Florida road rage law proposal goes after left lane drivers 4116

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:15:20 -0400, "Magnulus"

Empathy can wear pretty thin after awhile. When people begin to feel they're getting the short end of the stick again and again and again they either surrender or they get aggressive.

Explainations of 'road rage' are not 'justification' per-se, but attempts at understanding the phenomena with an eye towards reducing such behavior. There is always that faction out there who are just, for lack of a more appropriate term, *buttholes* who will always want to drive fast and always want to bully other drivers because they *like* doing so. Nothing can be done about them - beyond arresting them when they're caught.

The NON-butthole majority - those prodded to asinine behavior by the system - there's where improvements can be made. WHAT is putting them over the edge ? Are there ways to keep them just this side of the edge ?

From personal experience with traffic, I think that anger can be reduced if the driver thinks he's getting a break once in awhile. If you hit red light after red light after red light - pretty soon you're seeing red youself. But, if you can score a green every so often, you'll feel much better. You feel you're making progress, getting a break. Traffic engineers should try to time lights so this happens more often.

Excessively long red lights prompt people to take risks to get through the intersection while they can - which means traffic continues to flow even after that lane is supposed to stop. I've taken to waiting the count of two before proceeding across any intersection because often as not some butthole will come flying through. Impatient drivers, who have been waiting a long time, will honk or even try to go around you if you wait, so the trick is to APPEAR as if you're not waiting. One does this by beginning a slow creep so the people behind see some motion. It's a psychological trick that works.

Not every situation can be re-engineered well enough to keep drivers happy. Overbuilt urban-suburban areas where the roads just aren't up to the traffic flow WILL gridlock during peak times. About all that can be done is to make sure the lights turn green every minute or two - even if the drivers don't make MUCH actual progress. They'll THINK they're making progress and that's what counts.

If 'bad' intersections can be staggered or spread out a little - so the drivers can get a little speed before hitting the next delay - this also tricks their minds. I was recently in Orlando and some of the feeders east of town are set up this way. There's a big bad inter- section ... but they skip a block or two between those kinds of interesections so you can maybe even get up to 45mph for a short stretch. The IMPRESSION is that you're making progress.

much to be done about them. They WILL make a dangerous pbutt around the 'slow' driver. They probably WILL make provocative gestures or statements. Some MAY go even further. Such is life ... we've gotta bear with those people just like we must bear with the 'slow' guys.

Yes ... but usually because they've already gotten the impression that nobody else is gonna give them any slack. Then it's "Everybody for themselves". It's a paradigm shift that makes sense from a 'survival' point of view but really causes problems for everyone else. It's wired into our brains - there's a point where we decide the poop has hit the proverbial propeller and from then on everyone else is an 'enemy' to be defeated.

Smarter traffic engineering CAN trick the mind in such a manner to reduce 'rage' - hopefully below most peoples threshold of action. Alas, I've seen SOME towns where officials WANT to slow-down traffic and store-owners WANT people stuck at intersections on the theory they'll notice ones shop while they're waiting. Frankly, if the traffic is horrible, I'll AVOID that part of town rather than shop at that store ...