Why Driving Is Stressful

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Series on Aggressive Driving Why Driving is Stressful Driving in traffic routinely involves events and incidents. Events are normal sequential maneuvers such as stopping for the light, changing lanes, or braking. Incidents are frequent but unpredictable events. Some of these are dangerous and frightening, like near misses, while others are merely annoying or depressing, like missing one's turn or being insulted by a motorist. Driving events and incidents are sources of psychological forces capable of producing powerful feelings and irrational thought sequences. Driving is a highly dramatic activity that millions of people perform on a routine daily basis. The drama stems from high risk and unpredictability. Driving has two conflicting structural components--predictability and unpredictability. Both are present all of the time. Predictability, like maintaining steady speed in one's lane, creates safety, security, and usually escape from disaster. Unpredictability, like impulsive lane changes without signaling, creates danger, stress, and often crashes. For many people, driving is linked to the value of freedom of locomotion. On the one hand, they get into cars and drive off where they please, the very symbol of freedom and independence. But on the other hand, as they are ready to leave, they encounter restrictions and constrictions that prevent them from driving as they wish.

The following list identifies 15 widely known conflicting aspects of driving that act as stressors. They are emotional challenges that are common occasions for expressing hostility and aggressiveness on roadways (We have abbreviated the following definitions and will further define them in later issues.).

1. Immobility 9. Denying our mistakes Most of the body during driving remains still and Driving is typically done by automatic habits compiled passive… over years… 2. Constriction 10. Cynicism Motor vehicles are restricted to narrow bands of Many people have learned to drive under the highway and street lanes… supervision of parents and teachers who are critical 3. Regulation and judgmental... Driving is a regulated activity, which means that 11. Loss of objectivity government agencies and law enforcement… Driving incidents are not neutral; there is always 4. Lack of control someone who is considered to be at fault. There is a Traffic follows the laws that govern flow patterns like natural tendency to want to attribute fault to others rivers, pipes, blood vessels, or streaming molecules. In rather than to self. This self-serving bias even congested traffic, the flow depends on the available influences the memory of what happened, slanting the spaces around the cars… guilt away from self and laying it on others. Drivers 5. Being put in danger lose objectivity… Cars are loved by their owners and they are expensive 12. Venting to fix. Even a scratch is stress producing because… Part of our cultural heritage is the ability to vent anger 6. Territoriality by reciting all the details of another individual's The symbolic portrayal of the car has tied it to individual objectionable behavior. The nature of venting is such freedom and self-esteem, promoting a mental attitude that it increases by its own logic until it breaks out… of defensiveness and territoriality… 13. Unpredictability 7. Diversity The street and highway create an environment of There are about 200 million licensed drivers in North drama, danger, and uncertainty… America today, and they represent a diversity of drivers 14. Ambiguity who vary in experience, knowledge, ability, style, and Motorists don't have an accepted or official gestural purpose for being on the road… communication language. There is no easy way of 8. Multi-tasking saying, "Oops, I'm sorry!"… The increase in dashboard complexity and in-car 15. Undertrained in emotional intelligence activities like eating, talking on the phone, checking Traditionally, driver education was conceived as voice e-mail, challenge people's ability to remain alert acquainting students with some general principles… and focused…

This publication is provided for information purposes only and is not intended as a complete or exhaustive source of compliance or safety information. This “Safety Brief” is advisory in nature and does not warrant, guarantee, or otherwise certify compliance with laws, regulations, requirements, or guidelines of any local, state, or Federal agency and/or governing body, or industry standards. Information provided by Dr. Leon James, Professor of Psychology & Dr. Diane Nahl, Associate Professor of Information and Computer Sciences. Visit www.DrDriving.org for more information and to obtain their book entitled “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare. A video training course is also available entitled “RoadRageous”.