Road Rage

We will examine traffic safety and road rage. Is it really the other guys fault?...

Yelena: Yes. It is always his fault.

Jessica: Wait, we haven't even presented a situation yet.

Yelena: It doesn't matter what the situation is. I am always right in traffic. Anyone that does something I don't like is automatically wrong.

Jessica:  This is a very serious topic. Car's are dangerous, and it is so important that our readers understand how to handle traffic while under pressure.

Yelena: Okay. I very seriously believe that as long as I always have the right of way, traffic is fine. If you cut me off you, well, you just don't want to do that. Trust me.

Jessica: It is driver's like Yelena that you must watch out for and monitor your own behavior against. According to the Kansas Department of Transportation, over 500 people die and over 30,000 are injured in traffic related accidents each year. You must be a defensive driver. You never know what other people can do. A car is a deadly weapon. When you are driving, you have a civic responsibility to other people on the road.

Yelena: Yah, a responsibility not to cut me off. Besides, only the offense scores points.

Jessica: Remember the principles you learned in driver's education? It seems that all too often we forget about those rules, because we become comfortable with our cars and daily routines. It takes tragedy before we respect the road.

Yelena: Yah, Driver's Ed. The class I spent most of my time doing Sudoku in?

Jessica: You did Sudoku while driving?

Yelena: Are you surprised?

Jessica: That is exactly what I am talking about. When people become too comfortable, they start partaking in distracting activities. I even saw one driver eating a steak once; a plate of steak.... with the knife, fork, and everything. This is not funny. This is the reason 5 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands can all ticket for driving with cell phones... and rightly so. The laws passed because of the horrifying statistics on the matter.

Yelena: I spend an hour and a half everyday going to and from work. An hour and a half!! I couldn't imagine doing that without a cell phone and I-pod. Do you have any idea how aggravating it is to drive next to a huge truck and behind a car going 15 mph in the left lane!? Not only is that costly in gas, it is costly on my sanity. I come extremely irritable, as I'm sure you know Jess.

Jessica: I understand how frustrating traffic can be. It is nevertheless imperative that you consider other drivers. Everyone else is stuck too. Beeping your horn and weaving in and out of through traffic, like Yelena, is not going to make you get there any faster. In fact, 80 percent of drivers surveyed admitted that honking and gesturing does not make them feel any better, according to a recent a Woolcott Research study. Some even said it made them feel worse. 

Besides, think about the happy feeling you get when you let someone in and get a little courtesy wave. I am big fan of the courtesy wave.

Yelena: Let someone in? Why would I do that? That would just slow me down. As for courtesy waves, I have a special wave for you ;)!

Jessica: Yelena goes out of her way to stress herself out on the road. Just a pinch of patience. According to a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study, aggressive emotion with small-scale outbursts will not improve the driver's ability to overcome and concentrate on the situation.

Yelena: Ok sure, but I don't understand why traffic starts to begin with. If everyone goes a hundred miles an hour and slow people get stopped instead, there would be no traffic.

Jessica: Just because your car can go that fast, does not mean that it ought to.  If we all followed the safety basics, we could lessen the amount of accidents and increase the amount of resources available to research fuel-efficient transportation methods. This would decrease traffic levels and alleviate some of the economic hardships we face today. The first step is patience.

Yelena: That's a good idea in theory, but I can't do patience. Do you know what I did after I got my fifth speeding ticket in a three-month period?

Jessica: Please don't tell them that.

Yelena: I never intended to slow down. I got a radar detector instead. Works like a charm.

Jessica: This is going too far. I am talking life and death. In Colorado one summer, my friend drove everywhere we went. He always verbally objected to my seatbelt rule and argued when I asked him to slow down. Luckily for me, my stubbornness usually won the battle. I left for school in August, and in November he died. He was going too fast and was ejected from his car. He died on impact. A guy I met in my geology lab fell asleep at the wheel one night after a long stressful day, he can't walk anymore.  I am no stranger to dangers of the road myself. I was in a nearly fatal accident two Christmases ago because I was driving too fast in the rain. I hydroplaned backward at 70 miles an hour on I-70. I consider it an act of God that I am alive. In those split seconds, time stopped, and I realized how precious life is. Please, do not think that you can control the road. In the blink of an eye, you can lose everything you always took for granted.