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Diane’s Story Leon’s Story PART 1: THE CONFLICT MENTALITY CHAPTER 1: DRIVING IN THE AGE OF RAGE Road Rage: Real or Media Hype?
Denial and the Semantics of Aggressive Driving CHAPTER 3: CAUSES OF HIGHWAY HOSTILITY Defensive Driving
CHAPTER 4: ROAD RAGE SPECTRUM Jekyll-Hyde Syndrome PART 2: DRIVING PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 5: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR DRIVERS Inner Power Tools CHAPTER 6: THREE-STEP DRIVER SELF-IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
CHAPTER 7: CHILDREN AND ROAD RAGE Road Rage Nursery CHAPTER 8: SUPPORTIVE DRIVING Benefits of Supportive Driving CHAPTER 9: LIFELONG DRIVER EDUCATION Teenagers at Risk PART 3: DRIVING'S FUTURE
CHAPTER 10: THE WAR AGAINST AGGRESSIVE DRIVING
Aggressive vs. Assertive Driving
In the Driver's Image
Note: the links in the end of chapter notes give you Web access to the items mentioned.
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Diane’s Story Leon’s Story PART 1: THE CONFLICT MENTALITY CHAPTER 1: DRIVING IN THE AGE OF RAGE Road Rage: Real or Media Hype? (begin selection 1 from Chapter 1) In 1996 the American media began to write stories about violent highway incidents using warlike language that highlights a spirit of battle on the roads:
Stories listed in Yahoo! in 1999:1 A driver intentionally rammed his vehicle into a car with three kids and their parents in it, after the children gave him an "obscene finger gesture." A man was stabbed repeatedly by another motorist when a traffic disagreement escalated from obscene gestures to violence. A motorist spit on the driver of a bus after he was cut off, then as the bus driver got out, the enraged motorist severely beat the bus driver. A 49-year-old father of five, shot to death by another motorist who has been charged with capital homicide. A woman got a 15-year sentence for gunning the engine and hitting another woman in a fender-bender dispute. A man was shot at after he had honked at another car who passed him. A delivery van collided with a pickup truck, breaking a side mirror. An argument ensued and the delivery van driver punched the other driver, who then pulled out a handgun and shot the delivery van driver in the chest. A 17-year-old boy was tailgating a motorist. They both pulled over, a dispute ensued, and the boy was shot. An elderly driver peeved that another driver honked at him hurled his prescription bottle at the honker, then smashed his knees with his car when the man got out. An enraged bicyclist, after being knocked off his bike by a car, pulled out a handgun and shot the driver to death. The expression "road rage" was introduced into the public vocabulary by the popular media. Though there has been no agreed-upon definition, people use the phrase to refer to an extreme state of anger that often precipitates aggressive behavior, sometimes restricted to words and gestures, sometimes as assault and battery. A variety of factors have been named to account for the increase in aggressiveness between drivers, such as traffic congestion, feeling endangered, being insulted, frustration, time pressure, fatigue, competitiveness, and lapses in attention. A much quoted article in the August 1998 issue of The Atlantic questions the existence of road rage, claiming that it's "merely media mayhem." Like any other fabricated epidemic, the more you tell people it’s there, the more they see it. Tailgating used to be called tailgating. Now it’s road rage. The New York Daily News assures us that using a car phone is road rage. Saying "Hi, honey, I love you; be home soon." is now no different than bowling over bicyclists with your Buick….The term, and the alleged epidemic, were quickly popularized by lobbying groups, politicians, opportunistic therapists, even the U.S. Department of Transportation. The writer, Michael Fumento, isn’t impressed by "research evidence," such as the AAA Foundation's 1997 studies that reported 218 police records of deaths following disputes between drivers between 1990 and 1996. During the same period, Fumento points out, 290,000 Americans died from vehicular accidents, but this large number, he feels, is not due to road rage. America’s roads become safer by the year…. At first, "road rage" meant one driver acting against another. But by last year it had come to include a Washington, D.C., bicyclist who shot the driver of a car who ran into him, and a Scottish couple who threatened a driver with a knife after his BMW ran over their dog. In theory it's possible to restrict "road rage" to felonious or criminal acts of violence by one driver against another. Even if people could agree on that usage, there's a similar problem with the term "aggressive driving" referring to reckless behavior, such as running red lights or giving someone a "brake job," as well as to speeding, tailgating, and lane hopping. To many, these maneuvers are merely a preferred style of driving that is assertive and competitive, not