T H E

CQResearcherPUBLISHED BY CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. Aggressive Driving

Can road designers and police calm motorists down?

he explosive anger that leads drivers to sometimes deadly road disputes, often termed “road rage,” has dramatized the rise in aggressive driving. Two-thirds of last year’s moreT than 41,000 auto deaths are blamed on aggressive I driving — such as speeding, cutting off other motorists N and tailgating. In several states, police are beefing up THIS ISSUE S THE ISSUES ...... 651 enforcement, and legislators are calling for tougher I BACKGROUND ...... 660 penalties. Several cities are installing traffic-calming D CHRONOLOGY ...... 661 measures like narrowed streets to slow down drivers. But E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 664 citizens in much of the nation must battle entrenched AT ISSUE ...... 665 state highway bureaucracies, whose road standards make OUTLOOK...... 666 roads as fast as possible for cars — often at the expense BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 668 of walkers, bicyclists and livable communities. THE NEXT STEP ...... 669

CQ July 25, 1997 • Volume 7, No. 28 • Pages 649-672

Formerly Editorial Research Reports AGGRESSIVE DRIVING T H THE ISSUES OUTLOOK CQE Researcher July 25, 1997 • Is aggressive driving a Legislative Initiatives Volume 7, No. 28 651 major safety hazard? 666 State and federal laws • Do government focus on punishing bad EDITOR transportation policies drivers, but some experts Sandra Stencel favor motorists over call for more emphasis on pedestrians? motivating young drivers MANAGING EDITOR to be courteous. Thomas J. Colin ASSOCIATE EDITORS BACKGROUND Sarah M. Magner SIDEBARS AND Richard L. Worsnop Societal Stress GRAPHICS 661 Aggressive driving has STAFF WRITERS been blamed on competi- Charles S. Clark 653 ‘Calm’ Streets Energize Mary H. Cooper tiveness in the workplace West Palm Beach Kenneth Jost that stressed-out workers Scrapping traditional traffic David Masci carry over to the high- engineering is bringing way. downtown back to life. EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Vanessa E. Furlong Lowered Inhibitions Rural Virginians Save 655 Their Country Roads 663 The anonymity of the PUBLISHED BY Residents rejected “improve- Congressional Quarterly Inc. wide open freeway and ments” proposed by the the car itself help to lower highway department. CHAIRMAN motorists’ inhibitions Andrew Barnes against behaving aggres- Five Tips for Non- 658 VICE CHAIRMAN sively. Aggressive Driving Andrew P. Corty For starters, plan more time Postwar America for trips. PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER 663 Street-design standards Robert W. Merry for new subdivisions that Chronology 661 Key events since 1896. EXECUTIVE EDITOR would permit rapid David Rapp evacuation before a How Holland Calmed nuclear strike contributed 662 Things Down to fast, aggressive driving. In the 1960s, residents Copyright 1997 Congressional Quarterly Inc., All concerned about speeding Rights Reserved. CQ does not convey any license, caused a revolution. right, title or interest in any information — includ- CURRENT SITUATION ing information provided to CQ from third parties — transmitted via any CQ publication or electronic At Issue transmission unless previously specified in writing. Traffic Calming 665 Is aggressive driving a major No part of any CQ publication or transmission may 664 Communities throughout be republished, reproduced, transmitted, down- safety problem? loaded or distributed by any means whether elec- the country are embrac- tronic or mechanical without prior written permis- ing efforts to slow traffic sion of CQ. Unauthorized reproduction or trans- FOR FURTHER mission of CQ copyrighted material is a violation down, and the engineer- of federal law carrying civil fines of up to $100,000 ing establishment is RESEARCH and serious criminal sanctions or imprisonment. starting to pay attention. Bibliography Bibliographic records and abstracts included in 668 Selected sources used. The Next Step section of this publication are the New Police Tactics copyrighted material of UMI, and are used with 664 permission. Red-light cameras and The Next Step other automated enforce- 669 Additional sources from The CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036). Formerly ment techniques are current periodicals. Editorial Research Reports. Published weekly, except Jan. 3, May 30, Aug. 29, Oct. 31, by being used increasingly to Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1414 22nd St., N.W., zero in on aggressive Washington, D.C. 20037. Annual subscription drivers. rate for libraries, businesses and government is $340. Additional rates furnished upon request. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The CQ Researcher, COVER: A RED-LIGHT CAMERA IN SAN FRANCISCO CAPTURES A STATION WAGON 1414 22nd St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037. AFTER IT RAN A RED LIGHT FIVE SECONDS AFTER THE LIGHT TURNED RED AND HIT A CAB AT 30 MPH. (INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY)

650 CQ Researcher Aggressive Driving BY SARAH GLAZER

years, Blumenauer helped initiate THE ISSUES programs like ‘‘skinny streets,’’ which narrowed existing streets to slow down traffic in residential areas. t’s rush hour in rural Brewster, In lower Westchester County’s N.Y., and Manhattan-bound com- affluent neighborhoods, where I muters are backed up for three miles Manhattanites seek to escape city on the two-lane road out of town. hassles, many parents won’t let their State Trooper Alan S. Kurlander children walk or bike to school be- sees so much aggressive driving as cause of dangerous drivers. he cruises the scene that he could When a pedestrian advocate asks write out tickets all morning. Within civic association audiences how many five minutes, he spots two typical members walked or biked to school violators — a red Blazer weaving as children, three-quarters typically onto the right shoulder and a white raise their hands. But when he asks Camry crossing the center line — how many of their children walk or cutting ahead of other drivers. bike, the proportion usually drops to You can feel the anxiety building as a handful. the stalled commuters count the min- ‘‘We’ve lost control of our commu- utes until they can floor it on I-684. pulled over to continue a feud was nities and neighborhoods to the mo- Troopers say the 55 mph Interstate has slashed with a knife. tor vehicle,’’ says Bill Wilkinson, ex- become a ‘‘racetrack,’’ with motorists Aggressive driving has suddenly ecutive director of the Bicycle Fed- clocked at speeds over 100 mph. come into the public spotlight as eration of America and head of its Harried commuters, many of them communities across the nation com- Campaign to Make America Walkable. escapees from the city, treat their In- plain about drivers who drive too ‘‘There are places where you can’t terstate drive like a subway ride. fast, weave crazily and become en- cross the street without a car.’’ ‘‘Every day, I see people shaving, raged when they’re passed. Aggres- Americans are more likely to get putting on nail polish, lipstick, sive driving was involved in two- killed by a car while walking than eyeliner and reading the paper while thirds of last year’s auto deaths, the they are by a stranger with a gun, they’re driving,’’ Trooper Darren National Highway Traffic Safety Ad- concluded a recent report by a coa- Daughtry says. He has seen speeds ministration (NHTSA) estimates. lition of environmental and pedes- around bucolic Brewster escalate dan- At recent House Transportation trian/cycling groups. 1 gerously over the past few years as subcommittee hearings on the phe- One reason for the increased danger downstate urbanites have poured in. nomenon. Chairman Bud Shuster, R- to pedestrians is that residential areas Typical excuses for irresponsible Pa., said that the solution is wider, since World War II have been designed driving — ‘‘Another guy cut me off,’’ straighter roads and more of them. * around the car. The study found that ‘‘I’m late for work’’ — and a sense of Traffic has increased by 35 percent the five deadliest places for pedestrians self-righteous entitlement have grown since 1987 while construction of new are highway-dominated cities: Fort Lau- too, troopers say. ‘‘Nobody wants to roads has grown only 1 percent, ac- derdale, Miami, Atlanta, Tampa and be responsible for their actions,’’ says cording to the NHTSA. Dallas. The safest cities are those where Sgt. Michael Gadomski. ‘‘Civility is But subcommittee member Earl walkers dominate, such as Pittsburgh, going down the tubes.’’ Blumenauer, D-Ore., said that build- Milwaukee, Boston, Rochester, N.Y., The stories are almost comical, but ing more roads would be the equiva- and New York City.* the consequences are not. In local lent of ‘‘giving a wife-beater more ‘‘We see a clear demarcation be- incidents reminiscent of nationally room to swing.’’ As Portland’s com- publicized ‘‘road rage’’ explosions, missioner of public works for 10 * The report compared pedestrian fatality rates with two female motorists staged a high- the level of pedestrian activity in each city. Because speed passing duel, then stopped to the government does not track the miles walked in * Hearings were held July 17 before the each community, the report used U.S. Census data continue the fight, one wielding a Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the on the percent of people in each community who baseball bat; another motorist who House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. walk to work as a surrogate for walking activity.

July 25, 1997 651 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING tween older cities and those that grew modernize the roads. 2 islation allowing the cars of repeat up around the auto since World War ‘‘From a safety perspective, the drunken drivers to be confiscated. II and now exhibit the auto-depen- wider roads of the Interstate system More recently, Portland has initiated dent sprawl that makes them more have much lower crash rates than other programs to impound cars of motor- dangerous,’’ says James Corless, a roads,’’ says Mark Lee Edwards, AAA ists driving with a suspended license spokesman for the Surface Transpor- managing director for traffic safety. ‘‘If or without proof of insurance. 4 tation Policy Project, one of the you look at some of the factors driving ‘‘I think a subculture has developed groups that issued the report. the crash experience, it’s narrow lanes, of people who think they can do any- Pedestrian advocates say it’s time to no shoulders, narrow bridges, too steep thing they want with the car,’’ redesign cities and suburbs for walkers. curves and fixed objects like trees next Blumenauer says, citing repeat In a sign of revolutionary change, the to the roadside, so when people lose drunken drivers and ‘‘aggressive and Institute of Transpor- belligerent’’ com- tation Engineers is ex- muters who cut pected to adopt through residential guidelines for design- neighborhoods at ing streets in new resi- high speeds, endan- dential developments gering children and the old-fashioned walkers. ‘‘We’ve had way — with wide a generation of en- sidewalks and narrow gineers who enable roadways. that behavior,’’ he In Virginia, resi- adds. ‘‘Streets are dents and merchants wider, and speed have mobilized a- limits are designed gainst a state plan to to move traffic rather widen Route 50, a than deal with the busy two-lane high- impact the street has way running through on the community.’’ historic Middleburg, Yet most drivers City of West Palm Beach in the heart of the whose aggressive hunt country. In- Traffic-calming measures in West Palm Beach, Fla., include driving lands them landscaped mini-traffic circles tended by residents. stead, they are pro- in crashes are ordi- posing European- nary people — not style ‘‘traffic calming’’ measures like control of their vehicle they’re collid- chronic criminals, according to raised pedestrian crosswalks, cobble- ing with trees — which in a collision Patricia Waller, director of the Uni- stone surfaces and trees planted on kills them.’’ 3 versity of Michigan Transportation both sides of the road to give motor- But there’s a downside to the lower Research Institute. Just 6-7 percent of ists the impression of narrowness and crash rates, Corless says. ‘‘If you look the nation’s drivers account for all the slow them down. (See story, p. 654.) at the six-lane strips that are increas- crashes in any one year, Waller notes. But the residents have a tough fight ingly replacing old two-lane roads, But even if those drivers were taken ahead. Powerful highway-user you can say there are not a lot of off the road, it would make no differ- groups, including the American Auto- fatalities, but also no one walks on ence in the number of crashes, be- mobile Association (AAA), are fight- them. You’re crazy to walk on them. cause only a small proportion of them ing efforts to divert federal highway There are no sidewalks, shopping are chronic bad drivers. For many it’s money to pedestrian and cycling uses. centers are set far back from the road a first-time crash. These groups contend that much of and it’s difficult to make public tran- ‘‘People are more pressured and the aggressive-driving problem is sit work in those places.’’ have less time — particularly rooted in frustration over congestion Blumenauer sees a connection women,’’ Waller says. ‘‘Women are on deteriorating roads and bridges, between lax penalties for aggressive working full time. When you look at which have not grown to keep up drivers and cities oriented around the non-work trips, men’s are to the with the burgeoning traffic. The solu- needs of cars. Portland, Ore., was the football game; women’s are to the tion, they maintain, is to widen and first city in the nation to enact leg- Continued on p. 654

