them. Use this activity as a countermeasure to your own aggressive driving, to which you probably have been exposing them every day for years!! (See the survey results here.)

Teachers will also find these materials helpful in planning their lessons and activities on traffic safety, proper road behavior, and good passenger behaviors and attitudes. Please send us your Lesson Plans and ideas so that they can be shared with everyone on DrDriving's site. Email: letters@DrDriving.org

City and State:___________________ Age_____ Circle one:    Boy......   Girl

1. Think of the kids you see every day. How aggressive are they as far you can tell? Examples of aggressive behaviors: hitting, throwing, attacking, threatening, blocking the way, refusing to return something, yelling and cussing at someone, and doing other things that are mean, scary, or unfriendly. Circle one of the numbers to show how aggressive are the kids you know.

NOT AGGRESSIVE 1 2 3 4 5 VERY AGGRESSIVE

2. Now think of comic books and TV cartoons. Many of them show things that are aggressive, like hitting, shooting, attacking, breaking, hurting, yelling at, insulting, doing bad things to other people. All of these things are called aggressive. How aggressive are your own favorite comic books or TV cartoons? Circle one of the numbers to show how aggressive are your favorite characters.

NOT AGGRESSIVE 1 2 3 4 5 VERY AGGRESSIVE

3. While riding in a car or bus, you may have heard the driver get mad at another driver. Think about the last few times you were a passenger in someone's car or bus: how mad do the drivers sometimes get? Circle one of the numbers to show how mad they get while driving.

A LITTLE MAD 1 2 3 4 5 VERY VERY MAD

4. Try to remember: do you sometimes get mad at drivers on the road when you ride in a car or bus? How mad do you get at those drivers?

A LITTLE MAD 1 2 3 4 5 VERY VERY MAD

5. Now think of this: You're being driven somewhere, and you're anxious because you don't want to get there late. There is a car ahead that's going pretty slow, and there is no way to pass it. Well, is it all right you think to tailgate the car? This means to follow very very close behind so the driver would be scared and speed up. Do you think one should do that or not? Circle what you think is the right answer:

    1 No, you must never tailgate someone.

    2 Yes, it's all right to tailgate someone who is going too slow.

    3 Yes, you can tailgate someone who is going too slow when you are in a hurry and it's not your fault that you're late.

6. Now think of this: You're being driven somewhere, and you're anxious because you don't want to get there late. Is it all right to cheat a little and break some of the rules, like going through a red light instead of waiting until it turns green? Circle what you think is the right answer:

    1 Yes, you can go through a red light if you very carefully check first to see if there are no other cars coming at that time.

    2 No, you must never go through a red light just because you're in a big hurry, even if there are no other cars coming.

    3 Well, it actually depends on whether you're a good enough driver. Inexperienced drivers should not go through a red light, even if they're in a hurry, but it's all right for experienced drivers who really know what they're doing, as long as they watch out for other cars coming, and as long as they don't do it all the time.

 7. In your opinion, who is a really good driver? Circle the one you think would be the best:

    1 A driver who gets there in a shorter time than other drivers.

    2 A driver who gets there without taking any chances and is always safe, even if it takes longer to get there.

    3 A former race car driver who gets there faster than other drivers.

8. What do you think about seat belts? Who cares most about wearing seat belts? Circle one:

1 Me   2 My Mom   3 My Dad   4 None of us cares about seat belts

Step 2) Take this Form with you in the car, along with something to write with. Be sure to show this to the driver. That's very important!

Step 3) Put a checkmark for each thing on the list every time you see it happening. This way, you can later count the number of checkmarks to see how many times something happened. Some of the things are about the driver, and some about you.

Step 4) After the ride, count the checkmarks for each item.

Step 5) Discuss the results with the driver, your parents, or other adults.

Now here is the list of things to observe next time you're in a car:

Time (start of trip):_______Purpose and destination: __________________ ___________________________________________________________

(1) The driver yells or uses bad language.