aggressive or hostile. However, word usage can almost never be legislated according to ideological preference, and society has been using "road rage" and "aggressive driving" to designate many forms of both hostile and illegal driving. Beginning in the late 1980s, talk about road rage and aggressive driving increased tremendously, while the number of deaths due to crashes gradually decreased from around 50,000 deaths per year in the 1950s and 60s, to about 40,000 deaths per year in the 1980s and 90s. This healthy change reflects improvements in safety and design introduced since 1970, including mandated seatbelts, airbags, better brake systems, upper taillights, and crash absorbing devices. In addition, seatbelt and childseat restraint legislation, improved highway engineering, and the expansion of limited access divided highways contribute to better driving safety. (end of selection 1 from Chapter 1) A Worldwide Phenomenon
Facing the Culture of Disrespect (begin selection 2 from Chapter 1)
Media reports and driver opinion surveys illustrate the need to place aggressive driving within a cultural context to answer the question: Why is this happening and why is it on the rise? At the 1996 National Women's Political Caucus, Sharon Rodine discussed the need for greater "civility in society." She noted that culture influences the level of intolerance and violence by promoting and supporting the acceptance of aggressive behavior. It's essential, she said, to differentiate between "stupid acts" and "stupid people" by looking beyond facile polarization and stereotypes. And the President warned us about the decline of sportsmanship, where "winning ugly" has become the popular model, and unrepentant bullies deliberately contribute to an atmosphere of unsportsmanlike behavior with profanity, kicking trash cans, insulting referees, making ugly shows of defiance, participating in field brawls, and denigrating fans in media interviews. One of the most commercially successful event on TV is violent looking wrestling, where enthusiastic crowds, including children, applaud the insults and enraged acts of wrestlers. A culture of rage also prevails in the driving arena. Everyone knows about it, and everybody talks about it. It's estimated that there are billions of road rage exchanges annually among the 177 million U.S. drivers, not including the 1200 yearly road rage assault and battery deaths reported by police. But the vast majority of the billions of road rage exchanges, each lasting mere seconds or minutes, don't end up with shootings and battering. Nevertheless, it's appropriate to designate these hostile mini-exchanges as instances of road rage because each involves the two symptoms that define road rage: (a) the feeling of rage accompanied by mental violence, and (b) the desire to punish and retaliate. Few of us can claim to be free of hostile encounters when we drive. Mostly, the incidents don't break out into the open or are ignored. We get used to them and consider them normal. But we run a risk each time because it's not possible to predict which little incident will turn violent. The cumulative effect of our daily encounters with pervasive hostility toughens our hide, and promotes a culture of mutual disrespect on highways. Deborah Tannen examines the dynamics of the culture of disrespect in every day life.12 Tannen's analysis of the problem of contentiousness in society is applicable to driving. The adversarial attitude common in driving is similar to disputes and disagreements in the workplace, in the family, and in personal relationships. Aggressiveness among motorists adds a dysfunctional element to driving as a social institution or activity. Some drivers go overboard in applying the defensive driving principle, emphasizing suspiciousness and a readiness to criticize or expect the worst of others. (end selection 2 from Chapter 1) The Expanding Age of Rage including surf rage... The Anger Choice Daniel Goleman writes that anger "is energizing, even exhilarating."24 Venting rage behind the wheel feels like a catharsis--"Isn't it better for me than holding it in?" Does this justify hostility or uncivility? While long held popular belief says that venting anger is healthy, recent medical research concludes that venting instead increases stress and depresses immune system functioning.25 The new message is: anger kills.26 However, culture has inherited the ill effects of the "venting is good" model. Goleman points to the "seductive, persuasive power" of anger, of the illusion that it is uncontrollable, triggered automatically, that we're not really responsible when it just comes out.24 But actually, the "triggering" stimulus is merely the sudden realization of physical endangerment. Someone cuts us off and we hit the brakes. As the foot moves, the brain reacts simultaneously and prepares for the worst. For a few moments we experience overwhelming physical sensations. This is the moment of choice. It is a free choice and its outcome depends on the symbolic value