Road Rage: Don't Let Aggressive Driving Ruin Your Commute!

by Mark Wright
(for The TMA Group (TN): © 1998 by The TMA Group. All rights reserved.)

You're driving to work one morning when another vehicle suddenly cuts you off during a lane change. To make matters worse, the driver who cut you off makes an obscene gesture -- as if it were your fault! Anger wells up inside of you, and for just a moment, you're tempted to pound the gas pedal to the floor and ride "that idiot's" rear bumper all the way to work.

Such emotional driving experiences have become ever more common over the past several years. The Automobile Club of America (AAA) reports that aggressive driving incidents have increased at 7 percent a year since 1990. And the problem isn't limited to the U.S. Drivers in England and Australia report a high incidence of violent driving, now, too.

Some of the incidents we hear about are tragic, some simply frightening, and others would be almost funny -- if they weren't so serious in their implications. At its worst, road rage has caused behavior that ended in the death of both perpetrator and victims. But most incidents, thankfully, don't go that far.

The Washington Post reported last year that a man in Virginia forced a woman and her small child off the road. He jumped out of his vehicle, made them get into their own back seat, and proceeded to pound on the hood of the woman's car.

Then there was the North Carolina driving instructor who ordered her teenaged student to speed up and catch an errant driver. He did so, and when they caught up to the vehicle the instructor got out and punched the offending driver in the nose!

Right here in Tennessee, an enterprising Knoxville area driver even created a web page on the Internet called "The Knoxville Road Rage Action Page." Located at www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/3130/complain.html, this "citizen self-help page" offers "victims of unsafe drivers" a way to report the date, auto make/model/color, license plate number, and a description of the aggressive behavior. You can also report your own name and phone/e-mail, although both are optional. In addition, the page lets you see reports submitted about aggressive drivers, searchable by month and year.

What's behind all of this behavior? And maybe more importantly, what can we do to make sure we're neither a victim nor an aggressor?

Dr. Leon James* (a.k.a. "Dr. Driving" on the Internet), a University of Hawaii psychology professor who teaches traffic psychology courses, writes on his own web page: "Aggressive driving is not extreme anymore. 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. At the same time, drivers aren't trained for emotional intelligence to be able to manage both lifestyle stress and provocations in traffic."

Awareness of our own state of mind can keep us from being "the bad guy" out on the road. Sometimes all the accumulated stresses in our life can serve as flashpoints just waiting to be ignited by another driver's rudeness or inattention.

James points out that defensive driving isn't necessarily the best way to ward off inappropriate behavior. Ironically, he writes, some aggressive drivers actually think they're driving defensively, and that it's their job to confront those who they see as driving improperly.

The best way to avoid being on either the receiving or sending end of road rage is to get out of the driver's seat altogether. Alternatives to driving in our area abound. They include carpooling, vanpooling, transit, bicycling, and telecommuting (working from home).

The TMA Group can help you connect with the option that best fits your lifestyle. Our programs and services are designed to support your commuting needs.

* Park and ride lots throughout the Williamson County region offer great locations for you to connect with carpools, vanpools, and transit services.

* The TMA Group can help you find other commuters who travel where you want to go on a similar schedule, whether that means getting you to work or pooling your kids to school.

* You can even seek matches on your own using our Internet web site. Just go to www.tmagroup.org, and click on The Smart Commute. Links to ridematching forms and our electronic bulletin board make finding an easier, safer way to work a breeze!

* Worried about getting stuck at work if you carpool or vanpool? Don't be! The TMA Group provides a guaranteed ride home for poolers, giving you up to eight free taxi rides home per year.

* Make your commute cost-effective, as well as safe: vanpool fares start at just $34.50/month!

Protect yourself from the stress of an aggressive commute. Call The TMA Group today at 615/790-4005, or e-mail us at TMAGroup@isdn.net for relaxing and safe alternatives to driving.

Copyright © 1998 by The TMA Group. All rights reserved.

*Author's note: USA Today published an interesting article on a related topic (Speeders outgun new limits...Drivers going faster than ever in Lead Foot Nation - Feb. 23, 2004), in which Dr. James is also quoted.