652 CQ Researcher ‘Calm’ Streets Help Revive West Palm Beach

ot much more than three years ago, downtown service personnel who don’t own cars walk to work. Forty- West Palm Beach was considered too dangerous to eight percent of the city is low-to-moderate income. N visit at night. Its streets were deserted, its shops To help attract residents downtown, the city is subsidizing struggling. purchases by low-income homeowners as well as providing Today, children splash 15 feet from a major intersection training in such basics as how to fix appliances. The city is in a newly installed fountain. Parents relax on comfortable also giving tax breaks to residents renovating historic homes. benches, eating ice cream and watching their kids. Cars Lockwood points to a typical inner-city street where the driving through downtown must slow down to negotiate city recently invested $8,000 in traffic calming and crosswalks that have been raised to the level of the curb, beautification. It was lined with boarded-up homes and permitting pedestrians, parents pushing strollers and had become a favorite place for truck drivers to dump wheelchair users to cross easily. garbage. Parking a car on the street was considered unwise. The new vitality is largely the work of the city’s dynamic The city is narrowing the street from 35 feet to 25 feet, mayor, Nancy Graham, and the planners she brought in to putting in curbside trees and narrowing every approach to redesign the city. Internationally recognized Canadian civil the neighborhood school so children can walk to school engineer Ian Lockwood, whom Graham hired as the city’s without encountering speeding traffic. In similar transportation planner, says West Palm Beach’s problems neighborhoods where the city has already made such were typical of cities designed according to traditional changes, Lockwood says, garbage dumping no longer traffic engineering standards. occurs, crime has dropped and homeowners take newfound “If you look at any transportation model for a city, the pride in the upkeep of the neighborhood. success of the city is based on how well the car is Typically, streets that have been traffic-calmed have 50 accommodated,” Lockwood says. In West Palm Beach, percent fewer collisions than conventionally designed streets “The car was fine, but our city was dead 10 years ago. The and 80 percent fewer fatalities, according to Lockwood. When street became the monopoly of the car to the exclusion of traffic is slowed to below 20 mph, stopping distances are pedestrians.” shorter, the field of vision is wider and a driver is more likely In cooperation with several noted urban designers, to see a child running into the street from behind a parked Lockwood hopes to have the entire eastern part of the city car. The city has not had a single collision on a traffic- “traffic-calmed” in five years using techniques that have been calmed street, Lockwood says. employed successfully in Europe for the past 25 years. The changes have not been without their opponents. “I Six-lane U.S. 1, which slices through the city in two get calls from commuters who say, ‘Your job is to move broad swaths, one in each direction, will be reduced to cars as fast as possible,’” Lockwood says. “I say, my job two separate two-lane roads. To make “nice slow streets is to make the city livable and sustainable. I don’t think that are very pedestrian friendly,” Lockwood says, sidewalks we should sacrifice quality of life in the inner city for will be widened, landscaping will be added on both sides people in the suburbs.” and shady patios will be created on the sidewalks where Actually, when traffic calming is done right and the people can sit and have a cool drink. “Now we have streets become more scenic, everyone should be happy, narrow sidewalks, and no one likes to walk along them,” Lockwood maintains. “Drivers will slow down willingly he explains. and naturally, kids can cross safely, people can go shopping The move has won support from initially skeptical in harmony with the traffic and business won’t dry up.” business groups because of the success in areas that have As part of the city’s campaign against traditional thinking, already received the Lockwood treatment. Commercial rents it has instituted a new transportation vocabulary. The have risen from $5 per square foot to $25 in downtown word “improvements,” which to traffic engineers usually areas that have been traffic-calmed. Once half-occupied, means new car lanes or other ways to move traffic faster, commercial buildings now have no vacancies. And has been banned in favor of the more neutral term downtown is becoming a popular place to live. The city “changes.” It’s no longer permissible to say a road is being is retrofitting lofts above stores for apartments and “upgraded” when it’s really being widened. combined work-living units. In the next two years, the city In fact, the city no longer uses the term “accident” expects to have 560 more new homes downtown. because it reduces “the degree of responsibility and severity West Palm Beach was founded in 1894 as the servant city and invokes sympathy for the person responsible,” a city for affluent Palm Beach, a quarter-mile away across the memo states. Now, in West Palm, the term is “crash” or Intracoastal Waterway. Today, many waiters, maids and other “collision.”

July 25, 1997 653 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

Rural Virginians Challenged Highway ‘Improvements’ . . .

he countryside around tony Middleburg, Va., dotted board that supported its fight. Citizens did observational with horse farms and towns rich in Civil War history, studies to show that the road could accommodate existing T has long been a favorite destination for tourists traffic and that it was safe because its narrowness and many seeking a charming country drive. curves kept speeds down. “We’ve got farm vehicles, farm So when the Virginia Department of Transportation animals, deer on the turnpike,” Van Wagoner says. “Safety (VDOT) threatened to “improve” local roads using means going slower on this road.” conventional traffic engineering standards, the community To justify its widening plan, Virginia’s Department of turned into a hotbed of citizen Transportation cited the activism. guidebook of standards that It started when residents governs most road construction along the Snickersville Turn- in this country — the so-called pike, a rural road that has ‘‘Green Book’’ issued by the changed little since the Civil American Association of State War, complained about pot- Highway and Transportation holes and a crumbling road Officials (AASHTO). surface. VDOT responded with “They used AASHTO stan- a plan to straighten out the dards to say this [the existing curves, widen the barely two- road] is lower than the lane road and replace a 19th- standard we can use,” Van century stone arch bridge with Wagoner says. “We said, ‘We concrete and steel. have to have flexibility with Turnpike residents were Snickersville Turnpike Association these standards.’” alerted to the department’s The Snickersville Turnpike has In the end, the state definition of “improvement” changed little since the Civil War. relented and came up with a when the state fixed the first new design that widens the section of road. A charming one-lane bridge over a creek road only a few feet — from 16 feet at its narrowest point was replaced with a concrete culvert that obliterated the to 19 feet. view of the creek, and the trees around it were cut down. “We stopped a project that had gone out for contract bids, The state-funded destruction “appalled” everyone who which is unheard of,” Van Wagoner says. “They rebuilt it in lived along the road and spurred residents to found the a way everyone loves — farmers and commuters. And we Snickersville Turnpike Association five years ago, according saved money, so they can do more sections of the road. The to artist Susan Van Wagoner, vice president of the project was done for half of the planned cost, and the speed association. The hardest part was persuading the state to limit was lowered to 35 from 55.” abandon conventional road standards that aim to protect Virginia’s cookbook approach to roads — typical of drivers’ safety at high speeds by such methods as removing most states — may explain why the region’s citizens have trees that cars can crash into. recently taken on an even more ambitious campaign as “It was a real struggle,” she says. “It took an awful lot part of their effort to defeat another state road-widening of citizens doing an awful lot of work.” plan. Instead, they want to turn local Route 50 into the The association campaigned to throw out an unsympathetic first rural road in the nation to use European-style traffic- board of supervisors and succeeded in re-electing a new calming measures.

Continued from p. 652 Is aggressive driving a major Even more surprising, one out of grocery store, to do the laundry, pick safety hazard? two motorists surveyed admitted to up the kids. When you’re charged $1 In a recent poll conducted by the aggressive driving themselves in the for every minute you’re late picking Potomac chapter of the AAA, motor- last year. The sins confessed most up a child at nursery school, you’ll ists in the Washington, D.C., metro- frequently were speeding (65 per- probably speed and be less patient politan area identified aggressive cent), gesturing and exchanging with other drivers.’’ driving as the top threat to highway words with another driver (8 per- As concern mounts over aggres- safety, ahead of drunken driving. cent), slowing down and speeding sive driving, here are some of the Most thought the problem was get- up to get even with another driver (6 questions being asked: ting worse. (See ‘‘At Issue,’’ p. 665.) percent) and tailgating (6 percent).

654 CQ Researcher . . . and Saved Their Charming Country Roads

Route 50 is a busy highway connecting commuters support from merchants, who see it as a way to attract between Washington, D.C., and the rolling foothills of the customers. The department last year abandoned the bypass Blue Ridge Mountains. project for lack of community support. It slices through the center of Middleburg and several The coalition’s plan has been approved by the Middleburg other historic Virginia towns, but is so fast-moving that Town Council, but it has yet to win approval from the state residents complain it is often unsafe to cross. Drivers are transportation department. The department has so far regarded often halfway through the smaller villages before they are the unconventional community plan with skepticism on the aware they have entered a town. grounds that Route. 50 was A coalition of local mer- designed to carry a large chants and residents wants to volume of traffic. 2 convert Route 50 into an old- Currently, residents say, the fashioned main street that existing highway makes it hard people could cross safely and for pedestrians in the tiny town that would invite motorists to of Upperville to cross the road stop and shop. safely from a parking area on The Route 50 Corridor Coal- one side of the road to pick up ition has put together an children from the day-care ambitious two-volume plan, center across the street. More- designed through community over, a survey of tourists in the meetings with the help of area indicated that one reason transportation planner Ian they came was to drive on

Lockwood, of West Palm Route 50 Corridor Coalition country roads. “They said, ‘If 1 Beach, Fla. A local coalition wants to turn parts of Virginia’s you put suburbia there, we’re The plan envisions commun- Route 50 into an old-fashioned main street. not coming’” Van Wagoner ity-designed entranceways to reports. small towns, such as stone walls; parking lanes paved in As for cost, she estimates that the 20 miles of traffic- distinctive materials to make the road appear narrower; calming measures proposed would be half the price tag of placing cobblestone strips across the road to alert motorists the proposed $34 million bypass. Most important, she to slower speed limits; raising crosswalks to the level of says, it’s what the citizens want. the curb so that motorists must slow down and so “It’s not somebody sitting in Richmond with a standards pedestrians with strollers can cross more easily; building book deciding everything,” she says. “These are the people out sidewalk curbs at intersections so pedestrians have a who use the roads; they’re the ones who should be involved shorter distance to cross; and lower speed limits through in designing it.” the towns. The coalition was formed in response to a state plan to build a bypass around Middleburg and widen the highway from two lanes to a multi-lane divided highway. 1 Route 50 Corridor Coalition, A Traffic Calming Plan for Virginia’s “Bypasses tend to kill small towns,” says Van Wagoner, Rural Route 50 Corridor (1996). chair of the coalition’s steering committee. “Business people 2 See Michael Janofsky, “Answer to Gathering Stampede of Autos: were very concerned about that.” The plan has won strong Whoa!” The New York Times, Jan. 7, 1997, p. A10.