________________________________________Total:_____

(2) You get scared by how the person drives.

________________________________________Total:_____

(3) You wish the driver would hurry up and go faster.

________________________________________Total:_____

(4) The driver talks bad about another driver.

________________________________________Total:_____

(5) You feel that the driver is being too aggressive.

________________________________________Total:_____

(6) The driver yells or gets mad at you or at another passenger.

________________________________________Total:_____

(7) The driver waves or smiles to thank another driver.

________________________________________Total:_____

(8) The driver is being nice to another driver.

________________________________________Total:_____

(9) The driver is weaving through traffic, and jumping lanes.

________________________________________Total:_____

(10) The driver is going over the posted speed limit.

________________________________________Total:_____

(11) Other:__________________________________.

________________________________________Total:_____

(12) Other: Use the back or a second sheet.

Time at end of trip:_______ Total time for the ride: ________minutes.

Please note: It's a good idea to fill out this form on more than just one trip. Try several trips and see if they are similar.

Take this list with you in the car. Observe what you normally do on a trip. Are you a good passenger or bad? On your next trip, see how many of the bad behaviors you can stop doing, and how many of the good behaviors you can start doing.

Letter from a Reader:

Before they become drivers, children are exposed to thousands of scenes on TV depicting drivers behaving badly. It is desirable to make children more aware of this exposure by discussing it with them. Parents and teachers can use the following specific examples that are familiar to their children. They were collected by DrDriving's traffic psychology students at the University of Hawaii. After discussing some of these, you might encourage your children to make their own observations while watching TV and keeping a diary or notebook. Teachers can use this activity as homework and class discussion afterwards. Please send your results to DrDriving so they may be added to this list. The Evaluation Activity Sheet for Drivers Behaving Badly (DBB) appears below this table.

The phrase "driving informatics" was coined in 1998 by Dr. Diane Nahl, Associate Professor of Information Science, and refers to collecting and organizing information about driving behavior and drivers. Its major topic categories are listed in these directories of links:

Informatics  ||  Topics  ||  Information ||  see also Facts & Research

Safety facts quoted from DrDriving's site on Driving Facts

In 1994, 40,676 people lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes, an increase of 1.3 percent from 1993.

An average of 111 persons died each day in motor vehicle crashes in 1994 - one every 13 minutes.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for every age from 6 through 28 years old (based on 1991 data).

Vehicle occupants comprised almost 84 percent of fatalities in 1994; the remaining 16 percent were pedestrians, pedal-cyclists and other non-occupants.

From 1982 through 1994, it is estimated that safety belts saved 65,290 lives (9,175 in 1994).

In 1994, it is estimated that 308 children under age 5 were saved as a result of child restraint use. An estimated 2,655 lives were saved by child restraints from 1982 through 1994. In 1994, 47 percent of occupants of passenger cars and 54 percent of occupants of light trucks involved in fatal crashes were unrestrained.

16 year old drivers are more than 20 times as likely to have a crash as the general population of drivers." American Academy of Pediatrics "Motor vehicle crashes a re the leading cause of deaths in 15 to 20 year olds." National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NHTSA estimates that 518 lives were saved by the use of motorcycle helmets in 1994. 11% (4,544) of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities reported in 1994 involved heavy trucks (gross vehicle weight rating greater than 26,000 pounds).

16-24 year olds represent 24% of total fatalities compared to 8% from ages 1-15. 43% for ages 25-54. 24% for ages 55 and over.

On a per population basis, drivers under the age of 25 had the highest rate of involvement in fatal crashes among all age groups.

The male fatal crash involvement rate per 100,000 population was 3 times as high as for female drivers in 1994.

22% of male drivers involved in fatal crashes were intoxicated compared to 11% of female drivers.

37% of female drivers involved in fatal crashes were unrestrained at the time of the crash compared to 47% for male drivers involved in fatal crashes.

