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
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
23. Common Aggressive Driving Habits and What To Do About Them
25. DrDriving's Rating of the Strength of Aggressive Driving
Language in Legislation
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
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
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
60. Driver Personality Test and Results
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
Driving
literacy facts that every driver needs to know!
Brief Summary
of How Driving Psychology Explains
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 ҳpeech actӠor 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:
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
driverճ
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.