When asked the reasons for their generally accepted definition of ag- see two or three every day on the behavior, the most common answer gressive driving, says Brian G. way to work. That’s a fairly good was running late for appointments, Traynor, chief of traffic law enforce- indication to me that aggressive driv- followed by anger over another ment the NHTSA. ing is increasing. It’s hard to define, driver’s actions. 5 Speaking as a Washington-area but you know it when you see it.’’ Despite the widespread percep- commuter, however, Traynor thinks Lisa Sheikh, a child welfare expert, tion that aggressive driving is a grow- the problem is getting worse. ‘‘Years started Citizens Against Speeding and ing problem, there are no govern- ago, you would only see one person Aggressive Driving after she moved ment statistics to back up the asser- you considered to be a nut every two to Washington from New York City tion. That’s partly because there is no or three weeks,’’ he says. ‘‘Now, you two years ago. ‘‘I was astonished by

July 25, 1997 655 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING the speeding, the red-light running, Around the country, several state rating high-accident areas with both the very aggressive driving behavior,’’ and local police departments — in- marked patrol cars and ‘‘covert’’ ve- she says. ‘‘I really began to think about cluding those in Maryland, Arizona hicles — tractor trailers, dump trucks, the possibility that a lot of crashes are and New York — have organized lawn-mowing tractors — which radi- not accidents — they’re the result of enforcement programs aimed specifi- oed aggressive driving behavior to unlawful driving behavior.’’ cally at aggressive driving. Maryland patrol cars. Thousands of citations With her interest in children’s is- State Police started a campaign were issued. In addition, a public sues, Sheikh saw aggressive information campaign en- driving as a particularly ‘‘raw couraging motorists to re- deal for kids.’’ She discov- port unsafe drivers by ‘‘di- ered that many area parents aling’’ #77 on their cellular were complaining they phones has produced hun- couldn’t let their kids into the dreds of calls a month to front yard anymore because state police. In the first drivers were zooming by at quarter of 1996, fatalities 60 mph on streets where the were down 14 percent. limit was 25 mph. They fell another 3 percent Sheikh’s group is seeking in the first quarter of 1997, tougher penalties for aggres- according to Fischer. sive drivers, taking Mothers Maryland police can nab Against Drunk Driving drivers for a wide range of (MADD) as its model. The violations already on the group contends that local books, but headquarters also laws treat them too lightly, gives them a working defini- unless a crash involves alco- tion to use in seeking out the hol or road dueling. More- aggressive driver — one who over, she charges, police operates a vehicle in ‘‘a bold don’t enforce existing traffic or pushy manner’’ endanger- laws because they are fo- ing the lives and property of cused on hard-core crime. other motorists. National data appear to Few attempts have been support Sheikh’s perceptions made to quantify the extent about lack of enforcement. of aggressive driving. But One of the reasons is that the earlier this year the AAA number of drivers and ve- Foundation for Traffic hicle miles traveled has risen City of West Palm Beach Safety, AAA’s research arm, faster than the availability of A gazebo slows traffic through released a study counting officers for routine traffic an intersection in Seaside, Fla. incidents of violence that enforcement, according to have come to be known as the Insurance Institute for Highway against aggressive drivers in 1995 ‘‘road rage.’’ Safety, a research organization sup- after fatalities surged 35 percent in The AAA study, drawing on news- ported by auto insurers. the first three months over the pre- paper articles and police reports, In October, the mother of a police vious period in 1994. counted 10,037 incidents since 1990 officer who belongs to Sheikh’s group ‘‘The superintendent said, ‘Find out in which angry motorists injured, was killed in Maryland in a head-on why,’ ’’ recalls Lt. Michael Fischer. ‘‘It killed or attempted to hurt other mo- collision with a young driver going wasn’t speed or one particular offense. torists. At least 218 people were killed twice the speed limit. ‘‘The kid paid It was a multitude of offenses — inat- and 12,610 injured in those incidents. a few tickets and walked away,’’ tentiveness, following too closely, im- One of the most highly publicized Sheikh says. ‘‘People are getting away proper lane changes, driving on the incidents occurred on the George with murder. If people are using their shoulder, some alcohol offenses.’’ Washington Memorial Parkway in Vir- car as a weapon, I think the answer On Memorial Day weekend in ginia, just outside Washington, in is taking their car away.’’ 1995, Maryland troopers began satu- April 1996. Two dueling male drivers

656 CQ Researcher lost control of their cars at 80 mph, total number of traffic deaths caused car ran a red light every five minutes. crossed the median and hit two each year — over 41,000 in 1996, or As a group, the lawbreakers were oncoming vehicles. Only one of the more than 100 deaths every day — younger, less likely to use safety belts, four drivers involved in the crash by more typical bad driving. 8 had poorer driving records and drove survived. Narkey Terry, a computer ‘‘From our standpoint, [road rage] smaller and older vehicles than driv- technician, was sentenced to 10 years is more of a criminal matter than it is ers who stopped for red lights. 10 in prison for his role in the incident. aggressive driving,’’ Sgt. Terence J. Since 1975, pedestrian deaths have Such incidents increased 51 percent McDonnell, program manager in high- accounted for 13-17 percent of the between 1990 and 1995, the AAA study way safety for the New York State deaths involving motor vehicles, ac- showed. In 37 percent of the cases, a Police, commented on the AAA study. cording to the institute. However, firearm was used; in 35 percent the The new concern about aggressive pedestrian deaths as a percentage of weapon was the vehicle itself. 6 driving is coming after several years in the population have gone down 39 The majority of the drivers involved which automobile death rates in the percent between 1975 and 1995. Even were young, poorly educated males United States have been declining. more dramatic is the decline in pe- with criminal records, histories of vio- ‘‘Over the years, we’ve become destrian deaths among children — 70 lence and drug or alcohol problems. much better drivers — if you look at percent over the same period. Many had recently suffered an emo- the fatality rate per 100 million miles But pedestrian and bicycling ad- tional or professional setback such as a driven,’’ Waller says. ‘‘The rate in the vocates suggest fatalities may have divorce or losing a job or girlfriend. 1960s was between five and six declined because people have been But hundreds of such incidents in- deaths; three was a barrier people forced indoors. ‘‘It’s not that kids are volved apparently successful men and never thought we’d cross; it’s well crossing streets and getting killed,’’ women with no known histories of under two at this point.’’ Sheikh says. ‘‘What we’re hearing is crime who appeared to have suddenly But the statistics may be more kids can’t cross the street by them- snapped, the report found. In a 1995 reflective of demographic trends than selves anymore. You always have to case, a Maryland lawyer and former individual driving behavior. The be with them.’’ A recent article in the state legislator, Robin Ficker, was driv- country’s growing urbanization over British Medical Journal noted that a ing his two sons to visit his ailing fa- the last three decades has been an substantial proportion of the decline ther at the hospital when he bumped important factor in falling fatality in children’s deaths from traffic acci- into a Jeep in front of him. The driver, rates, Waller notes. Rural crashes are dents in England appeared to be Caroline Goldman, said that when she more likely to be fatal than those in linked to children walking and cy- approached his car, Ficker began yell- cities because they occur at higher cling less in 1992 than 1985. 11 ing and struck her in the face, break- speeds, and medical attention takes ‘‘The prudent person is likely to ing her eyeglasses. Ficker was con- longer to arrive. look out there and say, ‘It’s not worth victed of battery and malicious de- Yet urban and suburban areas tend my life to turn into the street any- struction of property. to have more frequent crashes and more,’ ’’ the bicycle federation’s The study also found numerous higher rates of injury from crashes Wilkinson says. cases of road violence triggered by than rural areas because the vehicles American motorists seem to divide ‘‘inane’’ causes. A 23-year-old Indi- are more concentrated. Judging from culturally between cautious types ana University student attacked a insurance claims, injuries from city who keep to the speed limit and campus maintenance worker with a crashes have been increasing in re- hurried drivers who consider hatchet after the two argued about cent years. 9 themselve more competent on the the student’s car being parked in a Running red lights and other traf- road. The recent AAA Potomac poll service drive. In another case, a man fic signals is the No. 1 cause of urban reporting an upsurge of concern over was shot and killed ‘‘because he was crashes, which are more likely to aggressive driving prompted local driving too slowly.’’ 7 cause injuries than any other kind of editorials calling the concern exag- Critics say the study is far from a crash, according to the Insurance gerated and pointing the finger at scientific count and merely repre- Institute for Highway Safety. If a timid, slow drivers. sents the culling of incidents so ex- recent study is any indication, red- ‘‘On the highway, there’s always treme and so rare that they have light running has become a surpris- some guy who likes to pretend the 55 made the front page. Moreover, the ingly frequent form of law-breaking. mph speed limit is the real speed limit dozens of road-rage fatalities counted In a morning rush hour study of a (nobody drives 55 unless there’s a annually pale in comparison with the busy intersection in Arlington, Va., a trooper about) and hogs the passing

July 25, 1997 657 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

son why communities How to Keep Your Anger Off the Road are so unpleasant for walkers, the culprit un- Psychiatrist John A. Larson, director of the Institute of Stress Medicine in Norwalk, questionably would be Conn., and author of Steering Clear of Highway Madness, conducts seminars for ‘‘The Green Book.’’ Put motorists in controlling aggressive driving. He says there are five crucial decision out by the American As- points that make it possible to avoid anger on the road: sociation of State High- way and Transportation 1. Plan more time for the trip than you think Officials (AASHTO), the you need. If it’s an hour or less, allow 50 manual guides traffic percent more time, if its three hours, allow 30 engineers in laying out percent more time. “If you plan the travel time most U.S. roads today. 14 really tight, anything that slows you down will Interstates and other make you angry,” Larson says. major highways receiving federal funds as part of 2. When you see another car going faster than the 161,000-mile National yours, say, “This is a place where I have to let Highway System must go of competition.” follow the AASHTO stan- dards as a condition of 3. Be good to yourself in your car. Have tapes on hand with the type of music you enjoy, funding. Most states keep food and drink in your car for long trips. choose to follow the stan- Think of driving as pleasurable in itself, not just dards when building or wasted time until you get to your destination. improving smaller roads and streets as well. Critics 4. When you see someone you don’t like — a say the standards elevate reckless teenager, a dawdling grandma, an the needs of traffic flow obnoxious pickup driver or a stuck-up Porsche above other important driver — don’t take it out on them. Welcome considerations, like quiet, diversity. friendly, walkable streets. ‘‘ ‘The Green Book’ is 5. Don’t try to “teach someone a lesson” for bad driving. Leave punishment to the police. supposed to be a set of Remember that if someone cuts you off, it’s not worth it to act provocatively. They could guidelines, and it says have a gun or a knife. planners should be flex- ible and use judgment, but everyone [in traffic en- lane. Passing on the right is, of course, people trying to go in the right lane gineering] forgets that and follows it not the ideal thing — but what else to pass tend to be horrible accidents blindly,’’ says Ian Lockwood, an inter- are you supposed to do?’’ wrote auto- involving tens of cars,’’ he says. nationally recognized planner who is motive columnist Eric Peters. 12 In fact, the insistence on being the helping to revitalize West Palm Beach, That attitude drives Sheikh crazy. passing driver appears to be at the Fla., by putting pedestrians first. (See She points out that drivers are not root of many ‘‘road rage’’ incidents. story, p. 653.) ‘‘One book can’t possibly supposed to exceed the speed limit Of 187 highway incidents investigated take into account the needs of every even when passing. ‘‘This is the work in summer 1987 in Los Angeles where community, so we get a generic road we have ahead to make these behav- firearms were brandished, two-thirds fitted into every community.’’ iors socially unacceptable so people involved cars that were passing, ‘‘Community after community has won’t blame other drivers,’’ she says. merging or entering the highway. 13 been ruined to move cars faster,’’ Sgt. McDonnell acknowledges that agrees Rep. Blumenauer. ‘‘They lose many drivers seem unaware the left Do government transportation their character; they lose their charm. lane is supposed to be the passing policies favor motorists over It kills the street.’’ Blumenauer charges lane, and that their slowness can pedestrians? that designs guided by the standards precipitate an accident with a hurried If critics of America’s auto depen- have produced deserted downtowns driver. ‘‘Accidents that occur from dency were asked for the main rea- and residential neighborhoods where

