DrDriving.org
Please note: Dr. James is no longer receiving requests for phone
interviews. However he is still responding to email interviews: leon@hawaii.edu
Interview
Questions with Answers
ARTICLES by Dr. Leon James
1. Congressional Testimony
on the Psychology of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
2. Our
Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving Book -- Excerpts and Index
4. A New Paradigm for a Global Lifelong
Driver Education Curriculum
5. Two concept Papers: Instituting
a Program of Lifelong Traffic Safety Training
and Promoting the Spread of Quality Driving Circles (QDC) for
Post-Licensing Driver Self-improvement Programs
6. Lifelong
Driver's Education: A New Socio-Behavioral Proposal
7. Driving Psychology Principles
8. Aggressive
Driving is Emotionally Impaired Driving
10 Driver
Personality Survey Results: Driving With Emotional Intelligence
11. Gender
and Driving--Men vs. Women
12. Driving Personality Makeovers
13. Musings of a Traffic Psychologist in
Traffic--Social Psychology of Driving
16. Principles of Driving Psychology
18. Violence and
Driving--A Mental Health Issue
19. QDC--Quality Driving Circles or Support Groups
20. 3-Step Program for Changing Your Driving Habits
21. Data On the Private World of the Driver (thoughts and
feelings)
22. What Drivers Complain About Arranged by
Feelings, Thoughts, and Acts
23. Common Aggressive Driving Habits and What To Do About Them
24. Traffic Emotions Education Cards
25. DrDriving's Rating of the Strength of Aggressive Driving
Language in Legislation
26. Common Driving Habits and What To Do
About Them
27. Cars, Drivers, Passengers and
Relationships, Marriage, Romance
29. Pedestrian Psychology and Safety
31. Bicycling Safety Information -- The War
Against Drivers
32. The Psychology of Air Rage Prevention With Compassionate Crowd Management
Techniques
37. Collection of Road Rage and Driving Tips on the Web (1996-2007)
39. Acts of Kindness while Driving
40. DBB Ratings--Drivers Behaving Badly
Movie Ratings
41. Distracted Driving: Cell phones,
Multitasking
45. Workshop Charts on Getting a Grip on Anger while Driving
48. Chart of Your Driving Personality
55. Hawaii Road Rage and Driving Issues
57. Collection of Road Rage News Stories
Around the World (1996-2007)
58. Interview Answers on Road Rage and Other Rages for Various
News Sources
59. The Psychology of Parking Rage: Threestep Program For Prevention
60. Driver Personality Test and Results
67. Emotional Reactions to the September 11 Attack
69. Birds Stories The Social Psychology of a Backyard Aviary
70. Songs About Driving Cars on Roads and Highways
71. The Effect of Age, Gender, and Type of Car Driven Compared
by the States
virtually inseparable. Road rage is a habit acquired in childhood. Children are
reared in a car culture that condones irate
When did the
term Road Rage enter our vocabulary?
- Nine in 10 people suffer from road rage -
- 34.5m people in Britain become enraged by drivers who change lanes recklessly
- One in 25 18-24 year olds take selfies at the wheel -
The Effect of
Age, Gender, and Type of Car Driven Across the States
http://www.drdriving.org/surveys/interpretations.htm
Summary:
The pattern of results thus far lead me to
the following conclusions:
Driving
literacy facts that every driver needs to know!
on car crashes and injuries may also be found on
these Web sites:
www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov
www.safecarguide.com/exp/statistics/statistics.htm
www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html www.transport-links.org/transport_links/filearea/publications/1_771_Pa3568.pdf
Brief Summary
of How Driving Psychology Explains
Aggressive
Driving is a philosophy (P),
an attitude (A), and a weakness (W).
You can remember this as AD = PAW.
Aggressive driving as a philosophy
Road
regulations and civility do not apply to me some of the time.
Aggressive driving as an attitude
Aggressive driving as a weakness
The
Psychology of Vanity Plates
Several
issues are involved in this cultural practice:
c. it commemorates along with some others a conference or
event that ties them together
a. it is an act of self-expression through content and
style of the vanity plate
b. it is equivalent to a Òspeech actÓ or act of declaring
something publicly about oneself
a. willingness to pay more for the plates (indicating
engagement and strong motivation)
Vanity
Plates: Contest Entries and Awards
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_plate
Traffic Waves by Beatty Explained
How to respond to an aggressive
driver:
¥ Do not
"argue with your car."
¥ Yield to
the other driver in a dispute over who has the right-of-way.
¥ Watch for
tailgaters to pull in front of you too quickly.
¥ Always think: "What
can I do to make this situation safer?"
How to stop driving aggressively:
¥ Try to change one thing every day.
¥ Give yourself enough
time to get to a destination.
¥ Go with the flow and speed of traffic.
