Road-Rage: Have Cars Become Too Safe and Comfortable?
| Published date | 01 October 1996 |
| Date | 01 October 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X9606900402 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
TONY REINHARDT-RUTLAND, D.Phil., AFBPsS
Psychology Department, University
of
Ulster at Jordanstown,
N. Ireland.
ROAD-RAGE: HAVE CARS BECOME
TOO SAFE AND COMFORTABLE?
The current crop
of
road-rage incidents may, in part, reflect the
increasing safety and comfort
of
modern cars. According to risk-
homeostasis theory, improved safety is counteracted by riskier behaviour.
Also, the comfort
of
modern cars may exaggerate impairments in
perception, particularly
of
speed.
Introduction
So-called road-rage has received considerable media coverage in the UK
over the last months. In fact it is hardly a new phenomenon, as many
cyclists will attest (Clark, 1996). Lamentable as they are, the altercations
between motorists and cyclists entail relatively slow speeds in comparison
with many of the recently-publicized altercations between motorist and
motorist.
It
is the speed and associated dangerous driving behaviours that
make many of the current crop of road-rage incidents so newsworthy.
Given that a car travelling at as little as 30 mph has a good chance of
inflicting lethal injuries, the destructive potential in some of the reported
incidents is horrendous.
Interpretation of road-rage in the media tends to be sociological in
nature. For example, journalists point to the stress of the modern world:
we carry out our business at an ever faster rate, so delays are not
permissible. This elicits a sense of competition in situations where it is
inappropriate, as in driving: the individual driver pits his (typically his!)
wits against other drivers to get ahead of the pack. I think such
explanations have some value, although I always feel worried that they
imply a "rose-tinted" past - a gentle world where life was simpler and
less aggressive. More often than not, it is difficult to substantiate such
a view.
The Limits of Safety Engineering
There are more substantial explanations of driving behaviour which
accord better with the evidence. One such explanation invokes risk. Risk
has major psychological components: for example, flying feels riskier
than driving for most of us, yet the objective risk of flying - in terms
of the number of deaths - is many times lower than for driving
(Transport Statistics, UK, 1995). Another psychological aspect of risk
is encapsulated in the concept of risk-homeostasis: each of us has a
"target" level of risk, determined by a variety of personal and societal
factors, which will tend to be maintained over a period of time (Wilde,
October 1996 The Police Journal 285
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