A casual chat with a close friend today about her experience on the road got us talking about road rage. I promised her that I would put together a few words looking at factors and psychology that might be contributing to this increasing behaviour.
Road Rage is increasingly becoming a concern on roads Australia wide. Almost a day doesn’t go by if we don’t witness or hear about road rage in the media. People feel rushed in an increasingly busy society. Other societal stresses such as work-life balance, economic and environmental factors are seen as factors impacting on the rise of road rage.
At the same time it is widely acknowledged that the majority of motor vehicle accident causes are human errors and maladaptive behavior, accounting alone or in interaction with other roadway circumstances for more than 90% of all traffic accidents.
Traffic psychology has largely followed an interdisciplinary approach and has shared common topics with areas such as driving aptitude, ergonomics and travel demand management as well as human factors in traffic planning.
The overall psychology and interplay of road users is complex and deals with a wide variety on relationships including demographics, modes of transport, road design and construction, traffic management, road condition variability and the role of people factors in mobility behavior. More specific factors associated with people’s behavior in relation to road may include:
Increasing driver task associated with high monitoring impact such as rapidly changing traffic conditions (multiple school zones, changing speed limits, and other traffic damping initiatives)
- Driver perception, cognition and expectations, particularly if a driver feels unduly inconvenienced or sees other road users to be in considerate.
- Driver's emotional state, workload, alertness and fatigue
- Driver personality, propensity for risk-taking, attitude, and motivation for certain behaviors and
- The driver’s capacity to adjust their behavior in response to perceived changes in risk
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