¥ Don't get
in the car to drive when angry.
Monitor Your Mental Driving Economy
What Causes Driving Stress and the Emotional Use of the Gas Pedal?
Emotional Territoriality in Driving – What Is It?
Driving involves traffic emotions, traffic thoughts, and traffic actions.
Noticing-Appraising-Executing. This is the
driverÕs loop.
From our book
on Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
What principles are safest for
children as passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists
1. To become more aware of habits of thinking while walking or
riding.
2. To develop objective judgment about strangers'
behavior.
3. To develop emotional intelligence as drivers,
passengers, and pedestrians.
5. To acknowledge the human rights of all drivers.
6. To acknowledge passengers' rights (their
convenience, comfort, and safety).
7. To acknowledge pedestrian rights (why they must
have the right of way).
8. To acknowledge the rights of bicycle
riders and how to behave near them.
11. To be able to defend the ideal of social responsibility in public
places
12. To recognize the benefits and rewards
of being supportive and positive.
13. To practice self-witnessing activities as
passengers
14. To practice self-witnessing activities as
pedestrians and other road uses
The following is
excerpted from:
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving : Steering Clear
of Highway Warfare
by Leon James & Diane Nahl (Prometheus, 2000).
ROAD RAGE CHECKLIST: ASSESS
YOUR OWN RANGE OF HOSTILITY
The following twenty steps are arranged
along a continuum of escalating degrees of hostility, beginning with relatively
milder forms of aggressiveness (step 1) and going all the way to extreme
violence (step 20). How far down the uncivilized path do you allow yourself to
go? The majority of drivers we tested go as far as step 13.
1. Mentally condemning another driver
2. Verbally denigrating another driver to passengers in your vehicle
3. Closing ranks to deny someone entry into your lane because you're frustrated
or upset
4. Giving another driver the "stink eye" to show your disapproval
5. Speeding past another car or revving the engine as a
sign of protest
6. Preventing another driver from passing because you're mad
7. Tailgating to pressure a driver to go faster or get out of the way
8. Fantasizing physical violence against another driver
9. Honking or yelling at someone through the window to
indicate displeasure
10. Making a visible obscene gesture at another driver
11. Using your car to retaliate by making sudden, threatening maneuvers
12. Pursuing another car because of a provocation or insult
13. Getting out of the car and
engaging in a verbal dispute on a street or parking lot
14. Carrying
a weapon in the car in case you decide to use it in a driving incident
15. Deliberately bumping or ramming another car in
anger
16. Trying to run another car off the road to punish the
driver
17. Getting out of the car and beating or battering
someone as a result of a road exchange
18. Trying to run someone down whose actions angered you
19. Shooting at another car
20. Killing someone
How far down did you go on the continuum?
The checklist is divided into five equal zones of intensity of aggressiveness.
Unfriendly Zone: Items 1 to 3 --
mental and verbal acts of unkindness toward other drivers
Hostile Zone: Items 4 to 7 -- visibly
communicating displeasure or resentment with the desire to punish or retaliate
Violent Zone: Items 8 to 11 -- carrying
out an act of hostility either in fantasy or in deed
Lesser Mayhem Zone: Items 12 to
16 -- epic road rage contained within personal limits
Major Mayhem Zone: Items 17 to
20 -- unrestrained epic road rage; the stuff of violent media headlines.
THE
AGGRESSIVE DRIVING SYNDROME
Our
research shows that the aggressiveness syndrome is made of the following 16
driver behaviors. Ask yourself how many of these apply to you on a regular
basis:
1. feeling stress
2. swearing
3. acting in a hostile manner
4. speeding
5. yelling at other drivers
6. honking at other drivers
7. making insulting gestures
8. tailgating
9. cutting someone off
10. expressing road rage behavior
11. feeling enraged
12. indulging in violent fantasies
13. feeling competitive with other drivers
14. rushing all the time
15. feeling the desire to drive dangerously
16. feeling less calm and level headed behind the wheel
These
16 driving behaviors define the aggressive driver syndrome. They are all
significantly intercorrelated. This means that if you do one of them regularly,
you will also do many of the other 15 on a regular basis.
See
also: What Drivers Complain
About Arranged by Feelings, Thoughts, and Acts
What Some
Motorists Have
Said About Anger and Road Rage in Their Lives
^^^ Anger is a natural emotion, and is rather self-protective at times.
Anger can be maladaptive, and during those times we need to check ourselves, or
wait to overtly react. It is healthy to have the ability to get angry, but it
is unhealthy to let anger rule or overcome your life to the point that the only
thing you can see or feel is anger. Our moods need to have some balance, and controlling
anger when it is inappropriate is important. Knowing the difference between
inappropriate anger and appropriate anger is an important exploration. For
instance, if you want your job, you cannot yell at your boss because you are angry at him, but instead sit calmly and explain your
feelings if possible. I am rarely enraged, except when someone i love is hurt. I get depressed oftentimes, but not to the
point of feeling hopeless. A little depression can lead to self-exploration,
which can be good (reevaluating things, etc.) Again, if emotions are out of
control, no matter what emotion it is, that is not healthy.
