Tempers, Speed, Heat Rise During Road Trip Season

“I never felt sadder in my life. L.A. is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there’s a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. L.A. is a jungle.”

--Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac from “On the Road.”

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In the early 1950s, Kerouac wrote about his exploits and heartache during literature’s most famous road trip.

California motorists looking for adventure still hit the road. But today, it’s a whole different scene.

Gasoline prices are so high motorists almost have to take out a second mortgage to fill the tank. The roads are so dangerous even pets are not immune from road rage. How long before the makers of the Club design a security device that keeps Fido from being snatched from the front seat?

Southern California’s road trip season kicks into high gear this month, as temperatures rise and stressed-out office workers start dreaming of lying on a beach with a bottle of sunscreen.

In the summer, the number of miles traveled on California freeways increases by about 16% compared to December and January, according to the California Department of Transportation.

This August, Californians are expected to pass a milestone: 15 billion miles traveled in one month on the state’s highways.

The most popular road trip destinations? Las Vegas, that adult playground in the Nevada desert, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The California Highway Patrol’s Inland Division plans to step up patrols on Interstate 15, instilling fear and loathing on the road to Las Vegas. CHP officers will be on the lookout for speeders, drunk drivers and people who still refuse to wear a seat belt.

The list of most popular destinations also includes the Central Coast and San Francisco, both of which will require Southern Californians to spend at least a few hours behind the wheel.

A 1999 survey by the Automobile Club of America found that road rage is most likely to take place in the summer. In fact, 68% of the road rage incidents studied in the survey took place on sunny days. (Suddenly, driving in the rain doesn’t seem so scary.)

Acts of highway violence tend to happen most often on Friday afternoons on urban freeways, when hot, frustrated motorists are fighting traffic to get home for the weekend, according to the survey.

The survey concluded that road rage is not as prevalent in the winter because motorists tend to be more concerned with rainy, snowy or icy roadway conditions than they are with the knucklehead who is driving 35 mph in the fast lane.

The survey found that acts of freeway violence are still relatively infrequent, but the number of incidents seems to be on the rise. Of the 40 law enforcement agencies surveyed throughout the country by the Automobile Club of America, 54% consider road rage a serious local problem.

And here is something else Kerouac didn’t come across in his travels: freeway-roaming gangs.

CHP Officer Luis Mendoza said much of the freeway violence in Southern California today is gang-related.

“If you speed down the highway and pass a gang member, they might see this as a challenge,” he said.

(Now we know why the Automobile Club recommends that motorists refrain from flashing any hand gestures on the freeway. Even a friendly peace sign gesture could trigger a deadly incident.)

Mendoza suggests that drivers remain courteous, obey the traffic laws and try to stay cool.

“It’s going to get hot in the summer, so we recommend everyone get their air-conditioner checked,” the officer said.

As highway miles increase during the summer, so do fatal traffic accidents. It is a trend that has remained consistent for the last 10 years, according to CHP statistics.

Of the 3,144 automobile deaths in California in 1999, 878 occurred during the three summer months; 672 deaths happened in the winter months, according to the CHP.

Here is an extra incentive to stay home during the summer:

Freeway commute times tend to be about 10% faster during the summer. That’s because all of those vacationers are hitting the road on weekends and during off-peak hours, said Hasan Ikhrata, a transportation planning manager at the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

On average, speeds on the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles were about 5 mph faster last summer than in the fall, according to officials at the California Department of Transportation.

Don Mann, a production manager in the film industry, knows all about nasty summer driving. For eight years, he lived in Malibu, right off Pacific Coast Highway. From that vantage point, he said, he watched tourists and locals exchange insults, crude gestures and insurance information after heat-induced accidents.

Not long ago, he watched as three men in a pickup truck pulled into his open garage, popped open a six-pack of beer and proceeded to make themselves at home.

“Sometimes we get out to the beach and we forget that we are still in civilized society,” he said.

The three men apologized and cleared out when Mann asked them for their addresses so that he could do the same in their garages.

“You just see everything over there,” he said.

But Mann doesn’t worry about summer tourists anymore. He has moved to Sherman Oaks.

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California Driving

Each summer, California motorists hit the road in big numbers. The latest statistics from the California Department of Transportation show that motorists planning summer road trips have not been deterred by high gasoline prices or fear of road rage.

Source: Caltrans