Did you ever wonder just what are at the root causes of road rage?
One study I read speaks of part of its origins in terms of almost pack-mentality terms. The study, commissioned by the AAA Foundation for Traffic, notes a combination of factors are likely behind incidents in which drivers lose it and take their hostility out on others. These reasons for drivers behaving badly can range from having a bad day to perhaps an innate animal-instinct in reaction to overcrowding.
More succinctly, the study’s author points out that humans are territorial and the car is an extension of that territory.
“Indeed, the territory extends for some distance beyond the vehicle, again providing room for the defender to prepare to fend off or avoid the attack. If a vehicle threatens this territory by cutting in, for example, the driver will probably carry out a defensive maneuver. This may be backed up by an attempt to re-establish territory — in spite of the rationalizations we used to account for our behavior, flashing headlights or a blast of the horn are, perhaps, most commonly used for this purpose,” wrote Matthew Joint, head of behavioral analysis for the The Automobile Association Group Public Policy Road Safety Unit.
It is a very enlightening study that not only pointedly defines road rage but also explores its prevalence.
Left unsaid in the study, or at least specifically, are a couple of other reasons which may either fit into the realm of animal behavior or ones general surroundings. Now here I must point out that I am not a behavioral scientist, although I did minor in sociology in college. Carrying that qualification to its most ridiculous extreme that must make me a behavioral scientist. After all, as I have mentioned here before, I have met many people who have taken one journalism class — or none at all, hell they may have just read a newspaper — who see themselves as journalists or journalism experts. Okay, down from my high horse. Here is my unqualified opinion as to two major causes of road rage:
1. Stupidity
2. Impatience
Two very minor instances of road rage I experienced during the past week certainly show that these were clearly contributing factors for the behavior I encountered on our city streets.
Example 1. There is an intersection in front of the building where my office is located. A one-way street runs southward on the east side of the building. A one-way entrance to the two-way street in front of the building on that east side shares a two-way stop with the traffic coming from the two-way street which turns left onto the one-way street. Got all that? You will be tested.
Now the stop light where a turn can only be made to the right onto the one-way street has two distinct symbols. One is a red arrow pointing right and the other is a green arrow pointing right. One might only imagine what that means. Hmmmmm. Could it possibly be the red arrow means no right on red, or no go on red, for that matter? And the green arrow. I bet that has something to do with proceeding onto the one-way street to the right. After all, it’s pointed right. It’s not pointed left. For if it was pointed left it might direct a motorist to turn into the path of a big-ass dump truck or some other type of speeding motor vehicle which uses this street daily.
Given those possibilities. I sat at the light with a red arrow pointing right until it turned into a green arrow pointing right. For my trouble, some fellow who I surmise was from out of town because he had clothes hanging over a back window, decided I should make a right on red and so he lays down on his horn. Had I not been outside my office I might have jumped out of my car and try my hand at lecturing the gentleman about not using his horn in trying to influence my driving decisions. But alas, since the guy could have a)kicked my ass b) shot me or c)made some kind of big scene involving me outside my office, I declined not to do so.
Clearly, though the man didn’t know what I might do either. So you would have to give thought to the possibility the man was both stupid and was certainly impatient.
Example two: Just this afternoon I was pulling out of a driveway from a restaurant onto a busy street. A woman in a van signaled a right turn and apparently she believed her van would not make the turn successfully unless I pulled my tiny, little Toyota pickup out into the street for my left turn. Did I mention before the street was busy? Well it was. And all of a sudden the woman in the van blasts her horn at me. Now, even though I was behind cars traveling in front of me, I was able to see cars in the other lane turning onto the street from the freeway feeder in the direction that I coveted as well. If the woman in the van had paid any attention, and maybe she did, she would have seen a car was approaching with a speed that made me believe it was quite unwise to pull out into the street even though the woman in the van who blew her horn felt otherwise.
Thus, I pointed to the oncoming car while looking at her. When I finally was able to pull out into the street, I am sure the woman was able to make out the gist of what I was saying by reading my lips although both of our windows were up. She just smiled as if she had, as my late father used to say, good sense.
Clearly though, the woman did not have good sense which might put her into the category of being stupid although there was no arguing that she was impatient.
So there you are. In a nutshell, if we could get stupid, impatient drivers off the road we would all be a lot safer. And if you think we will be able to accomplish that, let me tell you about some nice land you might like to buy down in the Sabine River bottoms of Southeast Texas/Southwest Louisiana.