we attach to the event. If we attach the event to our self-esteem, we may go down the road of rage, feeling insulted, wronged, disrespected, demeaned, and thwarted from our legitimate goal. The emotional, reptilian, old brain takes over and leads us to emotionally challenged behavior like retaliating. But there is another choice that is equally available to us in that emotional moment. If we realize that the driver's prime directive is to stay in control of the vehicle and of the situation, we can see that we give up control by responding in kind. We don't know what the other might do next. But we have the freedom to transform the symbolic value of the "triggering" event, to inhibit the impulse to kill. Following the prime directive gives us the opportunity to remain cool headed and to respond from the new, cortical brain, "Hey, be my guest." or, "Let it go, it's not worth it." or, "Maybe the guy has an emergency or something." or, "That could be my grandmother." The essence of emotional intelligence for drivers is consciously transforming the critical reaction to something less painful. That's a big victory! George Washington's Rules of Civility (begin selection 3 from Chapter 1) Reporter Michelle Malkin, in an article on road rage, reminds us of George Washington's cardinal Rule of Civility as the cement that binds a nation together. Malkin believes that following these rules can cure road rage and aggressive driving:27 The problem isn't absence of self-esteem - but an utter lack of self-restraint. Two-and-a-half centuries ago, our Founding Father, George Washington, subscribed to a more cost-effective and time-tested program for reining in one's inner dragons. He carried a hand-copied list of self-improvement rules, originally set out by 16th-century Jesuit priests, wherever he wen--from Valley Forge to Yorktown and throughout his presidency. The original manuscript is kept at the Library of Congress. (end selection 3 from Chapter 1) Developing Emotional Literacy Protecting Yourself From Aggressive Drivers
Checklist: Your Road Range Tendency (begin selection 4 from Chapter 1) Scoring your answers: Give yourself 1 road rage point for every Yes answer. How many do you have? Interpreting your score: Scores range from 0 to 20. Few drivers ever get 0 because road rage emotions are habitual and cultural. We all have some tendency toward it sometimes. The higher the score, the more likely it is that you will be the victim of road rage trouble. Typical scores range from 5 to 20 with an average of 12. If your score is less than 5 you're not an aggressive driver and your road rage tendency is manageable. Scores between 5 and 10 indicate that you have moderate road rage habits of driving. If your score is greater than 10 your road rage tendency is out of control, enough to compromise your ability to remain calm and fair in certain routine, but challenging driving situations. By examining the pattern of your answers, you can gain valuable insight about your current level of emotional intelligence as a driver (see Chapter 5). Many drivers are able to reduce their score to under 5 after conscious practice with the techniques described in this book. This checklist helps you assess four critical elements that create habitual road rage: • your anger theory (questions 1 to 7) • your driving philosophy (questions 8 to 11) • your habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive (questions 12 to 17) • your over-sensitivity to social pressure by motorists (18 to 20) A word of caution is in order. You cannot fully trust the reliability of the answers, especially when your score is low, because it only represents your opinion of your driving. You may have an excellent reputation of yourself as a driver, but it may not be objective or accurate. Our research shows that when 10 is perfect, most people choose 8, 9, or 10 when asked to rate their excellence as a driver. Clearly, most drivers are not that excellent or there wouldn't be 6 million collisions each year and billions of hostile incidents. The following chapters describe various convenient methods you can use to make objective observations about yourself as driver. Accuracy in self-assessment is essential for identifying and modifying unsafe components in your driving habits. We recommend that you fill out all the checklists and do all the exercises because they supply the knowledge needed to practice a lifelong driver self-improvement program (Chapter 9). (end selection 4 from Chapter 1) Checklist: Winning and Losing in the Driving Game
CHAPTER 2: AGGRESSIVE DRIVING AND MENTAL HEALTH Denial and the Semantics of Aggressive Driving (begin selection 1 from Chapter 2)
These percentage distributions may vary in different geographic locations or specific highway segments but whatever these specific variations may be, each location is marked by a combination of several forms of aggressive behaviors that constitute the norms of aggressiveness typical in that location. Drivers Behaving Badly on TV
