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Present the cause or causes of road rage (5) if you could think of a better title that would be great. Usually the term 'road rage' was applies to a small percentage of drivers who drive with wild impunity. They fail to stop at red lights, stop signs, tailgating is their norm. These people change lanes wildly and speed more often than not. When another driver would get in their way or be any type of nuisance, the road rage driver would become offensive and do something to confront the other driver. In the following essay I am going to speak about the road rage and its causes, present various educated findings as well as my personal opinion on the given topic.
The modern day uncaring drivers who apparently want to inflict damage on other vehicles and occupants insist upon speeding and refuse to stop at red lights and stop signs. They refuse to obey traffic laws and seem to drive with the intent to cause death and destruction. They aim their vehicles at pedestrians who have the courage to cross the streets (Shorey, 118). I should noted that the road rage is a ubiquitous phenomenon that shows signs of growing acceptance as the driving mode of choice not only in the USA but also around the world. If guilty drivers thought about their actions and potential dangerous results, they would logically modify their habits. Drivers do not apply rational thought to their behavior.
There is no analysis by drivers that might provide limits to their behavior. Also, there is virtually no effective traffic-law enforcement to provide external limits (James, 32). We believe that road rage is a derivative disease spawned from primary stresses that people in the USA face on a daily based from everywhere. Primary stresses are thought to be caused by (Larson, 45): 1. ) Poor understanding of the driving rules and fear of the information age; 2. ) Violence presented in living color and stereophonic sound in movies, music and television; 3. ) Breakdown in appreciation of living in an orderly, lawful society. 4. ) Personal factors (e. g. breaking up with a girlfriend, finding ones wife in bed with another men, etc. ) that already give you some anger before even starting the driving process.
These examples of modern day stress that drivers experience are an omnipresent mental projection for many people today. When an individual takes control of his vehicle, which provides power under his control (and the numerous car commercials stress the importance of power in the cars they sell), then combines his fears with today's easily unbounded behavior, the temptation to use that powerful vehicle overcomes his desire to be civil and just like every body else in the society. Frustrations are thrown at other drivers who are subconsciously perceived as impeding progress on the road to success or uniqueness. The result is road rage: The breaking of traffic laws, a loss of civility with disregard for causing damage, and a desire to inflict pain upon others. On a more personal level, I should note, we all experience sometimes some discomfort in driving a car and the road rage is an extension of road anger. Sometimes a driver in another vehicle will do something dumb that makes you mad.
I personally was involved in the process of mooning several other cars with children in it and I can only imagine how made the whole family (hopefully there were not some zealous Christians) would become in that car and now I understand that I was the contributor to the road rage. Or lets develop another possibility of the road rage creation. Small compact car approaches you from behind on the interstate. You are doing the speed limit in the right lane and they pass you on the left. So far so good. Then suddenly, without warning, the compact car that just barely passed you cuts in front of you without using its turn signal and exits the freeway at the next exit which is only a few hundred yards down the freeway (Larson, 50).
Now here's where the difference between road discomfort, fear, anger and rage come into play. Yet one should remember that it also depends on the drivers nerves and mental state how he / she would react to such scenario. If you have discomfort you simply lightly touch your brake and surmise that the driver probably didn't realize that his exit was that close. If this gives you a touch of road fear, you more than likely brake a little harder and realize how much you have to be aware of other people's driving and drive defensively.
If someone cutting in front of you like this makes you extremely angry you probably shake your fist or wave a bird at the driver while subjecting your passengers to some choice vulgarity aimed at the driver of the other car (Shorey, 120). The road rage goes a little bit further. It is when all logic leaves the mind and all you can focus on is making that idiot pay for cutting in front of you. You immediately follow the compact car as it exits the free way. You follow close behind like some animal during the mating season. The other driver gets upset and flips you off which enrages you even more.
Finally the car pulls into a parking lot where you are going to get your chance at revenge. The car comes to a stop next to a row of shiny Harley Davidson's in front of a seedy looking bar called The Iron Horse. The driver's door opens and out of the compact car climbs a huge giant of a man wearing solid leather clothes. Suddenly you have a choice. Continue with the rage inside your head or sensibly realize that you have just driven ten miles out of your way and cut your losses (James, 34). In conclusion I would like to note that in a world governed by failing and negative role models (commercials, aggression, desire to break the law, etc. ), hope for a cure will be most likely obtained through heightening of educational standards instilled from childhood.
People need more important things to work for than racing to and through the next red light. The prevention of a road rage can depend on each individual driver. It starts with some simple commonsense rules of the road. The following rules on the other hand promote road rage: If you do not turn on the turn signals, you are most likely to provoke the cars behind you to take revenge on you. If you do not start to stop slow at the stop signs and red lights but appear to be running through them, the drivers behind you will not slow down as fast, yet when after approaching the sign you press the breaks and immediately stop, the drivers behind you are most likely to curse you as much as their fantasy allows them If you follow the car in front of you, you are very likely to extremely infuriate the person in the car in front of you. The rule of thumb is to allow one car lengths between cars for every 10 miles of speed.
Thus If you drive 60 miles per hour there should be at least 6 cars between you and the driver in front of you. If this distance is repeatedly violated the driver in the front car will get a road rage. Besides, you " ll be able to avoid that proverbial muffler or dead skunk in the road when it appears out of nowhere from underneath the car in front of you. If you do not leave for work or other business on time, you are expected to be in a hurry, which would negatively be reflected in your hasty driving and the driving behavior which will affect every one on the road. It should be noted that the rules shown above are by no means intended to make you wage the road rage, but rather were used as examples of things that some drivers do unconsciously without realizing that they cause the other drivers around mad and are the contributors to the road rage and potential dangers it brings along.
Bibliography: John A. Larson, Carol Rodriguez, Road Rage to Road-Wise: This Book Can Save You or Someone You Love, McGraw Hill, 2002. Leon James, Diane Name, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare, Prentice hall, 2000. Jake O'Mally, Blake O'Mally, Road Rage! Stress Therapy for Driving, NY Random House, 2002.
Joel Shorey, Bullies Behind the Wheel: How Your Reactions to Aggressive Drivers Can Cause Road Rage, or Prevent It! , Penguin books. 2001
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