658 CQ Researcher crime flourishes because pedestrians’ traffic engineers often make to nar- corners that don’t permit wide, needs have been ignored in favor of row roads is that they wouldn’t allow sweeping turns at high speed. roads that are too wide, too fast and rescue vehicles to get through. How- Unlike roads in new subdivisions encourage speeding. ever, demonstrations in Portland, that allow two directions of traffic, the In rural and suburban areas, such de- Ore., and other cities where the new guidelines encourage streets so sign standards are equally destructive, streets were narrowed showed that narrow that there’s only enough room critics say. ‘‘Traffic engineers will say, rescue vehicles weren’t delayed. for one lane of traffic, and cars must ‘This road is a minor arterial and should In a sign that this worldview is pull over into the parking lane to ac- have a design speed of 50,’ ’’ says under challenge from within the commodate an oncoming vehicle. Wilkinson. ‘‘There go your trees, your profession, a committee of the Insti- ‘‘We have 80 years of stark prece- old bridge. They say they’ll make it four tute of Traffic Engineers is recom- dent showing people will pull over,’’ lanes. Where are you going to walk, mending design standards for new Spiegel says, pointing to typical city where am I going to ride my bike?’’ residential subdivisions that reject side-streets. In another diversion from The genesis of fast-moving roads conventional suburbia and embrace conventional suburbia, the guidelines in residential areas can be traced the ‘‘New Urbanism’’ movement. New discourage cul de sacs, or dead ends, partly to a historical anomaly, says towns built on this model — typically because drivers avoid them, which Frank Spielberg, a traffic consultant traditional-looking communities with tends to shift traffic to neighboring in Annandale, Va. Most states are sidewalks, front porches and easy streets rather than dispersing it. barred by law from posting speed walking distances to shops — in- The committee’s proposal is ‘‘one limits below 25 mph. Starting in the clude Kentlands, near Gaithersburg, of the most heartening and encourag- 1950s, state legislatures enacted the Md.; Laguna West, near Sacramento, ing things we’ve seen come out of the 25 mph floor to curb small-town Calif.; and Seaside, a resort commu- traditional engineering community in speed traps, which frequently posted nity on Florida’s Gulf Coast. the last few years,’’ Wilkinson says. artificially low speeds to raise rev- ‘‘What we’re saying is, ‘Let’s de- Spielberg is optimistic that the enue through speeding tickets. sign the streets from the beginning so institute will adopt the new guide- In addition, Spielberg says, engineers you encourage slow traffic,’ ’’ ex- lines before the end of the year. But tend to design roads even faster than plains Spielberg, who chairs the com- he says some older traffic engineers they need to be. ‘‘If you’re a good traffic mittee. ‘‘Let’s not design streets 36 have raised safety concerns about the engineer and someone tells you, ‘We’re feet wide with no parking and expect narrower streets and the right-angle going to post 25 mph,’ you say, ‘I’m people to drive down them at 25 corners designed to force turning going to leave a factor of safety.’ So you mph.’’ Spielberg believes the report vehicles to slow down. Spiegel design the street [wider] using 30 mph will also go a long way toward as- counters, ‘‘If you’re hit by a car trav- design standards. But, of course, the 30 suaging traffic engineers’ fears of eling less than 20 mph, you have a mph standards also have a factor of lawsuits. The new guidelines can ‘‘go pretty good chance of surviving, but safety built into them, which means a on an engineer’s shelf, so he sees, if you’re hit by a car going 35, you motorist would really feel comfortable ‘Here is something that supports will probably get killed.’’ on a nice day driving 35-40 mph. We building smaller streets,’ ’’ he says. The concepts proposed by apply these standards to neighborhoods The committee’s recommendations Spiegel’s committee, often described where people want to go 25 mph, and are intended to mimic authentic, old- as ‘‘traffic calming’’ when applied to then we wonder why people call us to style urban neighborhoods such as existing cities, are catching on in complain about speeding.’’ Georgetown in Washington, D.C., communities across the country. Se- Wider, faster streets have become and Old Town, in Alexandria, Va. attle, Portland and West Palm Beach, entrenched in many zoning codes and The two historic communities, their Fla., are among the cities that have local laws that incorporate ‘‘Green narrow streets lined with 18th- and embraced the approach. Book’’ standards. To some extent, fear 19th-century townhouses and small But pedestrian activists say they of lawsuits drives the blind adherence shops, are popular spots for strolling. often have to fight old ideas and to the standards, according to experts. The new guidelines recommend entrenched bureaucracies in state ‘‘Many traffic engineers are afraid maximum speeds of 20 mph; on- transportation departments. ‘‘It’s al- if they permit someone to build a street parking to provide a buffer for most like trying to turn a supertanker smaller street and there’s an accident, walkers from traffic; sidewalks wide on a dime,’’ Corless says. ‘‘State de- there would be tort liability,’’ says enough for strollers to walk compan- partments of transportation were set Spielberg. One of the objections that ionably two abreast; and squared-off up to do one thing: build big roads.

July 25, 1997 659 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

It’s very hard to get DOTs to think the city we want.’’ construction. ‘‘The highways and about pedestrian safety or bike facili- Advocates for more walkable cit- bridges are going down the tubes.’’ AAA ties, yet these agencies have the ul- ies have long argued that federal Potomac spokesman Lon Anderson timate authority.’’ spending is unfairly tilted toward blames the increasingly aggressive driv- Susan Van Wagoner, an artist and automobile traffic. Mass transit should ing on the congestion in a transporta- pedestrian activist in Middleburg, Va., be a crucial component of transpor- tion system ‘‘strained to its limits.’’ can attest to the difficulties. It started tation planning, notes Jeffrey Blum, ‘‘Are they saying we should have not when residents along the Snickersville transportation policy director of Citi- 40,000 miles of Interstate but 300,000?’’ Turnpike, a rural road that has zen Action, because ‘‘You can’t have Blum asks. ‘‘In many places, you could changed little since the Civil War, a walkable city without a good transit argue that you could not put in enough complained about potholes and a system to get in and out.’’ lanes to accommodate all the cars. crumbling road surface. The Virginia Currently, Blumenauer says, the There isn’t enough land to do it.’’ In Department of Transportation federal government’s contributions to many cities, he notes, 50 percent of the (VDOT) responded with a plan to local transportation projects are not land area is already given over to the straighten out the curves, widen the based on what reduces pollution or needs of autos, including roads, garages barely two-lane road and replace a congestion. ‘‘If the federal govern- and gas stations. 19th-century stone arch bridge with ment pays for 80 percent of a road ‘‘If there were no mass transit sys- a concrete and steel one. Van Wag- and only half of a transit system, it tem in Philadelphia,’’ he says, ‘‘you’d oner and other residents convinced biases you toward cars,’’ he says. have to pave over all of downtown to the VDOT to deviate from its usual Blumenauer notes that the U.S. Tax get everyone into the city.’’ standards. But not before a one-lane Code allows him to give his employ- bridge over a creek had been de- ees tax-free parking privileges, but if stroyed. (See story, p. 654.) he subsidizes a bus or rail pass it’s West Palm Beach, built for ser- taxable. Blumenauer has introduced BACKGROUND vants working in affluent Palm Beach, legislation in Congress that would give also has laws and zoning codes bar- equal treatment to people who drive ring street-life. But with support from and use mass transit. Mayor Nancy Graham, all that is Much of the fight over more fund- Societal Stress changing. ing for walking, cycling and mass tran- The city has started a long-term sit will focus this year on the plan to bring urban vitality to a multibillion-dollar federal bill that riving has been associated with downtown that most people were funds the nation’s highways — the D aggression at least since chariots afraid to enter at night only a few reauthorization of the 1991 Intermodal raced around the Circus Maximus in years ago. Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, ancient Rome amid cheers of specta- ‘‘In West Palm Beach, a child can better known as ISTEA. 15 tors. In the modern era, Madison wait 20 minutes for a bus two feet Pedestrian advocates note that only Avenue and car manufacturers have from cars, but a tree can’t be placed about 1 percent of federal highway appropriated images of aggressive in the same place for safety reasons,’’ safety funds under ISTEA are spent animals and weapons in marketing Lockwood notes. Typically, zoning on pedestrian safety, although pe- cars with names like Jaguar, Wildcat, codes prohibit tree planting close to destrians account for about 14 per- Charger, Cutlass and Challenger. the street, because traffic engineers cent of motor vehicle-related deaths. ‘‘Ritualized dueling’’ has also become consider trees ‘‘obstacles’’ that can The Surface Transportation Policy embedded in auto culture through cause fatal car crashes. Project is pushing for more spending hot-rod racing and freeway passing, ‘‘I put trees two feet from the street on measures such as traffic-calming observes Raymond W. Novaco, a wherever I can,’’ Lockwood says with islands, traffic circles and street nar- psychologist at the University of a laugh. ‘‘Wherever codes or rules rowing. But highway users are fight- California-Irvine, who studies the get in our way, we change them.’’ ing such moves. psychological and physiological ef- The city’s codes, for example, barred ‘‘We’re concerned that too much fects of traffic stress. 16 placing sidewalk cafes next to the highway money is being won by non- The phenomenon of highway vio- street. So ‘‘we just changed the rules,’’ highway interests,’’ says Bill Jackman, a lence gained media attention in re- Lockwood says. ‘‘And we’re going to spokesman for AAA, which is fighting cent years during a series of shootings keep changing the rules until we get the diversion of funds from highway Continued on p. 662

660 CQ Researcher Chronology

1926 1890s The first traf- Zoning in Cleveland is ruled 1980s Violence erupts fic accidents are reported. constitutional by the Supreme around the country as drivers Court in Euclid v. Ambler. dispute road privileges. May 30, 1896 The first known U.S. auto 1933 1982 accident occurs in New York New Dealers initiate the Home A wave of freeway shootings City when a man driving a Owners Loan Corporation to erupts in Houston, resulting in Duryea Motor Wagon collides refinance foreclosed mortgages 12 traffic-related homicides. with a bicycle rider, whose leg and guarantee mortgages, stok- is fractured. ing suburban home sales. 1987 Approximately 70 shootings and Sept. 13, 1899 1934 one stabbing are reported over New York real estate broker The Roosevelt administration the summer on Southern Califor- Henry H. Bliss, 68, becomes the admits urban routes to the federal nia roads. In the fall, another nation’s first recorded automobile highway program, providing free outbreak follows in St. Louis fatality when he is run over by a federal funds for roads while with 22 confirmed shootings. car while alighting from a trolley. trains receive only loans. 1989 • • Media reports of California road violence diminish, but state police statistics show violent 1900s Federal gov- 1940s-1960s incidents actually rose. ernment begins coordinating The postwar boom in subur- state and local road-building. ban development and massive • roadbuilding projects help to 1914 cement Americans’ depen- The American Association of dence on the car. 1990s The traffic State Highway Officials sets engineering profession and a highway standards that will 1947 growing number of cities determine the fast-moving, car- The first postwar Levittown rises investigate traffic-calming. friendly nature of most American on Long Island, setting the Police in several states start roads for years to come. model for car-based suburbs. crackdowns on aggressive drivers. 1916 1956 President Woodrow Wilson signs The federal Interstate Highway Memorial Day Weekend 1995 the Federal Aid Highway Act, System funded by gas tax re- Maryland State Police initiate an requiring states to match federal ceipts is established. enforcement campaign against highway funds, thus beginning aggressive drivers. the expansion of the national 1968 road network. The student revolution in Eu- 1997 rope spurs a revolution against A committee of the Institute of • the growing dominance of the Transportation Engineers recom- automobile in Holland, as mends new residential street architecture students place standards in keeping with 1920s-1930s benches and other roadblocks in traditional walkable neighbor- Zoning laws and New Deal the streets to slow traffic down. hoods; on July 17, a House programs help to create the The movement gives rise to Transportation subcommittee auto suburb, in which resi- “traffic-calming” measures in holds hearings on aggressive dents must drive to accom- Europe in the 1970s. driving. plish most errands.