One of our students' favorite research activity is observing popular television programs and taking notes on scenes that portray drivers behaving badly:4
July 17, 1997, 6:17pm: The Simpsons (adult cartoon series): First incident: The three kids were watching TV, the cat was trying to kill the mouse and as the cat was running from the house, the cat runs onto the road and gets run over by a speeding truck. The Simpson kids watching the show are laughing very hard at this scene. Second incident: Homer Simpson is late for work again and speeds into a public parking stall, almost hitting a pedestrian. Homer doesn't slow down, he just chases the pedestrian until the person moves out of the way. Homer yelled at the pedestrian for being in the way. (end selection 1 from Chapter 2) Players Behaving Badly with Road Rage Video Games Why Driving Arouses Anger
(begin selection 2 from Chapter 2) Driving in traffic routinely involves events and incidents. Events are normal sequential maneuvers such as stopping for lights, changing lanes, or braking. Incidents are frequent but abnormal events. Some of these are dangerous and frightening, such as near-misses or violent exchanges, while others are merely annoying or depressing, such as being insulted by a driver or forgetting to make a turn. Driving events and incidents are sources of psychological forces capable of producing powerful feelings and irrational thought sequences. Driving is a dramatic activity performed by millions on a daily basis. The drama stems from high risk, interactivity, and unpredictability. Driving has conflicting structural components in predictability and unpredictability. Predictability creates safety, security, and escape from disaster. Unpredictability creates danger, stress, and crashes. For many, driving is linked to a value of freedom of locomotion. On one hand, we can get into cars and drive where we please, the very symbol of freedom and independence. But on the other hand, we encounter restrictions and constrictions like regulations, congestion, and the unexpected actions of other motorists that prevent us from driving as we wish. The following list identifies 15 conflicting aspects of driving that act as stressors. The list represents emotional challenges that are common occasions for expressing hostility and aggressiveness on highways and streets:
Lack of personal control: Traffic follows the objective laws that govern flow patterns, like (end selection 2 from Chapter 2) The Gender Effect Driving Impaired
(begin selection 3 from Chapter 2) Research on how people manage to control their feelings shows that the ability to regulate our emotions is a learned skill with two main components. First, accurate "self-appraisal." This skill depends on how carefully we monitor our emotions and how we express them, verbally or by silence, gesture, and tone. Second, effective "self-regulation." This skill depends on acquiring methods to self-regulate the intensity and expression of our emotions. Self-appraisal and self-regulation are skills that can be learned by anyone who is dedicated to practice. Exercising discretion and control over our emotional lives is a necessary coping skill that determines success and health. Some are able to learn these skills on their own, through experiences, but many others do not, and need to be given self-training techniques for accurate self-appraisal and effective self-regulation. Motorists are constantly exposed to risky situations that generate intense emotional involvement. The driver's prime directive is to maintain control of the vehicle and the situation, so it's smart to train yourself to exert self-control over the emotions behind the wheel because emotions impact the situation. To develop emotional competence as a driver you need a basic understanding of mental control. When sitting behind the wheel and exerting control over your vehicle, what is happening in the brain and mind to carry out the driving task? Many know that the front of the brain has two sub-parts or the left brain and the right brain. Our emotional life of feelings correlates with the action of the right brain, while the left brain correlates with our intellectual life of thinking. Everyone can become aware of their thoughts through systematic self-observation. If you are serving as a juror, or forced to testify as a witness, you are expected to report what you saw, what you said, what you decided, what you concluded, what you thought, or why you did something. We are expected to be able to account for our inner life when it impinges on others. We are able to stay on the topic of a conversation because we know what we want to say about something. In conversations we're expected to remember what we said and what the other said. If someone asks, "What are you thinking about?" you can often describe the topic and sometimes even the words that occurred in the mind. But if someone asks, "What are you feeling?" many times we show little capacity for accurately describing our on-going feelings. We can't always put feelings into words. We can easily become aware of the left brain activity correlated to thinking or cognitive processes, but only with difficulty and practice can we become aware of the right brain activity correlated to emotions, feelings, moods, and what's called "affect." (end selection 3 from Chapter 2) Checklist: Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings
Defensive Driving Stressful Congestion Inevitable Unpredictability
(begin selection 1 from Chapter 3) Driving is a social activity that requires constant and instantaneous cooperation between strangers, and this requires that we be sensitive to one another in order to anticipate what other drivers are likely to do. Some people slide beyond the optimum range of sensitivity and feel excessive pressure to do things they don't want to do, like going faster than it's safe because of fear of disapproval. A number of drivers reported feeling embarrassed making a full stop at a stop sign when there are no cars in sight. One older female driver shared her fears about not wanting to lose face, to be "the one who's stuck back there" at the intersection:
I should go, I should go. Will I run the light? I should go. They expect me to go. If I don't go they'll think I'm a wimp. I hate that. I have to go, oh wow, I'm going. Making a mistake or "missing" a light is an opportunity to berate herself and feel ashamed, increasing her stress but making it easier for others. Drivers, both young and old, need to be equipped with inner tools to resist perceived peer-pressure that increases risk and stress: I read that young drivers are less likely than older drivers to wear their safety belts. I can truly relate to this so-called trend. As a teenager, you are so worried about fitting in and looking good. You want to do what others are doing. I recall the whole idea of wearing a safety belt as being "so lame." I couldn't imagine cruising around Vance Point with my seat belt on..."What a geek!" That would be unheard of and what would people think of me. I think for many of us we knew the importance of safety belts, but because it wasn't "cool," we didn't use them. The norm in the eyes of my teenaged friends is not to use safety belts, so I, as well as others, conformed to this expectation. Conformity in this situation is the same as peer-pressure. In the absence of emotional intelligence training or a naturally positive driving philosophy, drivers can believe that they a right to respect or to disrespect both people and laws, to justify hostile feelings and give themselves permission for violent retaliation, giving in to the rationale that since everyone drives crazy we all must: It's ridiculous, I have finally reached the point where I have had to pull totally off the highway, onto the shoulder, to let some speeder pass (at 70 to 80 mph) who absolutely refused to pass on any of the other three lanes to our left. I find that these days there are so many people out of control on the highways that a person who tries to drive at the speed limit and within the law, actually becomes a traffic hazard to the speeders. It becomes safer to drive just as crazy and fit in with the crowd. (end selection 1 from Chapter 3) Automotive Vigilantism Trigger Theory of Road Rage (begin selection 2 from Chapter 3)
There is no direct connection between "They provoked me" and "They deserve punishment," but people make an indirect connection when they describe the situation this way: "They broke an important rule which makes me feel bad. Therefore I want to punish them, which will make me feel better. Besides, it's dangerous to let them get away with it. So I must help society and myself by teaching them a lesson they won't forget." It's tempting to use driving incidents as an opportunity to take charge and play the disciplinarian for the public good. Raging aggressively is a way of striving for control, attempting to coerce, imposing our will on another. Habitual aggressive driving is a strategy for gaining supremacy over others. Suddenly, we see an opportunity to become a member of a highway posse, out to enforce vigilante law and order. It feels good to take control as the keeper of the rules of the road. Much of the time everyone gets away unscathed, so there appear to be no serious consequences to our unrestrained acts. But don't count on it. One sure sign of a high road rage tendency is the strong desire to let the other person know how you feel. Everyone can list driving pet peeves on the road, the things other drivers do that get us going or push our hot buttons, and seem to act like triggers. But actually, we give (end selection 2 from Chapter 3)
CHAPTER 4: ROAD RAGE SPECTRUM Jekyll-Hyde Syndrome Passive-Aggressive Road Rage Checklist: Your Passive Aggressive Road Rage Tendency
