Road Warriors: the Dangerous Culture of the American Roadway

By Kai Feldhaus (11/3/22)

Driving is well known to be a scary factor of adult life. From the age of 16 onward, you are expected to pilot a 4000 lb steel contraption almost daily, just to get by. That reality is scary enough before you start considering that everyone else must pilot their own behemoth with the same frequency. Now take into consideration the human condition, and you’ve got a real horror-show. Every claptrap tin coffin you see has a mind inside it, one that may be delirious, despondent, or furious to a homicidal degree. Now you can go ahead and take those butterflies actively forming in your gut and put them up with the rest of our boogeymen, because I guarantee you that everyone else out on the asphalt flats feels them too, they won’t drive any better for it. Perhaps the strangest aspect of this scenario is that to us this is all normal. Many tell stories of their brushes with death as conversation pieces. Every week another family is torn asunder by the will of fate, just to be forgotten about as we switch radio stations. I think that our culture of driving cannot stand, and is a danger whether or not we choose to participate.

        Some people claim to hear these issues and to have conquered them by avoiding motorised transport. I myself know more than a few Portland hipsters who won’t let me forget it. I’ve been told more than a few times that it's just laziness keeping me from biking through snowstorms. And if I really need groceries I could simply grow corn in my backyard like all the other Pennsylvanians. And all jokes aside, I definitely can hear the merit to these sentiments. We can all benefit from a bit more public or low-emission transportation, and doing little things to tie down the ends of the food budget is always an option. But assuming that things like weather, infrastructure, and necessity won’t get in the way is a dangerous trap to fall into. While I know it violates the sunk cost fallacy, we as a country have sunk way too much effort in both financial and cultural circles to simply abandon the practice. And even if we wanted to, the automotive industry is already such a powerhouse that I doubt they’ll let us forget them. No, I believe that the problem with roads today is with the culture.

        When I say culture I’m referring to many things, some of which include our mindset while driving, the communication barriers on the road, and the mental health of those behind the wheel. I want to stay away from the more pedestrian challenges of driving, like inebriated and distracted driving. While these issues are important, there are more than a few P.S.A.s willing to lecture you on the topic. When someone commits one of these acts they know what they are doing is wrong, whether they internalize it or not. What we need to think about ourselves is less obvious, such as our own and other’s mindsets. Because of this, modern drivers need to practice personal awareness. Emotions are unpreventable, but a good driver needs to keep aware of them. A study at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers were almost ten times as likely to get in accidents while driving under intense emotion. Angry driving is a red light away from aggressive driving, and aggressive driving is a tailgate away from tickets, crashes, and road rage. While road rage can seem almost comical when viewed at a distance, the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.) claims that roughly 1200 injuries and 200 deaths are attributed to the phenomenon between 1990 and 1996. However, even positive emotions need to be recognized, as even a contented driver will slow down and relax their attention. To truly keep roadways safe, you also need to study intrapersonal awareness. Due to a lack of clear communication between vehicles it’s easy to assume that you’re the only “real” person on the road. Through two sheets of glass and a bad mood it’s hard to distinguish between a rookie driver and a lazy drunk. Suspension of disbelief goes a long way to fostering aggression. It doesn't mean you're a bad or mean person, it’s just a part of being human. All you can do is recognize it and adapt accordingly.

        Now emotional driving is a hassle worth mentioning, but at least it's manageable. The same cannot be said of fatigued driving, which strikes fast, strong, and sticks with you till either your destination or your grave. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (N.I.O.S.H.), 37% of workers got less than the recommended 7 hours of sleep. Now mind you, all of these workers need to share the road with the public unless they want to sleep on the factory floor. This issue isn't as cut and dry as the personal matters of emotional drivers. Drowsy driving is the responsibility of those on the road and off, as a driver's cause for being out so late is just as considerable as the driver themselves. N.I.O.S.H. recommends that employers allow sufficient break times on extended shifts. They also recommend training supervisors on identifying fatigue, as well as offering screenings for sleep disorders. However, N.I.O.S.H. also advises the public to keep an eye out for erratic driving, and to pull over for coffee and a nap if need be. But perhaps the most important piece of advice is to be honest with yourself. Everyone has that voice that tells you to push forward, but you need to weigh how much your health is worth. As N.I.O.S.H. put it, "No amount of experience, motivation, or professionalism can overcome your body’s biological need to sleep".

        We as a people need to take responsibility for the climate we drive in. For too long we have fostered a climate of apathy on our roads, one that looks at the problems of ourselves and others and elects to ignore them. You as an individual must not only take this advice to heart, but to make and disperse your own. There is no better teacher than time, so be careful and put your best foot onto the gas.

Sources

Unknown Author. “Researchers Determine Driver Risks Using Large-Scale, Crash-Only Naturalistic Database.” VTx, 23 Feb. 2016, https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2016/02/022316-vtti-researchdistraction.html. 

NIOSH, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “Driver Fatigue.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Feb. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/newsroom/feature/driverfatigue.html.

APA, American Psychological Association. “The Fast and the Furious.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/road-rage.