July 25, 1997 661 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

How Holland Calmed Things Down

hile the automobile conquered America over the The weakening Dutch economy in the late 1970s made course of several decades, the same transformation the woonerf — with its custom paving and many traffic W occurred so quickly in Holland that it sparked a obstacles — too expensive for most cities. Since then, towns revolt overnight. have adopted a modified version for residential areas, known Between 1960 and 1970, the use of cars in Holland increased as a 30 kmh zone, where cars travel about 20 mph. dramatically. The revolt started in Delft in the late 1960s In both kinds of areas, the visual cues are such that the when residents, fed up with cars speeding through their driver does not become aggressive, says Bach. “You must neighborhoods, tore up the brick pavement one night so that show the driver how he has to behave,” he says, and the cars were forced to travel in a serpentine pattern at greatly message is, “You are just a guest here.” In addition, reduced speeds. Architecture students, influenced by the 1968 obstacles in the road translate as dangerous to the car, student revolts sweeping Europe, placed benches and trees Bach says, and make the driver more alert for children in the middle of the streets to slow cars down. and other human activity. “Everybody remembered our children were playing here In the small university town of Delft, traffic has been five years ago, and now it’s dangerous,” recalls Boudewijn slowed to such a degree through traffic calming that it Bach, a professor in the architecture department at the takes as long to complete a typical trip by car as by bike. Technical University of Delft and one of the nation’s leading Bikes are used in about 40 percent of local trips, according experts on the Dutch invention known as traffic-calming. to Bach. “People said, ‘We want our streets back.’ ’’ After decades of experimentation, Bach has decided Out of this movement arose the neighborhood concept that some of the devices most commonly used in the U.S. known as the woonerf, which means “living yard” or to slow drivers don’t work. Stop signs just cause drivers “residential yard.” The woonerf is a residential neigh- to speed up excessively between signs to make up the borhood protected from trucks and other through-traffic time they think they’ve lost, creating more pollution and with speed humps and signs indicating the entrances and noise as they accelerate. He prefers roundabouts, or traffic exits to the area. Instead of segregating pedestrians from circles, which force drivers to slow down gradually as cars with curbs, the woonerf integrates all types of traffic they maneuver around them. He also dislikes sharp on the road surface but gives pedestrians priority over speedbumps, which are uncomfortable for bikes as well as cars. It uses visual clues such as different kinds of pavement cars to cross. He prefers raised plateau-style intersections to indicate where cars may be parked. the width of a crosswalk, which slow drivers down Trees, play equipment, speed-reduction bumps and gradually and more comfortably, as well as providing bends in the roadway all conspire in a woonerf to force protection for pedestrians. cars to reduce their speeds to 12 mph — about the same Bach sees a new danger on the horizon. Now that pace as walking a horse or riding a bicycle, according to Dutch traffic engineers have finally learned to design slow- Bach. Accidents have been reduced in the woonerf by moving streets, architects and urban planners are caught about 50 percent. In addition, the severity of injuries has up in a new fashion for wide streets and long vistas. also declined because of the slow speeds. 1 Those kinds of designs speed up cars, Bach says. Ironically, By 1980, some 260 towns in Holland had some version he notes, Dutch and German traffic engineers, who were of a woonerf. The woonerf concept was adapted by German once blamed for designing fast-moving streets, have become planners and called “traffic tranquilization,” from which so indoctrinated into the traffic-calming philosophy that the English term “traffic calming” was derived. The first they are the ones putting the brakes on today. traffic-calming projects began in Germany in 1976, and by the end of the decade it was a widely accepted policy. Traffic calming spread quickly through Europe, Australia, 1 For a history of traffic calming, see Route 50 Corridor Coalition, A New Zealand and Japan. More recently, it has been Traffic Calming Plan for Virginia’s Rural Route 50 Corridor, 1996, pp. introduced into some cities in Canada and the U.S. 23-24. on Southern California freeways in frustration over growing traffic con- While some people involved in the summer of 1987, when newspa- gestion, particularly at rush hour. In the shootings had histories of vio- pers reported approximately 70 fact, Novaco found that the incidents lence that could have broken out in shootings and one stabbing. were distributed over all times of any setting, Novaco has suggested Many people assumed the inci- day. Most of the incidents involved that ‘‘some of the shootings might dents were spurred at least in part by a conflict over road privilege. have involved ordinary people un-

662 CQ Researcher dergoing periods of stress who lost their people skills.’’ make angry gestures as toughened control of their impulses.’’ 17 A popular misconception after the taxi drivers, she says. As an example, he cites the 1987 rash of California shootings in 1987 The growing popularity of sport case of former Wall Street investment was that it was a one-time phenom- utility vehicles like Suburbans and banker Arthur K. Salomon, who shot enon, since news reporting of the Jeep-style cars, many marketed to and wounded an unarmed college incidents subsided soon afterwards. women, only adds to the sense of student on a parkway just north of According to the California Highway dominance and the freedom to act Manhattan. The conflict began over Patrol, however, freeway violence angry, she suggests. ‘‘I think these who had the right to pass and esca- actually increased from 1988 to 1989, are bullying cars, and that’s what’s lated to verbal exchanges when both though media coverage declined. expected of them. Women are at- pulled over to the side of the road. Even before the California inci- tracted to them because it is a feeling It ended with Salomon shooting the dents, a wave of freeway shootings of power to be above everybody else. young man as he was starting to walk had occurred in Houston in 1982, People become more invisible to you back to his car, saying he had the resulting in 12 homicides. In the year than if you’re in another little car.’’ license number of Salomon’s following the violent summer of 1987, Psychologists also point out that Mercedes. Salomon, a grandson of there were similar outbreaks in St. the car is a highly personal territorial one of the founders of Salomon Louis and Detroit. space. That may explain why owners Brothers, pleaded guilty to first-de- of new cars often become enraged gree assault and was sentenced to 18 by the slightest bump or marring and months in prison. why tempers flare in traffic jams. ‘‘When people are crowded unwill- Taking Competitiveness Lowered Inhibitions ingly, that’s stressful,’’ Tavris says. ‘‘So on the Road is heat, children whining in the back Psychiatrist John A. Larson, director ovaco suggests that the anonym- seat. What happens is stress hormones of the Institute of Stress Medicine in N ity and escape potential of wide- rise, the physical energy rises and if Norwalk, Conn., and author of Steering open freeways helps to lower mo- you add provocation you’ll feel in- Clear of Highway Madness, believes torists’ inhibitions against behaving tensely angry. Why don’t passengers many incidents of highway anger can aggressively. In addition, his research in the car feel as angry as the driver? be traced to the competitiveness that has found that continued exposure They’re not under the same stress.’’ high-powered professionals carry over to traffic congestion elevates blood Novaco cautions that the irritabil- from work to the highway. 18 Larson, pressure, increases negative moods, ity most commonly observed in com- who conducts seminars on how to con- lowers tolerance for frustration and muters is quite different from the trol aggressive driving, first started can lead to more impatient driving assaultive behavior seen in the highly working with heart attack patients habits. His studies have found the publicized ‘‘road rage’’ incidents. whose competitiveness on the highway most stress among women solo driv- Nevertheless, there are some inter- was one element of stress leading to ers with long commutes — possibly esting parallels among ordinary, irri- heart attacks. because of the overload of demands tated drivers. A study in London ‘‘If the prevailing value system and from both home and work. found that 15 percent of males and mood of the driver is to win and get In her 1989 book Anger: The Mis- 11 percent of females stated that, ‘‘At there the fastest, that’s going to cre- understood Emotion, social psycholo- times, I felt that I could gladly kill ate a situation where he’s vulnerable gist Carol Tavris points to involuntary another driver.’’ In surveys including to circumstances where he’s going to crowding and the anonymity of the university students and other resi- explode,’’ Larson says. ‘‘It’s one way car as elements contributing to ‘‘traf- dents of Southern California, more of understanding why very affluent fic anger.’’ than 40 percent of males and up to people do this.’’ ‘‘The car is the best possible ex- 21 percent of females admitted to He adds, ‘‘I think one of the things ample of an environment where it’s chasing drivers who offended them, going on in our culture is that these typically safe to express anger,’’ she Novaco found. 19 values [of competition] have gained says. ‘‘You can yell and shout; no Aggressive driving has also been an ascendancy and created a great one will yell back at you, and maybe exacerbated by a clash of driving cul- emphasis on the bottom line — as they’ll get out of your way.’’ That tures as people move from different opposed to personal relationships. may explain why soccer moms seem parts of the country, Tavris believes. The result is that people driving lose just as likely to yell obscenities and ‘‘I grew up in L.A. when people

July 25, 1997 663 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

were famous for their politeness,’’ ever, means more people today need Seattle is one of the cities most of- she recalls. ‘‘If someone signaled, you to live in a place where they can ten cited for embracing traffic-calm- let them in your lane. Now freeway walk to shops, doctors and other ing measures. Small traffic circles manners are a joke because of traffic needs. In cities built around the car, placed in the middle of neighborhood and people coming to California with elderly walkers are often the most intersections, sometimes adorned different rules. There are cultural rules vulnerable targets for aggressive driv- with small gardens, have been the about driving as there are about ers. While senior citizens made up single most effective and popular walking. When you move to New only 13 percent of the population in method for traffic calming, according York, you have to walk faster. If you 1990, they accounted for 23 percent to city Transportation Department have an ambling pace, which you of pedestrian fatalities. planner Stuart Goldsmith. could get away with in Hawaii, you’ll ‘‘It cuts down accidents up to 90 get clobbered.’’ percent because the traffic has to slow down and bear right,’’ he says. The city has also added curves to existing streets to slow down traffic. CURRENT On some four-lane streets, the num- Postwar America ber of lanes is reduced to three to SITUATION provide more room for bicycles. merica’s built environment has Goldsmith attributes the relative A contributed to fast, aggressive lack of controversy over these mea- driving, particularly since World War sures to Seattle’s environmental ethic, II, city planners and engineers are Traffic Calming its large number of bicycle riders and concluding. In the postwar period, a responsive political system. for example, the state highway offi- ‘‘We don’t want to turn Seattle into cials association required that all new way of thinking about de- a suburb where the streets are filled street-design standards take into ac- A signing roads is starting to invade with cars, and there are no side- count the need to evacuate before a the traffic engineering establishment. walks,’’ he says. ‘‘Here, a lot of en- nuclear strike and to clean up de- This month the Federal Highway Ad- gineers have become sensitive to molished neighborhoods afterwards. ministration (FHWA) plans to issue a re- these issues.’’ A 1940s planning text presented a port urging states to consider local citi- sprawling one-family housing sub- zens’ concerns about issues like aes- division as more desirable than a thetics and historic preservation. The compact European city, which was report ‘‘highlights the flexibility that described as the ‘‘best target’’ in case exists’’ in policies governing the design New Police Tactics of war. 20 of state roads, which permits diver- Under such circumstances, it’s not gence from national design standards, everal police departments around surprising that new subdivisions were says Harold Peaks, leader of the FHWA S the country are experimenting with no longer walkable neighborhoods, group that is producing the report. 21 new approaches to combating aggres- observes the recent report from the At the Institute of Transportation sive driving. In Maryland later this Institute of Traffic Engineers propos- Engineers’ last convention, the ses- summer, state police plan to test a com- ing more pedestrian-friendly guide- sion on ‘‘traffic calming’’ drew some bination digital imaging camera and lines. Because of zoning legislation 500 people, reflecting the burgeon- laser clocking gun that locks in the dating back to the 1920s, most local ing interest in the field. speed of the car while taking a photo governments also required that resi- ‘‘I would say just about every com- of the car. The device is designed to be dences be separated from shops and munity in the U.S. is starting to look used in an unmarked car that could be industry, which had traditionally been into traffic calming,’’ Lockwood says. sitting on a highway ramp so that police viewed as dirty and unhealthful. But, he adds, ‘‘It’s going to take a vehicles don’t create backups or try to These zoning laws and the creation major paradigm shift in thinking in stop people in dangerous situations. of suburbs eventually required most the transportation world. All our leg- Traffic tickets are mailed to the driver, residents to drive virtually every- islation and guidelines and standards along with the photo. where for their daily needs. are rooted in concepts that were born In ‘‘Smooth Operator,’’ an aware- America’s aging population, how- in the golden age of the automobile.’’ Continued on p. 666