(begin selection 1 from Chapter 4) We define "verbal road rage" as: The habit of constantly complaining about the traffic, keeping up a stream of mental or spoken attacks against drivers, passengers, law enforcement officials, road workers, pedestrians, speed limits, and road signs. Undoubtedly the most common form of road rage, the purpose of these negative expressions is to denounce, ridicule, condemn, or castigate a rule, an engineer, or another driver. We found them frequently used in electronic discussion groups: morons, stupid idiots, louts, unbelievable fools, crazy jackasses, damn maniacs, criminals, creeps, selfish freaks, and dunderheads among many others. Have you listened in on yourself behind the wheel? Drivers have a tendency to chatter to themselves about what's going on. It's natural. Everybody does it, and not just in traffic. But it's not common to listen in to our mental broadcasts. Listening to yourself thinking behind the wheel informs you of the kind of driving persona you maintain. Some of this self-talk is comes out as swearing, cursing, or complaining. But these overt verbalizations are merely the tip of the iceberg. Deeper within your mind reside cultural habits of reasoning and reacting emotionally. It's possible to become aware of these automatic mental habits by using the methods outlined in Chapter 6. (end selection 1 from Chapter 4)
(begin selection 2 from Chapter 4) Rushing mania is one of the most common driving obsessions, yet its connection to road rage is often not noticed or understood: My mind is focused on getting to my destination in a certain amount of time, and I don't seem to care how I do it as long as I don't crash. Even if I don't have to get somewhere by a certain time, I'm always in a hurry. This dysfunctional driving style has two complementary elements. One is an extraordinary anxiety to avoid slowing down. The other is the consequent anger against anyone who causes a slow down. In this mental state we are perpetually anxious on the road, berating ourselves for being slow, being late, being behind others. We get into a habit of lane hopping, always trying to figure out which lane is faster. This mental attitude creates impulsive driving that is unpredictable and difficult for other drivers to read. We become the victims of our own fantasies about beating traffic or avoiding congestion:
When motorists are frantic about traffic, their mood can deteriorate dramatically: When I'm late, I turn into an angry, hostile, lane-changing daredevil. The longer the delay I have to endure, the more hostile I become towards others who may try to cut in front of me. I tend to lose sight of my belief that we all have a right to use the road. (Older man) Running red lights and ignoring stop or yield signs, are the most frequent causes of urban crashes. Traffic police often hear the "I'm late for..." excuse from drivers who are pulled over for speeding, and as they hand them a citation, they are likely to answer, "So, leave a little earlier next time." Being late is not a legal reason to drive aggressively. Drivers give these typical reasons and justifications for rushing all the time:
(end selection 2 from Chapter 4) Checklist: Are You A Rushing Maniac? Aggressive Competitor Checklist: Are You An Aggressive Competitor? Left Lane Bandit (begin selection 3 from Chapter 4) Left lane bandits can be motivated by contrariness, stubbornness, and even the perverse enjoyment of dominating others by forcing them to line up behind. The most common complaint we hear is about those who insist on driving slower than is considered normal for a given area. The nicest term applied to them is "inconsiderate drivers." People who drive deliberately slower than the traffic provoke others by claiming the right to obstruct the traffic flow: If I'm moving faster than the prevailing traffic, I'm neither legally nor morally required to move over. It's that simple. This receives a furious response from the highway vigilantes:
There's a better way to move aside the idiots who clog up the interstate's passing lane; however, driving a snowplow with the wing blade down at 80 mph is not for everyone. As an alternative, turn on your headlights and make sure the high beam switch is activated. Then turn them off. As you approach one of the "turtle type" drivers (I call them turtles because they are always traveling slow and have their head up their shell), simply flash your headlights at them a couple of times. Many of these jerks do not mind getting out of your way but they fail to ever notice you until you have, out of necessity, become one of "those tailgating fools." This type of driver almost always believes it is his sacred duty to "punish" tailgaters by not getting out of the way. As long as there are people who don't understand "left lane fast, right lane slow," I'm gonna pass these pompous idiots on the inside. I used to wait for them to move over, but I've learned that 90% of drivers who are driving two mph above the speed limit in the supposedly "fast" lane, really don't care about any other car's desire to drive faster then they are, and some even derive some sort of perverse pleasure in preventing me from getting two car lengths ahead. (end selection 3 from Chapter 4)