In 1994, there were 5,472 pedestrian fatalities which represented 13% of total fatalities.

On average, a pedestrian is killed in a motor vehicle crash every 96 minutes.

More than one-third of children between 5 and 9 years old killed in motor vehicle crashes were pedestrians.

In 6% of the crashes, both the driver and the pedestrian were intoxicated.

802 pedalcyclists were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 1994. (that’s 2% of total fatalities).

For 72% of the pedalcyclists killed in motor vehicle crashes in 1994, police reported one or more errors or other factors related to the cyclist's behavior. The factor most often noted was "failure to yield right-of-way," followed by "walking with or against traffic" and improper crossing of the roadway or intersection." The factors most often noted for drivers were "driving too fast for conditions or exceeding the speed limit" (17%), "vision obscured" (14 percent) and "driver inattentiveness (talking, eating, etc.)" (13%).

Only cigarette smoking and heart disease kill more people than automobile accidents in America.

Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death and injury among children.

Alcohol was involved in 41% of all traffic fatalities in 1994, resulting in 17,000 deaths.

Each alcohol-related death costs our nation an average of 37 years of life lost--in contrast to 16 years for cancer and 12 years for heart disease.

There has been a steady increase in DWI rates and alcohol-related fatal crashes among women, especially younger women.

DWI or DUI accounted for about 1.4 million arrests in 1994, about the same as arrests for larceny or theft, or arrests for drug abuse.

In 1996, about 35% of college students report having driven after drinking alcoholic beverages.

More than 50% of the people jailed for DWI are repeat offenders.

Raising the minimum drinking age to 21 has been credited with saving 15,000 lives so far. Some States saw a decrease of up to 38% in young motorists deaths.

States that enacted and enforced an ALR law (Administrative License Revocation) experienced a decline of up to 9% in drunk driving crashes.

Research shows that parents tend to seriously underestimate their children's drinking.

It is believed that police sobriety checkpoints are one of the most effective measures police can use to deter drunk driving. Other methods include:

supporting local chapters of MADD, SADD, RID
supporting judicial efforts to combat impaired driving
promoting DD or "Designated Driver" programs
getting involved in National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month activities every December
supporting zero-tolerance laws and other anti-DWI laws in your community.
 

The cost of motor vehicle crashes and injuries in 1990 was $138 billion, representing the present value of lifetime economic costs for 45,000 fatalities, 5.4 million non-fatal injuries, and 28 million damaged vehicles. Components of this total cost include:

property damage at 33%
workplace and household productivity at 37%
medical and rehabilitation at 10%
legal and insurance at 20%
Per fatality cost:
Workplace productivity........................$510,000
Household productivity......................... 113,000
Medical & emergency........................... 5,900
Legal................................................. 80,000
Premature funeral................................ 3,400
Insurance............................................ 55,000
Property damage................................. 10,000
Total.................................................. $785,000

Nearly 100,000 pedestrians are injured in motor vehicle accidents each year in the United States, with a majority of these accidents taking place in urban areas.

"Highway crashes cost the Nation $150.5 billion a year. We estimate that about one-third of these crashes and about two-thirds of the resulting fatalities can be attributed to behavior associated with aggressive driving." NHTSA's Administrator Dr. Ricardo Martinez

The risk of getting in a wreck quadruples when drivers are talking on the phone and have not trained themselves for this new skill.

To reduce your chances of getting into a road rage fight, let pushy drivers have their way.

Male drivers of all age groups are involved in more crashes than their female counterparts (Table X). Crash Involvement per 1,000 Licensed Drivers in by Age and Sex, 1988 - 90

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for children and adults age 6 to 28, and the leading cause of long-term disability for all age groups. Last year, 41,000 died in car crashes in the United States. Another 3.5 million suffered injuries that ranged from sprained ankles to life-long paralysis.

