Road Rage

In its broadest sense, the term road rage can refer to any display of aggression by a driver. However, it is often used to refer to the more extreme acts of aggression such as physical assault or homicide that occur as a direct result of a disagreement between drivers. This type of behavior has become common in the United States and the rest of the industrially developed world. An individual may be a victim one day and a perpetrator the next.

Road rage is characterized by driver recklessness and “automobile anarchy,” which include such mundane actions as unsignaled or unsafe lane changes, tailgating, slow starts, abrupt braking, and crowding when lanes reduce in number. These actions may be accented by obscene gestures, shouting, or blasting the horn. They have become so pervasive and routine that one elderly gentlemen commented that if he had “not received ‘the bird’ at least once,” he had not gone anywhere that day. In the 1990s, incidents of road rage were up 51% in the first half of the decade, involving millions of victims—and few confessed perpetrators.

Aggressive driving is not new, but it has been on the increase as a result of the rise in the number of automobiles on the road in recent years. Since 1998, there has been an increase of 17% in the number of cars on the road and a 10% increase in the number of drivers. Furthermore, the number of miles driven has increased 35% since 1987, but the number of miles of road has increased only 1%. These statistics mean a lot more vehicles on the existing miles of roads. This [Page 394]chronic congestion of the roadways has made habitual road rage a constant feature of modern life.

Road rage was coined about 1988 to make the public aware that frustrated, angry people sometimes use their vehicles to vent emotions. These emotions often seem triggered when a driver deliberately or inadvertently behaves inappropriately toward another driver. In some cases, venting emotions includes aggressive behaviors that have resulted in serious injury or death.

Copyright © Anthony Redpath/CORBIS.

Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, found that an astounding 80% of drivers are angry most or all the time while driving. Some reasons given for this state include traffic congestion, impatience at stoplights, waiting for parking spaces or for passengers to get into their cars, and the narrowing of multilane highways. These hardly seem worthy of the kind of anger generated by many hostile drivers. To understand this phenomenon, one must examine the psychology of driving.

Driving is a combination of public and private acts. Cars provide isolation and protection for drivers while propelling them through the world. Cars also provide a sense of personal power that seems to be proportional to the size and engine capability of the vehicle. In comfort, safety, anonymity, and in control of their environment, drivers feel free to behave in ways they probably never would if they were face to face with another person.

No longer are drivers satisfied with the compact or mid-sized grocery-getters or go-cart sized sports cars. If they can afford it, “road warriors” want cars they can “take control” in. Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) fit the bill for many. The average SUV is equipped with a four-wheel-drive transmission and a large engine, and even requires a ladder to enter because it is so high off the ground. These huge vehicles certainly exceed what is necessary to move a family from one place to another, but they do seem to play a vital role in feeding owners' fantasies (women as well as men) of power and importance.

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