Checklist: Real World Driving Tips
PART 2: DRIVING PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 5: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR DRIVERS Inner Power Tools (begin selection 1 from Chapter 5) The best protection against the ravages of aggressiveness and rage is to inhibit venting and let the excitatory endangerment response dissipate. So we need to understand why we have difficulty in not venting when we experience a flare of anger in the face of endangerment. To be effective in inhibiting the venting response, your anger management techniques must involve two components: (a) relaxation techniques to reduce physical arousal, and (b) mental re-appraisal of the situation. Emotional self-control consists in monitoring both these components, such as consciously breathing slowly and relaxing your grip a bit (a), and systematically observing your thinking (b). Inner power tools provide the techniques to re-structure your assessment of the situation. Driving psychology provides the knowledge to manage our "driving personality" in an increasingly complex transportation environment that makes legal, economic, social, behavioral, and ethical demands on drivers. Inner power tools are techniques smart drivers learn to use to overhaul their old driving personality by retraining their emotional intelligence with exercises behind the wheel. (end selection 1 from Chapter 5)
(begin selection 2 from Chapter 5) Research reviewed by Goleman has uncovered six components of emotional intelligence that can be learned with appropriate practice:
Anger is one of the most difficult human emotions to control. Not only is it explosive, but it gives you the sensation of being energized, heart pounding, head shaking, face scowling, hands tightly gripping the wheel. Especially when venting its intensity. In the "rage rush," the rational mind becomes irrational, and is placed in the service of calculated anger, breathing vengeance and, through self-righteous indignation, justifying punishment or mayhem. The sense of outrage is especially persuasive when our safety is threatened by what seems to us like someone's inconsiderate behavior. Another common occasion is the feeling of having been insulted or symbolically attacked and demeaned. Road rage is especially intense and hostile when both factors are present--endangerment and insult. For example, suppose you started switching lanes when a car behind suddenly overtakes your car, forcing you to swerve back into your lane. You feel endangered, your heart begins to pound, you're making great efforts to control your impulse to yell. To top it off, as the car passes you, the driver honks and throws you an obscene gesture. You're still not recovered from the feeling of being placed in danger, you feel insulted and provoked. This is the moment of greatest challenge, as your emotional circuitry seems to be short-circuiting, adrenaline pumping through your blood, emergency hormones quickly spreading throughout your muscles, readying your for aggression. It's the road rage rush. How do you handle it? (end selection 2 from Chapter 5) Three Levels of Emotional Intelligence (begin selection 3 from Chapter 5) This chart helps to track your growth in emotional fitness as you try to diagnose the various elements of your driving style and philosophy. For a complete picture, keep track of three aspects of yourself as driver: feelings, thoughts, and actions. Driving more intelligently is the result of positive feelings and right thoughts coming together in effective actions.
Level 1--Oppositional Driving
(end selection 3 from Chapter 5) Checklist: Driving With an Oppositional Philosophy Exercise: Negative vs. Positive Driving (begin selection 4 from Chapter 5) Review the contrasts between anti-social and prosocial driver orientations in the Chart below, and explain the difference in each example. Show how they differ in terms of the focus. For example, consider the first example: "They're bone heads!" is a negative orientation, vs. "I'm feeling very impatient today!" is a positive orientation because it accurately focuses on me and my feeling impatient today. The negative focus is antisocial because it always wants to blame, punish, and retaliate. The positive focus is prosocial because it is rational and objective and stays away from aggressing against another. Try come up with an explanation for each of the other items: Why one is subjective, false, and injurious while the other is objective, true, and peaceful?
The transformation from negative and aggressive driving to positive and supportive driving is illustrated by the driver competence skills in the chart below. The oppositional driving mode is a negative mental quagmire while the positive driving mode is emotionally intelligent because motorists exert rational self-control. The actual words in these examples may not fit your own style of thinking-to-yourself, but try to figure out what each example stands for, and think of the words you would use in that frame of mind.