Britain's Automobile Association is examining the use of aroma therapy to reduce road rage through a device that heats pleasant-smelling oils and wafts them throughout the car to help keep the driver calm.

The phrase "road rage" officially entered the English language in 1997 when it was first listed in the New Words edition of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary).

Human action was the leading cause of accidents on British Columbia roads in 1995, accounting for 68 per cent of all crashes. Of the types of human action that led to crashes, driving without due care was No. 1. It accounted for 27 per cent of those accidents. Speeding, in contrast, caused 17 per cent and tailgating caused only 12 per cent.  

More than 2 million Americans died in car crashes during the first century of our car society (1896-1996).

Above Safety facts quoted from DrDriving's site on Driving Facts

Why is aggressive driving happening now?  

Aggressive driving is not extreme any more; it has become a cultural norm on the highway. We're born into road rage; we inherit it from our parents. We acquire it automatically as children from adult drivers, cartoons, television, and commercials. Our culture condones the expression of hostility when we feel justified, indignant, stressed, or frustrated. Proof of these points may be found in this document.

At the same time drivers aren't trained for emotional intelligence to be able to manage both lifestyle stress and provocations in traffic.

The Formula for Road Rage:

more driver interactions (more cars, less space), greater diversity of drivers
+
cultural norms of disrespect condoning hostility
=
aggressive driving and road rage battles

The average number of driver interactions during an average commute of 30 mins. has steadily climbed due to traffic congestion. Thousands of interactions with hundreds of cars in a half-hour period create new challenges for drivers. Any one of these mini-exchanges can go wrong when the context is hostile. There are now 125 million drivers on the road every day in the U.S. They represent a tremendous diversity of competence, style, and purpose. The hundreds of drivers one encounters in a traffic half-hour puts us into contact with this diversity. It is unrealistic to expect homogeneity of driving styles. Drivers differ in gender, age, experience, familiarity with the road, physical health and condition, mood, and why they are on the road. Not all drivers are in a hurry. Not all drivers are alert. Not all drivers are competent. Not all drivers know how to coordinate with the rest of traffic. Not all drivers want to.

And so the 125 million drivers on the road every day need to learn how to drive with each other, how to get along, how to be more tolerant of each other's mistakes and varieties of mood and desire for cooperation. Driving Psychology gives drivers the psychological tools by which they can acquire skills of tolerance for one another. It takes compassion, fairness, rationality, and altruism. By developing these skills as drivers, we also become more valuable citizens and more worthy human beings.

The formula above shows that aggressive driving is the result of hostile norms in combination with more traffic. It is not more traffic by itself that causes aggressive driving.

Here is the rest of the formula:

more driver interactions (more cars, less space), greater diversity of drivers
+
cultural norms of respect promoting civility and community
=
supportive, safe, and sane driving

---

Definition of Road Rage:

the habit of aggressive driving as a permanent style of behaving behind the wheel. There are three types:

1. Verbal Road Rage: yelling, cussing, gesturing, honking, insulting
2. Quiet Road Rage: complaining, rushing, competing, resisting
3. Epic Road Rage: cutting off, blocking, chasing, fighting, shooting

Lacking in emotional intelligence training, drivers operate on the false "trigger theory" of anger:

"I can't help it when they provoke me. Besides, they're doing something wrong. I can't just sit back and take it."

This attitude involves righteous indignation that gives us permission to retaliate because we feel wronged. It's easy to "lose it" when a "hot spot" is stepped on, and out comes the unthinking gesture, the uncontrolled temper, the comic book fantasies of punishment and mayhem.

Emotional Intelligence Exercises
or How Not to Be Hostile When Stressed and Upset

1. Self-witnessing behind the wheel:

Pretend you're giving a play-by-play broadcast of your driving--what you're doing, thinking, and feeling. Speak all your thoughts out loud. This will let you be more aware of your driving personality.

2. Shrinking Your Emotional Territory:

Talk to yourself. Argue with yourself. What is it that you really care about? Examine your assumptions, your anger theory, your driving philosophy.