^^^ As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to
red again, I asked myself "Is life really just a bunch of honking and
screaming?" Everybody is in a rush. Whether getting to work or
driving home, most people are rushing! I know I have a bad temper. I grew up watching
my father get extremely angry. He wouldn't hit us, the kids, but he would hit
other objects and shake things. I grew up thinking this was the way to deal
with anger. I know its wrong. I am trying very hard to control my anger on the roads
and with the people I love. I tend to get most angry with those I love and who
love me. I take the worst out on these people and then regret it later. Our
society is like this too. We are all very selfish and want what we want when we
want it. I hope this will help your survey. I can honestly say that I am trying
to make a POSITIVE change in my attitude and the way I see others and the way
in which I handle my anger. Thank you for this opportunity to express myself.
^^^ I believe that our society is becoming more self-centered in general.
People seem to have a me-first attitude that didn't exist 30 or more years ago.
There's a sense of entitlement that seems to justify bad (and/or narcissistic)
behaviors. Anger, rudeness and lack of consideration for others are becoming so
much the norm that I find myself surprised when strangers are kind or considerate
(whether on the road or in a store or whatever). I find it difficult to be mean
or rude, even when I feel I've been wronged -- it's just how I was raised and I
think most others my age (50+) are the same. But it looks to me that this
attitude will die with us and our society will be one mean place to be in
future years.
^^^ I notice all the time in my city the people who have problems with
"road rage". I my self am a borderline road rager, but I will say
that I've gotten a lot better. However, there are people out there also that
purposely do things to aggravate or irritate the "road ragers" and
make situations worse instead of just moving out of their way. Like slowing way
down or slamming on their brakes in the fast lane instead of just moving over.
In my opinion they are just as bad if not worse than "Road Ragers".
Sometimes they are the ones that cause the situations!!
^^^ I think people need to get more sleep, more exercise, and have more
active relaxation (not tv or computer games). I think
that thinking through situations, being compassionate and empathetic, helps.
Give the person irritating you all the excuses you would give yourself if you
made a mistake. Sometimes lying to yourself (e.g.
"that person must not have seen me" or "they didn't mean to do
that") helps to decrease anger, when necessary.
^^^ I think that socially - we are becoming more insular and have lost
the art of patience. I work at maintaining balance - as do many of my
peers/friends/family - yet also witness impatience among those groups - more
than I recall as a child in the smae groups (or shall
I say youngster). My husband - a normally patient person - paid a "per
diem" for the horrific commute he has - recounts terrible incidents he has
seen on the roadways -and the difficulty of trying to maneuver away from it. I
try to travel side and back roads - and am often shocked when I get on our
highways to witness the speeding and weaving - beeping and bad behavior on the
roads. I must also comment that I NEVER NEVER see State Police out on the roads. I have
called in plates of dangerous drivers - and have written letters that have seen
no follow up. I wish you had one more question on your survey. It would be
this: Do you ever wish you/your family could get around without having to drive
on our nation's roads? Yes! Yes I do.
^^^ I think we get angrier as a society because we're eating too much
artificial food. I've cut back on the amount of caffeine I drink, and it's
helped a lot, but I'm still very impatient.
^^^ I want to find a way to let out all the stress of the day so that by
the time I hit the road I don't get so angry at the guy the "cuts me
off" on the way home. Trouble is, how do you
get the other guy to find an outlet for his anger? I am seriously considering
taking up kickboxing to vent.
^^^ Sometimes I feel discouraged like we are completely losing sight of
the things that really matter in society, like family, love, religion, children
and family virtues and values. I had a brother who passed away at 26 five years
ago. It was a very depressing time for me. I used to listen to very angry,
aggressive music to revert all of my sadness and discouragement to anger and
rage. Now, I find sometimes it is hard to let go of those things.
^^^ I'd like to say that there is a good side to road rage: that is that
it tends to deter people from intentionally being rude to other
motorists. and on the other hand, there are so
many cell phone owners that 'road rage assailants need to be particularly careful
that there are no witnesses, before they offend.
^^^ It seems people do not take responsibility for their anger or
feelings. my favorite quote is from the
movie "The Big Chill": "I could have, I chose not to."
^^^ Anger can help you to act constructively, to push you to the point where
you will do what you previously thought yourself incapable of doing. To act off
anger is not always to act in violence or negativity. Most people don't realize
this, but anger is the greatest motivator.