(end selection 4 from Chapter 5) Anatomy of an Epic Road Rage Tragedy Shrinking Your Emotional Territory Exercise: Acting As-If Exercise: Scenarios Analysis to Modify Oppositional Thinking Exercise: Identifying Wrong Assumptions
CHAPTER 6: THREE-STEP DRIVER SELF-IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM Objective Self-Assessment for Drivers Exercise: Assessing Myself as a Driver A--Acknowledge W--Witness Checklist: Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving (begin selection 1 from Chapter 6) Objective self-assessment is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The three behavior zones to observe are emotions, thoughts, and actions. This checklist of examples helps you focus on specific elements of your driving style, but in order to be objective you must observe yourself actually performing the actions, thinking the thoughts, and feeling the emotions. The purpose of the checklist is to alert you to the areas of the driving personality to be witnessed. The items represent common aggressive behaviors from the self-witnessing reports of many drivers. Since they are cultural norms, it's likely that we all have them to some extent. Remember, it's one thing to check items but it's critical to actually observe them as they happen in driving. Experience proves that we can't wish these habits away with resolutions or declarations. It's necessary to begin by consciously observing them as they're happening. As a practical strategy, select one or two items to observe on each trip. Don't try to take on too many at once because you will be defeated. Use the checklist to mark when you've observed each item. It helps to keep notes on the circumstances during which the emotion, thought, or act occurred. WITNESSING YOUR EMOTIONS:
WITNESSING YOUR THOUGHTS:
WITNESSING YOUR ACTIONS:
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Objective Self-Assessment for Drivers 
CHAPTER 11: SPEED LIMITS--THE GREAT MOTORIST REBELLION
CHAPTER 12: DREAM CARS AND DRIVING REALITIES
Remarkably,
most forms of driving considered aggressive by law enforcement are not considered
aggressive by the majority. This disparity in legal versus popular meanings excites the
conflict between what is allowable and appropriate. A 1999 survey comparing attitudes of
Los Angeles drivers with those across the nation shows that people vary in what they're
willing to call "aggressive" driving":2
A crucial
question many have asked in the past decade is, why has road rage exploded in the 1990s?
Traffic congestion has existed since the 1950s and has worsened since the 1970s. The root
of road rage is a "culture tantrum" because the way we express anger and when we
do it is culturally condoned or sanctioned. What has occurred that has promoted the
cultural norm of highway hostility? Psychiatrist John Larson attributes this new attitude
to "the Road Warrior type movies of the 1980's" and today's television that
teaches impressionable individuals that "Vigilante behavior, even that which harms
others, is virtuous, associated with heroic figures, and easy to do."3 These
entertainments reveal that the readiness to use violence is a cultural habit.
ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS JULY 1-2 A Missouri
Emotional Self-Control Behind the Wheel
CHAPTER 3: CAUSES OF HIGHWAY
HOSTILITY 
Even the best and most experienced drivers have problems managing
negative emotions. Many drivers believe that expressing anger is a basic right, pop
psychology has promoted it as healthier than holding it in, and retaliation is accepted as
a punitive method for keeping control on the highway. But playing war-games undermines
self-control, and many drivers are incapable of holding back outbursts of rage once they
make the critical choice of going along with their wild emotions. People justify
aggression by fabricating an illogical sequence: "They provoked me. I can't help it.
They deserve it." There's a feeling of being 'right' in the show of aggression.
"They're breaking a basic rule and they shouldn't. Therefore, I can't let them get
away with it by doing nothing." This serves as the excuse for instant retribution and
dangerous, risky behavior. But is this logical, effective or fair?
Verbal Road Rage
WRONG. As a considerate human being (there are
so few of them left anymore), you should be prepared to move over as soon as it is safe to
do so. This may require speeding up a bit to clear traffic, or slowing a bit to drop into
an open space. But whenever a faster car comes up behind you, GET OUT OF THE WAY. A few
times bozos like that have made it obvious (one-finger salute, brake lights, etc) that
they'll be darned if they're going to give up their inherent right to be in the left lane,
doing any speed they please to move, so I've made it obvious to them that they'll get run
off the road if they don't move over. The cops sure aren't going to do anything about it,
so we might as well.
Scofflaw
Checklist: Are You A Scofflaw?
At level 1 we're unfit to handle road exchanges because our
feelings are oppositional and negative, made worse by irrational thought patterns. The
result of this deadly combination is an impulsive, reckless, and hostile driving style.
Most drivers operate their vehicles at this lowest level of emotional intelligence some of
the time, and many drivers are in it most of the time. In this precarious mental state,
it's easy to interpret a traffic incident as a personal insult that encourages a bad mood
and produces other negative consequences. Being intolerant goes along with thinking
irrationally about other drivers because in any incident, they are always at fault
while we excuse our own mistakes. A self-serving bias interferes with the ability
to be objective and logical. Our surveys show that one in three motorists are oppositional
drivers on a regular daily basis. Two-thirds are oppositional to a lesser degree, and rare
is the driver who claims to be peaceful, tolerant, rational, and law abiding all the time,
or even most of the time.3 It's very useful to discover the elements of one's
oppositional thinking.