664 CQ Researcher At Issue: Is aggressive driving a major safety problem?

AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION, POTOMAC CHAPTER THE MONTGOMERY JOURNAL Press release, April 1997 (MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD.) Editorial, May 2, 1997 rea drivers have proclaimed aggressive driving Public Enemy No. 1 for the second year running t’s time to inject some much-needed perspective into a when it comes to road safety, based upon results the topic of “aggressive driving” on the Washington of AAA Potomac’s 1997 Transportation Poll. Further, nearly i area’s congested highways. The need for some rational- 90 percent of motorists surveyed reported that they feel ity here was highlighted yesterday by the release of the latest aggressive driving is on the rise on Washington roads. . . . American Automobile Association survey on the subject. Forty-four percent of the motorists responding called Or, rather, we should say the apocalyptic rhetorical aggressive driving their top concern, outranking drunken atmosphere created by the AAA in discussing the results of driving (31 percent). Forty-eight percent of the motorists in its survey and the confusion that is evident in those results. the District of Columbia and 46 percent in Virginia cite “Aggressive driving continues to strike fear in motorists, aggressive driving as more troubling than the regional invading their lives and endangering their safety,” said average, 44 percent, with Maryland slightly less (42 AAA’s Lon Anderson, who went on to describe the “death percent), the study shows. . . . grip” the phenomenon has on area drivers. In fact, nine out of 10 local motorists report witnessing Indeed, according to Anderson, aggressive driving has aggressive drivingyes in the last year. Perhaps even more become so prevalentno that it has reached “epidemic propor- remarkable, eight out of 10 witnessed aggressive driving tions” because eight out of 10 drivers surveyed claimed to within the last month. have seen examples of aggressive driving in the last Nearly two out of three Northern Virginians admitted to month, and more than half “confessed their aggressive being aggressive drivers last year, while regionwide 56 driving sins.” percent confessed to aggressive driving. The majority of In view of such hyperbole, perhaps it is not surprising regional drivers said they engaged in speeding (65 percent), that for the second year in a row, the AAA survey found while others reported gesturing (8 percent), slowing down motorists ranking aggressive driving ahead of drunken and speeding up to get even with another driver (6 percent) driving as their top fear on the road, this time by a margin and tailgating (6 percent). In the District, 15 percent — nearly of 44 percent to 31 percent. double the regional average — reported “gesturing and At the least, that perception is puzzling in view of the exchanging unpleasantries with another driver.” fact that nearly half of the 41,000-plus highway fatalities in When queried about reasons for being aggressive this country in 1995 . . . involved booze. drivers, approximately 60 percent of responses could be Let’s not lose sight of the fact that getting drunken categorized as congestion-provoked, which is not surpris- drivers off the road should be the No. 1 traffic safety ing, given our area’s congestion — the second worst in the priority of area law enforcement. nation. . . . It also must be asked, in view of the overwhelming Those who displayed aggressive driving behavior number of respondents “confessing” to sometimes being pointed to running late for appointments (33 percent) and guilty of aggressive driving, if there is so broad a definition frustration over slow or congested traffic (27 percent) as of the phenomenon as to be practically meaningless. primary irritants. These findings further illustrate the In an interview with The Journal, Anderson explained region’s need for increased capacity to ease congestion and the way his surveyors tried to account for such a possibil- frustration on our roads. . . . ity, including qualifying the question as one inquiring Based upon AAA Potomac’s poll findings, Smooth about “outrageous” examples of aggressive driving. Operator, the regional initiative launched recently to Still, there is great danger in the broad-brush portrait combat aggressive driving by increasing high-visibility that seems to be emerging in the aggressive driving police enforcement and motorist education, appears to be dialogue. The danger is that law enforcement against on target.* Regionally, 60 percent of respondents indicated concrete killers like drunken driving will suffer in a that more police patrols and driver education would be the politically correct campaign against folks who are simply in best deterrent to aggressive driving. Another segment of a hurry and manage to offend a left-lane dawdler. . . . the motorists polled (28 percent) called for larger fines and Now, AAA reports it is urging police to crack down on penalties to solve the problem. the dawdlers... Left-lane blocking is likely the least policed traffic hazard, so it is good to hear AAA is bringing to bear * Smooth Operator involves the Maryland and Virginia state police, the its immense influence on this aspect of improving driving Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Park Police and several county and safety. It can’t happen too soon. local jurisdictions.

July 25, 1997 665 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

Continued from p. 664 creased speed limits on their high- ness-building program initiated this ways experienced an increase in fa- spring by state and local police in Wash- talities of 5 percent or more in 1996; OUTLOOK ington, Maryland and Virginia, patrol five of those states had an increase of officers targeted drivers who commit- between 14 percent and 18 percent. ted two or more offenses often associ- The coalition argues that raising the ated with aggressive driving — includ- speed limit sends motorists the wrong Legislative Initiatives ing speeding, tailgating, shoulder-run- signal — that it’s safe to speed. Further, ning, failing to obey traffic signals, it says, police forces are inadequate to changing lanes improperly and driving the task of enforcement. According to egislation to crack down on ag- while intoxicated. 22 a recent Harris Poll conducted for the L gressive driving was introduced in In New York state, police are launch- organization, 64 percent of those polled both the Maryland and Virginia leg- ing a pilot program this summer using are ‘‘concerned that higher speed lim- islatures last session. Though none helicopter surveillance and unmarked its will contribute to even more aggres- of the bills saw action, state legisla- cars to find aggressive drivers. In Ari- sive driving.’’ 23 tors are working on new proposals zona, the use of unmarked cars to catch for next session. aggressive drivers on Phoenix and Tuc- Laser Cameras and Other New In Maryland, legislators have been son highways has been expanded to Technologies revising a proposal to increase the pen- downtown Phoenix. The coalition is pushing Congress to alties for a driver who commits three dedicate a half-cent per gallon from the violations — such as speeding, follow- Concern About Higher federal gasoline tax for safety programs, ing too closely and changing lanes Speed Limits including funds to help police combat unsafely — during a single incident. In The speed limit on highways out- aggressive driving. It supports using Virginia, a proposal last session would side Arizona metropolitan areas is now cameras and other new technologies in have created a new ‘‘aggressive driv- 75 mph, and police routinely clock jurisdictions where patrol cars cannot ing’’ charge carrying up to a year in jail speeds over 100, according to Alberto keep up with the growing number of for a driver brandishing a firearm or Gutier, director of the Governor’s Of- speeders and other violators. operating a motor vehicle in a threaten- fice of Community and Highway Safety. Maryland and Colorado have passed ing manner or with intent to hurt an- Some local streets in sprawling Phoe- legislation to allow cameras at intersec- other person. Republican Virginia nix ‘‘may not have a light for three or tions to catch motorists running red House Del. Joe May, who introduced four miles,’’ he says, ‘‘and people may lights. Red-light cameras also are used the bill, plans to reintroduce a new do 70 in a 40 mph zone.’’ in localities in California, Arizona, Michi- version of the proposal next session. The parade of states raising speed gan, New York and Virginia. The cam- The Virginia Department of Transpor- limits since Congress lifted the federal eras take a photo of the car with its tation adopted another May proposal maximum in 1995 is a major cause of license plate, and the motorist is usu- last session, adding instruction on curb- dangerous driving, says Advocates for ally ticketed by mail. Adoption has been ing aggressive driving to its remedial Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition stymied in some states by concerns driving course for repeat violators. of insurance, consumer and health about violations of privacy. Rep. Blumenauer argues that the groups. ‘‘We think most aggressive The Insurance Institute for High- best way to control dangerous driv- drivers are speeding drivers,’’ says way Safety strongly backs automated ers is by taking their cars. He has spokeswoman Cathy Hickey. Thirty- enforcement techniques like red-light introduced legislation in Congress to four states have raised speed limits on cameras, arguing they permit better use existing federal anti-drunken- rural Interstate highways, 24 of them to enforcement in high-density situa- driving grant money to encourage 70 mph or above.* tions where it is difficult for an officer states to adopt auto forfeiture for According to the highway safety to catch a red-light runner without drunken drivers. In Portland, Ore., coalition, 10 of the 34 states that in- endangering other drivers. which has such a program, drunken- ‘‘Ninety-seven percent of the driving deaths have dropped steeply people who get tickets pay for them,’’ — 42 percent between 1994 and 1995. * In 1987, Congress amended the National Maximum Speed Limit law to permit states to increase the says Julie A. Rochman, a spokes- ‘‘This is a very direct way to disarm maximum speed limit on rural Interstate highways woman for the institute. ‘‘It’s hard to the dangerous or reckless driver,’’ to 65 mph. In 1995, Congress enacted the National Highway System Act, repealing the national argue when you get a shot of your Blumenauer says. ‘‘But it has not been maximum speed limit. car in the mail.’’ used the way I would like for the per-

