roundtable: Community, Behavior and Driving

roundtable: Community, Behavior and Driving

Community, Behavior and Driving

Curtiss Priest (cpriest@juno.com)
Fri, 18 Jul 1997 11:22:10 PST 

To: ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 11:22:10 PST
Subject: Community, Behavior and Driving
Message-Id: <19970718.112333.4383.0.cpriest@juno.com>
From: cpriest@juno.com (Curtiss Priest)


Archive:  Community, Behavior and Driving
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CITS Observations on attached article
Dr. W. Curtiss Priest

It has been my theory, for years, that a major way we enculturate
and train our citizens about how to behave towards others is
to train them for drivers' licenses and then turn them lose on
the highways.  No joke.

Where else except the sandbox do we learn how to deal with the
intracacies of yielding, taking the right of way, being graceful,
and being aggressive but in the second-by-second give and take
on crowded highways.

Not that this training is uniform across the country.  Having been
"trained" in Boston I was startled to find that in Lexington, KY
that I was the first to enter an intersection no matter whether I
was first or last to reach it.  Recognizing that Lexington, KY was
more gentile, I settled down a bit and found the more relaxed way
of treating each other was a pleasure that I've missed every since
my short stay in 1974.

But recently I have NOT found the highways to be a particularly
good training ground.  In particular there have been two
dominant trends:

1.)  One segment of the population has chosen to isolate 
themselves from all the others.  Their choice in vehicle are 
these overly large sport utility cars -- the ones that advertise 
their maker in great big letters across the rear tire.

In talking with some of these owners, one justification for this
vehicle choice is safety.  Indeed, if I in my Subaru am hit by
one of these vehicles, the chances are 2:1 that I'll die and they
will live.

But one can also take notice of the way they drive, as if no one
else is on the road.

2.)  Another segment is a population of young enraged males ages
18 to 26.  This is the subject of the attached article.  These
aggressive drivers are referred to as "road rage" and are
described below in excruciating detail.  These are typically the
bright red cars that weave in and out of traffic and appear to
be hooked on to the car in front of them, given the extreme
tail-gating they enjoy.

I have always practiced the "one car length for every 10 miles per
hour" of distance to the vehicle in front of me, but have found
myself in the vast minority for some time.  And then, when I see
"road rage" I say to myself "accident waiting to happen" and I
increase the distance even more.

What does all this have to say about community?  Ah, that is the
question of the hour.

While I still believe that most driving provides a stabilizing
influence on community behavior and morality, I interpret the
presence of these two dominant groups on the highways as
indications that there is something fundamentally wrong with
society.

We have those in their utility vehicles trying to escape from
the rest; we have a lot of angry young men "in your face."

And I think they mean to be in your face as an insult and a statement
of the rage they are feeling.

Why are they enraged?  One can speculate on many things.  About
half of them are already divorced and are very upset about the way
the courts handled matters from custody to child support.  Many
are not eligible for high-paid factory jobs (mostly overseas) and
are working near minimum wage.  (Yet they still manage to buy
very expensive cars.)  About 60% of them have a negative net worth
(if they are average Americans) and some several hundred thousand
of them will declare bankruptcy this year.  They watch movies that
are increasingly violent and they identify with those parts of the
movies that vindicate the downtrodden "shooting their way out."

Not that these problems don't confront most Americans but I
believe while most of us exercise restraint, there are those who
are saying they just don't care anymore.

**************************************************************************
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****************************Advertisement********************************
Subscriptions to the Boston Globe can be received by calling 617-929-2000
****************************Advertisement********************************

Boston Globe, July 18, 1997
p. A3
By Randolph E. Schmid
ASSOCIATED PRESS

   WASHINGTON - Highway deaths went up in the
United States last year, and the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration chief, Ricardo Martinez, said
yesterday that aggressive driving was partly to blame.

   There were 41,907 highway deaths in the United
States in 1996, up from 41,798 in 1995, Martinez told the
House Transportation Committee.

   "After years of steady decline, the total number of
highway deaths increased slightly in each of the last four
years," Martinez said.

   "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 driv-
ing," he told the committee.

   Aggressive driving, also known as "road rage," has
become a topic of interest to police and safety specialists.

   Martinez characterized aggressive drivers as being
more likely to speed, tailgate, fail to yield, weave in and
out of traffic, pass on the right, make improper lane
changes, run stop signs and lights, make hand and facial
gestures, scream, honk and flash their lights.

   "Aggressive drivers must be held accountable for
their actions," Martinez said. "One of the best counter-
measures to aggressive driving is the cop in the rear-
view mirror."

   David K. Willis of the AAA Foundation for Traffic
Safety said a study of 10,037 aggressive driving incidents
between 1990 and 1997 found that most aggressive driv-
ers are men aged 18 to 26.

   Willis offered tips to help avoid conflict on the road,
including not blocking lanes or changing without signal-
ing, not tailgating, avoiding use of the horn or high
beams. He added: "You are playing Russian roulette if
you raise a middle finger to another driver.... Obscene
gestures have gotten people shot, stabbed, and beaten in
every state."

***************************************************

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******************************************************


         W. Curtiss Priest, Director, CITS
      Center for Information, Technology & Society
       466 Pleasant St., Melrose, MA  02176
       Voice: 617-662-4044  BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
 Fax: 617-662-6882 WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CITS

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