Aggressive Drivers Wage Uncivil War on County’s Roads

Inside Street Smart’s freeway-rattled head sits a busy little guy with quick hands, manipulating a dizzying array of controls.

We picture his sharp eyes, the antennae on his tiny green helmet and the itty-bitty leather gloves he wears while driving Street Smart’s mind, mouth, body and, ultimately, Street Smart’s car.

No, we are not schizophrenic (although that and the constant nattering of tiny voices in Street Smart’s ears might explain this column’s affection for the first-person plural).

But we want to close out the bad driving topic for a while with a question: How does your own cranial imp drive you?

On foot, most drivers can let themselves get angry, hasty, pushy or aggressive while risking nothing worse than getting punched out, broken up with or fired.

When they do it at the wheel, they irritate, provoke, enrage and finally endanger the lives of every driver around them.

We are talking about a dying commodity on the roads of Ventura County and this car-crazy nation: civility.

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Dear Street Smart:

So many drivers go nuts when slowed down, even for a valid reason. A signal changes from red to green and, if one does not proceed with an instant jack rabbit start, the driver behind goes livid.

Once, a lady was pushing her baby carriage at an intersection as the driver ahead of me headed for a right turn. She was three-fourths of the way to the curb when, with tires screeching, the driver turned in front of the terrified lady.

Three blocks later, he stopped for a red light. I pulled up and called over to criticize him for cutting her off. His response was the flash of his middle digit and some choice language.

He had wasted about 50 miles worth of tire wear to avoid a five-second wait for the lady to complete her crossing, and was no further along than I was after I had stopped for her and driven at the speed limit to the next intersection.

Peter Rosam, Agoura

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Dear Reader:

The driver’s little guy was probably thinking, “She wasted my time; I’ll show her.”

She would have amended the thought, “. . . show her how a reckless gearhead loser with a big car, a small brain and a puny excuse for manhood almost killed me and my baby.”

But we’ll spare everyone the Street Smart lectures.

Facts can damn that moron and warn the rest of us so much more clearly:

Last fall, the American Automobile Assn. Foundation for Traffic Safety issued a study on more than 10,000 deaths and injuries caused by aggressive drivers.

The number of these aggressive-driving incidents has grown by an average 7% every year since 1990. Between Jan. 1, 1990, and Sept. 1, 1996, 12,610 people were injured in wrecks and other aggressive-driving confrontations, and 218 were killed.

Most perpetrators were men age 18 to 26. In hundreds of cases, they were men age 26 to 50 and in 86 cases, they were 50 to 75 years old. But 413, or 4% of the aggressors, were women.

The majority were relatively young, poorly educated men with criminal records, histories of violence and drug or alcohol problems who may have recently suffered an emotional or professional setback, the study found. Hundreds more were successful men and women with no such problems.

The triggering incidents were “often remarkably trivial,” the study said. “Stated reasons for violent traffic disputes include arguments over parking spaces, cutting another motorist off or refusing to allow passing, minor traffic crashes, obscene gestures, loud music, overuse of the horn, slow driving, tailgating, failure to use a turn signal and similar behaviors.”

And the study found that in 44% of violent traffic altercations, the perpetrator used a weapon: firearm, knife, club, tire iron.

Ask yourself if you’re starting something the next time you tailgate or flip someone off. Ask yourself if you’re asking for it.

Think of how you can best brush off other aggressive drivers--or report them to police--without escalating the conflict and risking the rest of us. And then slide into the next lane over and wait for the danger to pass.

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Dear Street Smart:

I read with amusement the letters in the Feb. 22 column from drivers who admit that they tailgate, speed and get upset with drivers who go slower than the speed limit.

I travel the freeway from Thousand Oaks to Chatsworth every day. I want to stay out of the way of these impatient speed demons, so I generally travel in the extreme right two lanes and set my cruise control at 65.

Inevitably, some jerk tailgates me or has the nerve to flash his brights. Do they really expect me to pull my car over into the gutter so they can pass me? I feel like getting a Hummer and tailgating them all the way down the freeway.

Joyce Standley, Thousand Oaks

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Dear Reader:

Ah, you’re well in touch with your inner Schwarzenegger. We can picture his beefy mitts wrenching the little levers inside your head with a contemptuous snarl as your 6-foot-wide, 3-ton Hummer flattens the defenseless tailgaters. Or perhaps it’s your inner Cruella De Vil.

But peace. Revenge is exactly the problem cited in the AAA study: “For example, a teenager who murdered a passenger in another vehicle said, ‘We was dissed.’

“However, violent traffic disputes are rarely the result of a single incident, but rather are the cumulative result of a series of stressors in the motorist’s life. The traffic incident that turns violent is often the ‘last straw.’ ”

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Dear Street Smart:

Your readers who claim that slow drivers who drive in the fast lane are creating hazardous conditions are perfectly correct. Except the blame must also be shared with the state of California for posting signs saying SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT. The message is nothing but judgmental. Even driving at the legal speed limit might still be slow for those who want to drive faster.

A more appropriate sign that is prevalent throughout Europe and in some U. S. states (i.e. Utah), DRIVE ON THE RIGHT--PASS ON THE LEFT, would reduce many hazardous conditions, especially from speeders. The most hazardous driving condition is passing a vehicle on the right, the driver’s blind spot.

Max Honigsberg, Thousand Oaks

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Dear Reader:

This is, of course, a very sensible idea.

Cruising at 65 up the Conejo Cliff, most of us think of lumbering trucks and asthmatic microbuses as “slower traffic.” The truly clueless hang in the left lane no matter how slow they are creeping. Leave it to the refined and serene folk of Europe and Utah to make it crisp and direct.

But in California, the law is still the law, however badly worded: If someone is trying to pass you in the fast lane and you have room to safely get to the right, you must do so, no matter what your speed.

NEXT: Old-school Street Smart explains road hazards, puzzling intersections and other motoring mysteries. But for a future column, we would love to hear about your favorite shortcuts. And ask us about shortcuts you need to find. Life’s too short to spend crawling through traffic.