666 CQ Researcher sistent dangerous driver who drives without a license.’’ The University of Michigan’s Waller notes that while law enforce- AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 1440 New York Ave., N.W., Suite 201, ment has focused on bad drivers — Washington, D.C. 20005; (202) 638-5944. The research arm of the American most effectively those who drink and Automobile Association (AAA) has issued reports on aggressive driving. drive — it has been less successful Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, 750 1st Street, N.E., Suite 901, in motivating people to become Washington, D.C. 20002; (202) 408-1711. This organization representing good, courteous drivers. consumers and insurance companies tracks state laws related to highway safety and is lobbying for increased federal funding of enforcement ‘‘I feel we’ve missed the boat on pre- programs aimed at aggressive drivers. paring young drivers,’’ she says, argu- ing that most young drivers get their Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Va. 22201-4751; (703) 247-1500. The institute conducts research and license before they’ve had sufficient provides data on highway safety and seeks to reduce losses from crashes. experience on the road. ‘‘You don’t give a kid 30 hours of piano lessons and tell National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Public and Consumer Affairs, 400 7th St., S.W., Room 5232, Washington, D.C. 20590; him to go play in Carnegie Hall.’’ She (202) 366-9550. This branch of the federal Department of Transportation favors the approach adopted by Michi- tracks highway safety statistics. gan and other states known as ‘‘gradu- Surface Transportation Policy Project, 1100 17th St., N.W., 10th Floor, ated licensing,’’ in which teenagers must Washington, D.C. 20036; (202) 466-2636. This coalition of some 175 log a minimum number of road hours environmental and community groups advocates transportation policies with a supervising adult before receiv- like traffic-calming that benefit pedestrians and cyclists. ing full license privileges. State troopers say they’re also dis- mayed by the apparent ignorance of drivers — and not just teenagers. ‘‘Some Notes of the rules of the road are being lost 11 DiGuiseppi C. Roberts, ‘‘Influence of Chang- 1 over time,’’ observes Sgt. McDonnell. Mean Streets: Pedestrian Safety and Reform of ing Travel Patterns on Child Death Rates from the Nation’s Transportation Law, the Surface Injury Trend Analysis,’’ British Medical Journal, ‘‘People are learning to drive by being Transportation Project and the Environmental March 8, 1997, pp. 710-713. thrown into the jungle rather than be- Working Group, 1997. 12 Eric Peters, ‘‘Beware traffic violation creep,’’ ing taught how to do this safely.’’ 2 See ‘‘Traffic Congestion,’’ The CQ Researcher, The Washington Times, April 29, 1997, p. A19. How should the nation deal with May 6, 1994, pp. 385-408. 13 John A. Larson, Steering Clear of Highway aggressive drivers? There are two basic 3 See ‘‘Highway Safety,’’ The CQ Researcher, July Madness (1996), p. 76. approaches — train and discipline 14, 1995, pp. 609-632. 14 American Association of State Highway and 4 drivers better or design roads to force See ‘‘Transportation Policy,’’ The CQ Re- Transportation Officials, AASHTO Policy on searcher, July 4, 1997, pp. 577-600. Geometric Design of Highways and Streets them to drive less aggressively. 5 ‘‘Aggressive Driving Continues to Plague Area (1990). Increasingly, activists say, both ap- Motorists,’’ AAA Potomac News, May 1, 1997. 15 ‘‘Transportation Policy,’’ op. cit. proaches must be pursued. Police can’t 6 Louis Mizell, ‘‘Aggressive Driving,’’ in Aggres- 16 Raymond W. Novaco, ‘‘Automobile Driving write enough tickets to control aggres- sive Driving: Three Studies, AAA Foundation for and Aggressive Behavior,’’ in Martin Wachs and sive drivers, Blumenauer argues, so it Traffic Safety, March 1997. Margaret Crawford, eds, The Car and The City also makes sense to re-engineer the 7 Ibid., p. 5. (1992), pp. 234-320. 8 17 streets to encourage people to drive The study drew on reports from 30 newspa- Ibid., p. 239. pers, 16 police departments and insurance 18 Novaco, op. cit. more slowly. company claims. The number of fatalities rose 19 Ibid., pp. 245-246. Together, he says, toughened from 41,798 in 1995 to 41,907 in 1996. It was 20 Institute of Transportation Engineers, Tradi- enforcement and calmed streets rein- the fourth year in a row there has been an tional Neighborhood Development Street Design force the philosophy ‘‘that the car is increase, but the fatality rate remained stable Guidelines (June 1997), p. 4. part of the transportation system that during the four-year period at 1.7 per hundred 21 Flexibility in Highway Design, Federal High- serves people, not that we all adjust million vehicle miles. way Administration, in press. 9 22 our lives to serve the car.’’ Richard A. Retting, ‘‘Urban Motor Vehicle Eric Lipton et al., ‘‘Area Police Team Up for Crashes and Potential Countermeasures,’’ Trans- Safer Roads,’’ The Washington Post, March 23, portation Quarterly, summer 1996. 1997. Sarah Glazer is a freelance writer 10 See the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 23 Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, The in New York who specializes in Web site at www.hwysafety.org, ‘‘Q&A: Red Highway Safety Deficit: Who Pays and Who health and social policy issues. Light Cameras.’’ Delays?, May 6, 1997.

July 25, 1997 667 Bibliography Selected Sources Used

Books Lipton, Eric et al., “Area Police Team Up for Safer Kay, Jane Holtz, Asphalt Nation: How the Automo- Roads,” The Washington Post, March 23, 1997, p. A1. bile Took Over America and How We Can Take It This article describes the launching of a new program, Back, Random House, 1997. “Smooth Operator,” in which police from Maryland, This impassioned book by the architecture and plan- Virginia and Washington, D.C., are teaming up to inten- ning critic for The Nation magazine chronicles how sify enforcement against aggressive drivers. federal subsidies reshaped the country into its current auto gridlock. Kay discusses solutions, including traffic Perl, Peter, “The Glass and Steel Menagerie,” The calming, to create more humane neighborhoods. Washington Post Magazine, July 7, 1996, pp. 8-13, 21-26. Larson, John A., Steering Clear of Highway Mad- In this in-depth article, Perl asks why drivers in the ness: A Driver’s Guide to Curbing Stress and Strain, capital area have such aggressive driving styles and rides BookPartners, 1996. with area police to see how they deal with the problem. Psychiatrist Larson advises drivers on how to avoid the frustration and anger that often lead to dangerous Vest, Jason, et al., “Road Rage,” U.S. News & World confrontations and collisions on the road. Report, June 2, 1997, pp. 24-30. The authors suggest that a number of trends, including Tavris, Carol, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, growing road congestion and falling participation in Touchstone, 1989. driver education programs, may be contributing to the In this book arguing against the notion that expressing phenomenon of violence between drivers. anger is always best for you, social psychologist Tavris devotes a few pages to explaining the growing phenom- Reports enon of “traffic anger.” AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Aggressive Driv- Articles ing: Three Studies (March 1997). This report by the AAA’s research arm includes its Bradsher, Keith, “Domination, Submission and the count of violent road incidents in the United States since Chevy Suburban,” The New York Times (East Coast 1990 and two British studies examining psychological edition), March 23, 1997, “The News of the Week in components of “road rage.” Review,” p. 2. Bradsher looks at the desire to dominate other drivers Institute of Transportation Engineers Transporta- as one motive behind the growing popularity of sport tion Planning Council Committee, Traditional Neigh- utility vehicles. Collisions between sport vehicles and borhood Development Street Design Guidelines (June cars kill more Americans than collisions between cars. 1997). A report from a committee of the professional society Flanagan, Barbara, “The Other Palm Beach Story,” of traffic engineers recommends standards for streets in The New York Times, p. C1. new residential areas designed on a traditional, walkable Flanagan describes the political forces that led to the model. revitalization of West Palm Beach, using traffic-calming and other approaches. Surface Transportation Policy Project and Environ- mental Working Group, Mean Streets: Pedestrian Janofsky, Michael, “Answer to Gathering Stampede Safety and Reform of the Nation’s Transportation of Autos: Whoa!” The New York Times, Jan. 7, 1997, Law (1997). p. A10. A coalition of environmental and walker/cycling groups Janofsky describes efforts by residents in Middleburg, issued this report highlighting the 14 percent of road Va., and neighboring towns to apply traffic-calming to fatalities each year that involve pedestrians and arguing Route 50, a favorite commuter route to Washington, D.C. against highway-users’ efforts to reduce federal funds favoring walkers. Levine, Art, “How Angry Drivers are Putting You in Danger,” Redbook, March, 1997, pp. 90-114. Journalist Levine describes some of the deaths caused by aggressive driving and attempts to combat it.

668 CQ Researcher The Next Step Additional information from UMI's Newspaper & Periodical Abstracts™ database Aggressive Driving Smith, Leef, “Aggressive Driving Blamed in Crash Beamon, Todd, “Cabdrivers Face Off in Traffic Dis- That Killed Two in Prince William,” The Washington pute; One Person Injured, Car Windows Shattered Post, Feb. 27, 1997, p. D4. After Two Men Pick Up Tire Irons,” The Washington An aggressive driver bent on passing cars on a two-lane Post, May 23, 1997, p. D1. stretch of Route 28 in Virginia’s Prince William County A late-morning incident at Scott Circle on Rhode Island crossed a double yellow line and caused a crash that killed Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C., occurred three weeks two motorists, police said. A Buick driver, trying to avoid into a five-month crackdown on aggressive driving by 16 a collision, steered his car onto the shoulder of the road area law enforcement agencies. Police said yesterday’s and then overcompensated when he steered back onto the fight began when the driver of one cab cut in front of road. The Buick crossed over the center line and struck a another, and ended after both men smashed each other’s Nissan Sentra, killing a passenger in the Buick and the windows with tire irons. driver of the Nissan. The sedan driver fled, police said.

Finn, Peter, and Mike Allen, “Driven to Become Road Wee, Eric L., “Targeting Aggressive Drivers: Pursu- Warriors: Specialists Study Behavior; Police Plan to ing Cases Requires Painstaking Police Work,” The Alter It,” The Washington Post, March 31, 1997, p. B1. Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1997, Sec. VAL, p. 1. Police say aggressive driving is the drunken driving of The Prince William County attorney’s office recently the ’90s — a common yet deadly phenomenon that can dropped reckless driving charges against Robert Finck, be tamed through unflinching enforcement and focused who was involved in a November accident on Interstate public attention. Among those who have studied aggres- 95 that severely injured his 3-year-old daughter, Brenna. sive driving, some believe that like alcoholism it may Prosecutors said they have found no witnesses to the actually be a sickness. accident, and other evidence supports Finck’s conten- tion that he was the injured party in the confrontation. Johnson, Kevin V., “An ‘epidemic’ of aggressive driv- Prosecutors said they are moving forward with charges ing; Angry motorists, not drunks, now top list of com- against the other driver involved in the accident. muters concerns,” USA Today, May 6, 1997, p. D8. A new poll by the Potomac chapter of the Automobile Yant, Abbie, “Seeing red? Think ahead,” San Fran- Association of America (AAA), serving the Washington, cisco Chronicle, April 15, 1997, p. A19. D.C., area, says that 44 percent of area drivers think Yant comments on aggressive driving symptoms and con- aggressive driving is the biggest threat to highway sequences, focusing on the problems of running red lights. safety. Respondents said they were more worried about aggressive driving than about drunken driving. And over Pedestrian Safety half confessed to having been aggressive drivers them- selves in the last year. Arnold, David, “Law a step behind jaywalkers,” The Boston Globe, Feb. 15, 1996, p. 37. Masters, Brooke A., “Virginia Driver’s Violent Con- As part of his “pedestrian safety initiative,” Democratic frontation Leads to 60-Day Jail Sentence,” The Wash- Boston Mayor Thomas Menino vowed to enforce the ington Post, June 4, 1997, p. B1. state law that prohibits jaywalking. His intention, he When James Drake thought he’d been cut off while said, was to curb pedestrian fatalities in the city. driving to work early one morning, he didn’t just give the other driver an angry look. Drake, an accountant, fol- Crenshaw, Holly, “Pedestrian safety changes made lowed Veronica Reinhardt into the parking garage at her at Highland-Ponce,” Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 20, Reston, Va., workplace, cutting her off several times on 1997, Sec. XJN, p. 3. the way, and charged out of his pickup truck, according Neighborhood residents say that new safety precau- to court documents. Yelling obscenities, Drake beat on tions at Ponce de Leon and North Highland avenues in the roof and windows of Reinhardt’s Honda Accord, Atlanta, Ga., should make the area less dangerous for tried to pull the door open and kicked it so hard that he pedestrians but are still urging drivers to exercise cau- did $479 worth of damage, the documents say. Yester- tion there. The changes came after two pedestrians were day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa C. Buchanan cracked struck by cars while crossing Ponce de Leon last fall, down on Drake’s aggressive driving, sentencing him to prompting residents of the nine-story Briarcliff Summit 60 days in jail and ordering him to pay a $2,500 fine and apartment building — home to 201 elderly tenants, some $601 in restitution. of whom are disabled — to seek help in making the area

