Lifelong Driver's Education:
A New Socio-Behavioral Proposal

YARR Foundational Conference
Keynote Address by Dr. Leon James
June 19, 1998
Edmunds College, Seattle, WA

INTRODUCTION

More studies are coming out indicating that there is an increase in incidence of violent road rage episodes between drivers. Government agencies have designated aggressive driving as a serious problem, approaching or equaling in severity to drinking and driving. Besides new legislation and stricter law enforcement initiatives, two differing approaches have been proposed by psychologists.

Clinical therapists, as exemplified by Dr. Arnold Nerenberg, address road rage as a pathology similar to other forms of sociopathic disorders and are attempting to add road rage to the DSM symptomatology. The other approach, exemplified by Dr. Leon James, addresses road rage and aggressive driving in terms of a social-behavioral syndrome, learned in childhood, and transmitted through socialization patterns that include modeling adult drivers in whose cars they are passengers for many years. Modeling is also occurring in the mass media that routinely portray drivers behaving badly and glamorize it in cartoons, commercials, and movies.

Dr. James is proposing an action plan to tackle this social epidemic on a long term, generational level that has four basic components:

• (1) lifelong driver's ed (K-12) with a cumulative program in Driving Psychology.
• (2) After high school graduation, participation in Quality Driving Circles (QDCs) to encourage and supervise one another's driving personality makeover.
• (3) Reliance on teaching drivers self-assessment and self-modification techniques.
• (4) Social activism groups such as CARR--Children Against Road Rage and YARR--Youth Against Road Rage.

Unproven Assumptions (probably FALSE)

Road rage and aggressive or risky driving are due to:

• increased traffic congestion
• insufficient surveillance, enforcement or punishment
• individual pathology and violence proneness
• bad mood, anger or impatience
• frustration, stress, and provocation

However, these are not causes but conditions and occasions under which drivers are stressed, aggressive, and violent. These are excuses or opportunities not causes.

• inadequate training in emotional intelligence
• going along with norms of hostility and territoriality on highways
• modeling after mass media portrayals of drivers behaving badly
• holding and enacting a vigilante ideology on highways
• allowing oneself to have disrespect for authority and law on highways

The Legend of DrDriving

Based on our book:   Road Rage And Aggressive Driving

Aggressive driving is not extreme any more; 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.  Proof of these points may be found in this document.

At the same time drivers aren't trained for emotional intelligence to be able to manage both lifestyle stress and provocations in traffic.

The Formula for Road Rage:

more driver interactions (more cars, less space), greater diversity of drivers
+
cultural norms of disrespect condoning hostility
=
aggressive driving and road rage battles

The average number of driver interactions during an average commute of 30 mins. has steadily climbed due to traffic congestion.  Thousands of interactions with hundreds of cars in a half-hour period create new challenges for drivers.  Any one of these mini-exchanges can go wrong when the context is hostile.   There are now 125 million drivers on the road every day in the U.S.  They represent a tremendous diversity of competence, style, and purpose.  The hundreds of drivers one encounters in a traffic half-hour puts us into contact with this diversity.   It is unrealistic to expect homogeneity of driving styles.  Drivers differ in gender, age, experience, familiarity with the road, physical health and condition, mood, and why they are on the road.  Not all drivers are in a hurry.  Not all drivers are alert.  Not all drivers are competent.  Not all drivers know how to coordinate with the rest of traffic.  Not all drivers want to.

And so the 125 million drivers on the road every day need to learn how to drive with each other, how to get along, how to be more tolerant of each other's mistakes and varieties of mood and desire for cooperation.  Driving Psychology gives drivers the psychological tools by which they can acquire sills of tolerance for one another.  It takes compassion, fairness, rationality, and altruism.   By developing these skills as drivers, we also become more valuable citizens and more worthy human beings.

The formula above shows that aggressive driving is the result of hostile norms in combination with more traffic.  It is not more traffic by itself that causes aggressive driving.  Here is the rest of the formula:

more driver interactions (more cars, less space), greater diversity of drivers
+
cultural norms of respect promoting civility and community
=
supportive, safe, and sane driving

Definition of Road Rage:

3. Epic Road Rage: cutting off, blocking, chasing, fighting, shooting

Lacking in emotional intelligence training, drivers operate on the false "trigger theory" of anger:

"I can't help it when they provoke me. Besides, they're doing something wrong. I can't just sit back and take it."

This attitude involves righteous indignation that gives us permission to retaliate because we feel wronged. It's easy to "lose it" when a "hot spot" is stepped on, and out comes the unthinking gesture, the uncontrolled temper, the comic book fantasies of punishment and mayhem.

Emotional Intelligence Exercises
or How Not to Be Hostile When Stressed and Upset

1. Self-witnessing behind the wheel:

Pretend you're giving a play-by-play broadcast of your driving--what you're doing, thinking, and feeling. Speak all your thoughts out loud. This will let you be more aware of your driving personality.

2. Shrinking Your Emotional Territory:

Talk to yourself. Argue with yourself. What is it that you really care about? Examine your assumptions, your anger theory, your driving philosophy.

3. Acting As-If

Pretend you're a supportive driver even when you feel like being competitive and aggressive. When you feel like yelling, sing instead--or make funny animal sounds (suggestion by LauraLee Carman in her book Rainbows In My Soup, BookPartners Inc., Wilsonville, Oregon) in the car. By pretending to be an Aloha spirit driver, you discover you like it--cool-headed, hassle-free driving. All right!

Three Levels of Emotional Intelligence as a Driver

3. Supportive Driving (Act tolerant. Be forgiving. Be helpful.)

Defensive driving is a good strategy, but you can't let defensive driving slide into aggressive driving. The best defense is not a good offense, in this case. Factors that allow defensive driving to become oppositional:

• rushing mania (getting there as fast as possible)
• righteous indignation (They deserve to be punished)
• comic book persona (The Avenger, Jekyll & Hyde, Mad Max)
• culture that condones hostility (cartoons, commercials, movies)

Anatomy of Road Rage

Step 1: Provocation and Escalation
It takes two to make a fight. Don't respond. Don't engage. Don't up the ante. Swallow your pride. Choose "the road less traveled."

• Count to 10.
• make animal sounds (suggestion by LauraLee Carman in her book Rainbows In My Soup, BookPartners Inc., Wilsonville, Oregon) .
• Act as-if you're not affected.
• Give yourself pep talks.

Step 2: Recovery and Remedy
If you fall into a hostile exchange, know how to back out, reverse, back pedal. You need to do damage control.

• Refrain from aggravating things.
• Come out swinging positive. Apologize. See it from their side as well, not just your own.
• Think supportive (vs. combative).

• Honking at someone.
• Giving an offensive hand gesture.
• Yelling at someone or swearing.
• Revving your engine to indicate displeasure.
• Shining your high beams in retaliation.
• Deliberately cutting someone off.
• Tailgating.
• Braking suddenly to punish a tailgater.
• Blocking a lane.
• Racing.
• Chasing.

Y-A-R-R is a centralized international organization and a socio-cultural movement. It functions through various Councils as shown in this diagram:

The CHART above identifies the causes of aggression, hostility, and riskyness behind the wheel. What are these driver behaviors? Here is a list of common driving errors committed by most drivers and which constitute aggressive, hostile, and dangerous driving:

Driving behavior is the result of the driver's personality and the cultural norms we all share. These norms include emotions and intentions, both negative and positive. Driver personality reflects driver philosophy, which acts as a mental filter to create the driving style you show at any one time. Here is a diagram depicting this process.