3. Acting As-If

Pretend you're a supportive driver even when you feel like being competitive and aggressive. When you feel like yelling, sing instead--or make funny animal sounds (suggestion by LauraLee Carman in her book Rainbows In My Soup, BookPartners Inc., Wilsonville, Oregon) in the car. By pretending to be an Aloha spirit driver, you discover you like it--cool-headed, hassle-free driving. All right!

Three Levels of Emotional Intelligence as a Driver

1. Oppositional Driving (Aggressive Driving; Road Rage Habit)
2. Defensive Driving (Be on guard. Assume the worst.)
3. Supportive Driving (Act tolerant. Be forgiving. Be helpful.)

Defensive driving is a good strategy, but you can't let defensive driving slide into aggressive driving. The best defense is not a good offense, in this case. Factors that allow defensive driving to become oppositional:

rushing mania (getting there as fast as possible)
righteous indignation (They deserve to be punished)
comic book persona (The Avenger, Jekyl & Hyde, Mad Max)
culture that condones hostility (cartoons, commercials, movies)

Anatomy of Road Rage

Step 1: Provocation and Escalation

It takes two to make a fight. Don't respond. Don't engage. Don't up the ante. Swallow your pride. Choose "the road less traveled."

Containment Techniques:

Count to 10.
Make animal sounds (suggestion by LauraLee Carman in her book Rainbows In My Soup, BookPartners Inc., Wilsonville, Oregon) .
Act as-if you're not affected.
Give yourself pep talks.

Step 2: Recovery and Remedy

If you fall into a hostile exchange, know how to back out, reverse, back pedal. You need to do damage control.

Containment Techniques:

Refrain from aggravating things.
Come out swinging positive. Apologize. See it from their side as well, not just your own.
Think supportive (vs. combative).
Acts of Declaration of Road Rage War
Honking at someone.
Giving an offensive hand gesture.
Yelling at someone or swearing.
Revving your engine to indicate displeasure.
Shining your high beams in retaliation.
Deliberately cutting someone off.
Tailgating.
Braking suddenly to punish a tailgater.
Blocking a lane.
Racing.
Chasing.

 

No.33C7               CARRworkbook                 Children Against Road Rage          Drivers Behaving Badly on TV--Activities To Do

1. In a classroom or family setting, you can discuss various TV programs and commercials. Have everyone contribute to examples of Drivers Behaving Badly. Discuss each one in terms of its risks and its potential for unconscious imitation by drivers. 2. In a family or group setting, you can view videos or TV and point out scenes of Drivers Behaving Badly. Discuss their potential for lulling us to minimize risk and injury from certain events, giving us a distorted image of danger and injury. Some of the things you can point out that happen frequently are the following. Use this list to identify and record scenes of DBB. taking the eyes of the road (count the seconds) hitting a parked car or object and not stopping giving chase riding up a rocky mountain or river bed with large boulders jumping out of the car while still in motion yelling at passengers, other drivers, pedestrians driving and drinking driving in a confused mental state going through red light when in a hurry passengers fighting or partying passengers urging driver to speed and take risks children behind the wheel, driving trying to get away from a police car with sirens on chasing an ambulance or emergency vehicle driving off in anger, burning rubber driving through traffic in a reckless manner joking about running over someone deliberately running over someone Other: ____________________________________ Other: ____________________________________ 3. Encourage children to keep a TV log of Drivers Behaving Badly by writing down the date, the program or commercial, and the event. Take time to discuss with them the implications of uncritically watching thousands of such events before you get to be a driver. 4. Have children of all ages make drawings or posters of Drivers Behaving Badly scenes and have them discuss the consequences of watching these scenes uncritically.

For additional information, visit the Web at DrDriving.org or e-mail DrDriving@DrDriving.org TEE CARDS Copyright 1999 Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl Do not use without permission