July 25, 1997 669 AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

safer. Miriam M. Parker, a 73-year-old resident, wrote to Parkway are facing faster prosecution and maybe higher city officials on behalf of the Briarcliff’s tenants, who fines under new plans developed by the U.S. Park Police often cross Ponce de Leon to shop at the drugstore, and federal prosecutors. In the near future, motorists grocery store and other businesses facing their building. charged with drunken or reckless driving will be re- quired to appear in court within a week, rather than “Pedestrians at Risk, New Study Warns,” St. Louis waiting six weeks, prosecutors said. That will put offend- Post-Dispatch, April 9, 1997, p. A8. ers under a judge’s supervision sooner and mean swifter “Pedestrian safety is an unacknowledged public health trials and punishment. problem,” said Hank Dittmar, executive director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the highway safety Montgomery, David, “Speeding Toward Action; Md. advocacy group that produced a study on pedestrian Legislators Push Unusual Number of Bills Aimed at safety with the Environmental Working Group. Increasing Road Safety,” The Washington Post, March 6, 1997, p. D1. Reid, S. A. “Group to make streets safer for pedestri- Amid growing concern about aggressive driving and ans,” Atlanta Constitution, June 5, 1997, Sec. XJA, p. 8. abundant evidence that many drivers consider stopping Pedestrian safety has moved up a notch on the city’s at red lights optional, lawmakers are pushing through priority list with the formation of a new task force aimed at bills aimed at increasing safety. The chief sponsors of key making Atlanta, Ga., a less dangerous place to enjoy the measures are senators and delegates from the car-clogged world’s oldest mode of transportation — walking. The Washington suburbs, who say their constituents are Pedestrian Rights Task Force hopes to do that by promoting demanding action. a multifaceted approach that members call the four “E’s” — education, enforcement, engineering and encouragement. Smith, Leef, and Alice Reid, “For Road Warriors, a The group, made up of pedestrian activists and city officials, Sign to Stop; Regional Reckless-Driving Crackdown got its start in May with the help of Marvin Arrington, Finds Aggressive Behavior is the Norm,” The Wash- mayoral candidate and City Council president. ington Post, May 2, 1997, p. B1. Virginia State Trooper A. Todd Gillis roamed the Capital Vartabedian, Ralph, “Being a Pedestrian Is Risky Beltway in an unmarked cruiser yesterday, looking for people Business,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1997, p. E1. who were driving too aggressively. He found so many that his Every year, approximately 900 California pedestrians only problem was deciding which cars to pull over. Gillis are killed and more than 18,000 others sustain injuries, ticketed five motorists during the two hours that a reporter according to a new nationwide study on pedestrian rode with him. But the trooper pointed to more than a dozen deaths. While pedestrian deaths account for 19 percent of drivers he could have stopped if he hadn’t been busy writing all motor vehicle deaths in the state, just 0.7 percent of those citations. Gillis, 34, is part of an unprecedented crack- federal highway spending related to safety in the state down on aggressive and reckless drivers that was launched was allocated to pedestrian projects. The report, by a this week by Washington-area police. Police departments large coalition of environmental groups and organized across the region have dedicated dozens of officers to the under the Environmental Working Group and Surface effort, which is dubbed “Smooth Operator.” Transportation Policy Project, demands a substantial reallocation of spending to improve pedestrian safety. Valentine, Paul W., “Thousands Cited in Aggressive- Driving Crackdown,” The Washington Post, May 17, Police Response 1997, p. C3. Washington area police said yesterday that they had Lipton, Eric, and Patricia Davis, “Area Police Team ticketed almost 12,000 motorists in the first week of a Up for Safer Roads; Aggressive Drivers Lead Agencies joint crackdown on aggressive drivers who tailgate, run to Break Jurisdictional Barriers,” The Washington red lights and weave through high-speed traffic. The joint Post, March 23, 1997, p. A1. 16-police agency crackdown, called “Smooth Operator,” Police agencies in Virginia, Maryland and the District are has deployed scores of officers and is one of the first in planning to join forces next month for the first coordinated the nation to target aggressive drivers exclusively. crackdown on aggressive driving in the Washington area, officials said yesterday. The campaign includes the D.C. Vartabedian, Ralph, “The Real Capital of Perilous police department and the Maryland and Virginia state Driving,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1997, p. E1. police, as well as several suburban departments. The trend toward aggressive driving has become so alarming that the Clinton administration this month Masters, Brooke A., “U.S. Authorities to Crack Down unveiled a $100,000 effort, called “Smooth Operator,” to on Bad GW Parkway Drivers,” The Washington Post, combat the bad habits of drivers in Washington, D.C. As March 28, 1997, p. A13. an added measure, the safety administration has launched Dangerous drivers on the George Washington Memorial a study to try to understand what causes aggressive

670 CQ Researcher driving, which is also popping up in less virulent forms After 15 months of study, including nearly a dozen in other regions. community workshops, a group of residents from the Middleburg, Va., area have come up with a proposal they Public Response say will ease traffic problems while preserving the area’s quaintness and scenic views. The citizens group — the Cantor, George, “Some drivers too cruel to be kind,” Route 50 Corridor Coalition — has proposed using Detroit News, March 15, 1997, p. C7. “traffic-calming” methods such as speed humps, small Cantor discusses aggressive driving in his neighborhood traffic circles, raised intersections and tree-lined median and questions why police have failed to put an end to it. strips to discourage speeding and cut-through traffic.

Monroe, Doug, “Readers lament highway reckless- Castaneda, Carol J., “Neighborhoods have ways to brake ness and the lack of law enforcement,” Atlanta Con- zip-through drivers,” USA Today, May 2, 1997, p. A24. stitution, Oct. 7, 1996, p. B2. From Sarasota, N.Y., to Seattle, Wash., cities are touting Monroe discusses readers’ views on several Atlanta- “traffic calming” as a way to end the mad rush of cars area transportation topics, including concern over reck- racing 40 mph and faster down residential streets. As less driving, lack of law enforcement and irresponsible stressed-out commuters and combative drivers roar through truck drivers on local highways. the neighborhoods to avoid clogged main roads, resi- dents are taking up the fight. “Montanans talk about speed,” Car & Driver, June 1997, p. 122. Howe, Peter J., “Cambridge aims to ‘calm’ traffic on Montanans Karen Conger, Les Kellem and Alex Ferguson busy streets,” The Boston Globe, Feb. 10, 1997, p. A15. share their views of Montana’s “reasonable-and-prudent” This spring, three projects that are part of a new daytime speed limit law. Most citizens like the law, but movement called “traffic calming” will be introduced in some worry about the speeds drivers are hitting. Cambridge, Mass. The goal is to make neighborhoods nicer places to live and walk by building modified speed Reckless Driving bumps and other obstructions in the street, so that motorists have to drive more slowly. Boyd, Richard, “120 mph chase dead-ends with mul- tiple charges,” Times-Picayune, Nov. 27, 1996, p. B4. Janofsky, Michael, “Answer to Gathering Stampede of A Slidell, La., area man arrested after leading authorities Autos: Whoa!,” The New York Times, Jan. 7, 1997, p. A10. on a car chase said he was “just showing off” and did not In 1995, Virginia proposed easing congestion on U.S. 50 see the flashing lights of law enforcement vehicles. Jason by building multi-lane bypasses around Middleburg, Aldie Shields was booked on Nov. 22, 1996, with attempted and Upperville and widening the highway at the intersec- murder of a police officer, resisting arrest by flight, tions between them. But a group of area residents, fearing reckless driving, improper lane use, running a red light, suburban sprawl, has proposed an alternative way to deal running a stop sign and disregarding a police signal. with transportation issues, “traffic calming.”

Warren, Bob, “Three Hurt in LaPlace Accident After Pacelle, Mitchell, “Traffic calming: Some urban plan- Prom,” Times-Picayune, April 29, 1997, Sec. BR, p. 1. ners say downtowns need a lot more congestion,” Three people in a car that was hit, a boy, 17, a girl, 16, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 1996, p. A1. and a 22-year-old were taken to River Parishes Hospital A small band of traffic engineers including Walter in LaPlace, La., where they were treated for bumps and Kulash have set out to shatter urban-planning dogma by bruises and released. The teens, students at West St. John applying “traffic calming” to dying downtowns. Racing High School, and the adult, their chaperone, were driving traffic and the absence of curb-side parking have de- home after a night of prom festivities. The driver of the graded center-city streets, they argue, chasing away truck that hit them, Randall D. Legg, 36, of Sorrento, was potential customers of street-level stores and restaurants. booked with reckless driving and driving while intoxi- cated (DWI). When authorities asked him what caused Smith, Andrew, “Letter: Speed saves — at 20 mph,” the accident, he replied that he was “too drunk to The Guardian, Dec. 31, 1996, p. 14. explain,” said Lt. Michael Tregre, a spokesman for the St. The Transport Research Laboratory finding that 20 mph John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office. zones cut accidents involving children by 67 percent makes a powerful case for immediate government action. Traffic Calming Sweeting, Adam, “Traffic calming? They must be jok- Benning, Victoria, “On Route 50, A Move to Calm ing,” The Guardian, Sept. 19, 1996, p. 17. Traffic; Residents Advocate Methods to Slow Cars,” Sweeting comments on his annoyance with the speed The Washington Post, Jan. 16, 1997, Sec. VAL, p. 1. bumps being erected on Britain’s suburban streets.

July 25, 1997 671 Back Issues

Great Research on Current Issues Starts Right Here . . . Recent topics covered by The CQ Researcher are listed below. Before May 1991, reports were published under the name of Editorial Research Reports.

JANUARY 1996 JUNE 1996 MARCH 1997 Emergency Medicine Rethinking NAFTA New Air Quality Standards Punishing Sex Offenders First Ladies Alcohol Advertising Bilingual Education Teaching Values Civic Renewal Helping the Homeless Labor Movement’s Future Educating Gifted Students

FEBRUARY 1996 JULY 1996 APRIL 1997 Reforming the CIA Recovered-Memory Debate Declining Crime Rates Campaign Finance Reform Native Americans’ Future The FBI Under Fire Academic Politics Crackdown on Sexual Harassment Gender Equity in Sports Getting Into College Attack on Public Schools Space Program’s Future

MARCH 1996 AUGUST 1996 MAY 1997 The British Monarchy Fighting Over Animal Rights The Stock Market Preventing Juvenile Crime Privatizing Government Services The Cloning Controversy Tax Reform Child Labor and Sweatshops Expanding NATO Pursuing the Paranormal Cleaning Up Hazardous Wastes The Future of Libraries

APRIL 1996 SEPTEMBER 1996 JUNE 1997 Centennial Olympic Games Gambling Under Attack FDA Reform Managed Care The States and Federalism China After Deng Protecting Endangered Species Civic Journalism Line-Item Veto New Military Culture Reassessing Foreign Aid Breast Cancer

MAY 1996 OCTOBER 1996 JULY 1997 Russia’s Political Future Political Consultants Transportation Policy Marriage and Divorce Insurance Fraud Executive Pay Year-Round Schools Rethinking School Integration School Choice Debate Taiwan, China and the U.S. Parental Rights

NOVEMBER 1996 Global Warming Clashing Over Copyright Consumer Debt Governing Washington, D.C.

DECEMBER 1996 Welfare, Work and the States The New Volunteerism Future Topics Implementing the Disabilities Act America’s Pampered Pets Back issues are available for $5.00 (sub- scribers) or $10.00 (non-subscribers). JANUARY 1997 ▲ Quantity discounts apply to orders over Combating Scientific Misconduct Age Bias in the Workplace ten. To order, call Congressional Restructuring the Electric Industry Quarterly Customer Service at The New Immigrants ▲ (202) 887-8621. Chemical and Biological Weapons Land Mines FEBRUARY 1997 Binders are available for $18.00. To Assisting Refugees ▲ Children’s Television order call 1-800-638-1710. Please refer Alternative Medicine’s Next Phase to stock number 648. Independent Counsels Feminism’s Future