STATISTICS OF ROAD RAGE

QUESTION

To produce a Abstract, Results Discussion References section of a research report on the set topic Road Rage as per the SPSS results:

The study is to focus on anger, stress, age and gender as predictors of road rage.

SOLUTION

Introduction

The roadways are indispensible means of transport and are often designated as a lifeline, which makes our ways easy in many ways. It is a service actually which connects each and every household. The tonnes of goods move through it every-day, even while we are sleeping. The development of a country demands a good amount of infrastructure and among them the roadways is the primary requirement. Even the old civilizations are reckoned according to their advancements in the roads. The roads are home to lighter vehicles, scintillating cars as well as the twenty wheeled trucks and many more . The beauty of a journey through roads is a matter of different story; here we would be discussing the causes of nastyroad accidents and the causes of the road rage, the reason behind the most of them.

The reasons can be many, from a small technical snag, a bad weather, a mistake or minor in the driver’s seat but we would talk about the major portion of the accident which is done under the rush of hormones, the psychological pressures. This does need any statistics help to conclude that a drunkard or a person with overdose of drugs is more likely to run under the threat of accident, than a normal person. This has also been seen that the female are lesser prone on the count of accident than the male citizens.

Road Rage

Let’s us try to define the various forms of road rage. Suppose your bad day in office, few bad words from your manager, and a heated debate with your co-workers or some bad story which may have distracted you. After you leave the office for home, you may be trying to rush at your own speed, taking care to the least the traffic conditions, changing the lanes without using the signal, speeding at your own will, honking the horn and running the red-lights. So, these are the traits which you can find in any one of us, even the most careful ones. This is a common psychological threat we all possess.

There are no less distractions from the improved technologies, now days. Every person keeps struck with the cell phones, talking endlessly, which diverts the attention from the roads. The running speeds of the vehicles are so much so that a car derailed from its path may obstruct several vehicles from its path, causing accidents in a chain.

Thus, it can be seen that the road rage is a behavioral feature of a human being when he or she is not in a good sense. Even a mischievous act of following or tailgating, do not letting a vehicle move ahead is the different activities which may crop-up a young mind. I most of the literary sense, the act of an angry or impatient driver to kill or injure the other person, is a road rage as defined.

A survey conducted within the last month as much as 89 percent of people have admitted to have seen the act of dangerous road rage, while a 42 percent of them admitted to driving aggressively themselves. The feeding habits of the people are also somewhat responsible for it. The junk foods increase the free radicals into our body, which is a potential cause of the increase in the temperament .The social and the professional pressure are responsible from people getting down into alcohol and smoke. The occasions on which a person driving is drunk is not a less frequent event.

Now, who are the people who run into the risk of aggressive driving more frequently? Dr. John A. Larson, who wrote many books on road rage point out few different kinds of people, the competitors, the vigilantes, the speeder, the passive aggressive people and narcissists.

The ladies are the mostly seen getting angered easily but it is the angry men who are more easily provoked into road rage. There may be case when a driver cuts sharp in front of you, you get angry but that too with an intensity of 3 or 4 out of 10, but becoming 7 can’t be justified in any terms. I remember a news report in which a passenger bus overtook a truck. The truck driver was shot in rage; he started honking the horn hard, but still was not let by the bus to pass. The infuriated truck driver then, pulled the gears and rammed the bus, killing the innocent passengers and the bus driver.

Few people are endowed with hostile personality; they get angry quickly as compared to the other people and risk of health problems too. These people are more likely to be met with an accident. The people who have shorter routes to work are found with more loss of temper than those having longer routes.

Then there is altogether a different category of young people, who get inspired by the fictitious sci-fi advertisements and movies based on road race. They have high end cars at their disposal and take into the act of driving the other people mad by, racing into the busy traffic. These traits are found more in the young citizens of the society than those comparatively older to them. They would always feel a sense of competition, a challenge coming from the fellow drivers. They would be competing with anyone, even the large vehicle like trucks. They would take pride to make a win rather simply completing their journey.It is quite difficult to people to keep their calm in case another driver comes in and jerks from behind. These are the basic causes of fights erupting along the roads and making the traffic situation more a mess.

Some authors even blame substance abuse as cause to the road rage. Sometimes we are not certain about our lives. We see things in a negative way .As a result we turn to substance abuse, taking alcohol, drugs in order to get away from the present world. It is in this state, driving becomes fatal. While there are authors who contradict this point, they recognize road rage as more a personality trait than the effect of a substance abuse.

Some Statistics

The statistics collected by the Road and travel magazine show that a whopping 67% of young age drivers to be more contributing to the demon of road rage than those who have attained 65 years of age or above, with 30%.It would be very interesting to note that the drivers travelling with children are more (59%) than those without children (45%).Clearly, their comes a matter of entertainment in driving while travelling with children.The.re works a psychological thrill in the racing against the speeding cars. As discussed earlier the women (46%) are less likely to jump into road rage as compared to the men(54%).There also works a psychological tendency among men to retaliate for an event.

The National Highway Traffic safety Administration (NHSTA) has declared road rage a national problem. The number of casualties and deaths caused by the traffic situations are majorly caused by the road rage. As many as, 66% of the total accidents are caused by the road rage. The major activities in it being passing traffic signals, racing, overtaking, tailgating and talking over the phone while driving. The number of deaths increased as many as 250,000 since 1990.

The solution

Its time we discuss the solution to avoid the problem of road-rage. The roads rage being mostly caused by the stress and anger need to controlled by measures like meditation and a practice to forgive others. Before getting yourself behind the driving wheels you should prepare yourself for a calm and relaxed driving. Listen to music; try to get away from the stresses and the office work for some-times. You should be emotionally controlled a before going to drive. The moment you get angry at the activity of some fellow driver, you should try to maintain calm. Divert your attention to other things, rather than getting infuriated. The distractions like mobiles should be avoided while driving. The desire to race should be fulfilled in the supervision of the experts.

We should also avoid giving the cars in the hands of a young people specially the minors. We should keep a tab on their activities as they may take out a car or motorbike while not finding a guardian. They have a lot of curiosity to drive and compete a race with their friends. They are potential aggressive drivers, who use it to win a race rather reach a destination.

Conclusion

The road rage has become a very rampant problem these days. It has increased the traffic problems and the hazards to the life. The aggressive driving should be avoided. We should get ourselves in control of our temper and try to avoid tailgating, running red lights, breaking the other traffic rules. The road rage is found more in the men as compared to the women and in the younger folks of 18-24 years than the older citizens.

The References

1. Aggressive Driving and Road rage < http://www.coedu.usf.edu/zalaquett/roadrage/roadrage.html>

2.Road & Travel Magazine < http://www.roadandtravel.com/safetyandsecurity/2007/road-rage.htm>

3.J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2006 August; 15(3): 105–125.

4.Measuring road rage: development of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437500000505>

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