Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL PRECKER DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Long
``I've had to really tone down how angry I get when I drive,'' says Lee. ``Jordan's almost 2, and she repeats everything I say.''
Louis Mizell, a Washington, D.C., security consultant who compiles crime statistics, has another reason not to let emotions take over in the car. He conservatively estimates that 1,550 people are killed or seriously hurt each year in traffic disputes that become violent.
``I think people had better face up to the reality out there,'' Mizell says. ``You have to think twice before you react to someone. You need to think, `Yes, it made me mad. But is it worth being blinded or crippled or killed?' You have to get a grip on your own temper.''
It doesn't take a behavioral scientist to deduce that a lot of us don't. Going for a drive, particularly during rush hour, can take you straight to the state of aggravation.
``My anger level is higher when I'm in my car than anywhere else,'' says Shirley Bumbalough of Fort Worth, Texas. ``I try to listen to classical music in the car and consciously relax. But it doesn't always help. I'll watch what goes on out there and I get furious.''
What's your pet peeve? Here are some favorites from people polled by the Dallas Morning News:
``You're trying to get someplace, you get stuck in traffic and people are making it difficult, and it makes you crazy,'' says Lee.
``When somebody's in front of me and they're driving really slow in the fast lane,'' says Hugh Nini of Dallas, who runs a ballet school in Denton.
``Usually I'm running late and I'll catch a red light, or somebody cuts me off,'' says Ryan Bredow, a senior at Plano High School in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas.
``People who talk on the phone or put on their makeup or mess with their kids instead of concentrating on their driving,'' says Bumbalough. ``Don't they realize that car is a lethal weapon?''
And don't forget those optional red lights.
n``When the light turns green you have to wait a couple of seconds to make sure nobody is running the light from the other direction,'' she says.
Add it all up, says Raymond Novaco, professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California at Irvine, and ``the whole roadway is an arena for conflict. It has been scripted that way in our minds for a long time.''
Novaco has been studying commuter stress for more than a decade. He says that for better or worse, most Americans regard the car as far more than a hunk of steel, rubber and plastic that gets us around.
``The automobile is a very highly personalized territory,'' he says. ``That's partly why there's that sense of territoriality and space. When it gets encroached upon or besmirched, people react with anger.''
The extreme end of that spectrum can be tragic. As Novaco notes, driving and aggressive behavior have meshed since chariots raced around the Circus Maximus of ancient Rome.
Nobody seems to know when motorists began taking out their frustrations with guns, but a spate of incidents in Southern California eight years ago brought the term ``freeway shootings'' into the language.
So Ryan Bredow's father taught him that no matter how angry he gets, don't be foolish.
``You never know in today's world who's going to be the one guy who pulls out a gun and shoots you,'' he says. ``I've got friends who'll honk their horn or pull up next to somebody and stare, but not me.''
Lee feels the same way.
``I might give them a bad look, but that's it,'' she says. ``My husband will start riding people if they cut him off. He makes me so nervous. I tell him, `You have a daughter. Your wife is in the car. Do you want to die?'''
Earl Marshall, who manages the Drive-Rite Driving School in Dallas, says the angry-driver equation works both ways: Just as bad driving causes anger, anger causes bad driving.
``I had a girl the other day who came in real upset,'' he says. ``She had a fight with her mom or something. I said, `How are you going to drive?' She said, `I can drive.'
``Well, she got me out there and almost got me killed before I got her home. Good driving means being totally focused. No one should ever drive when you're emotionally upset. I tell all my students that. Some listen and some don't.''
Even if you arrive safely, the aggravation may linger. Novaco's studies have linked commuter stress to everything from high blood pressure to a lousy mood at work to being a grouch at home.
``Some of the costs are delayed effects,'' he says.
So how can we avoid them, and still get around?
Some of the answers are obvious. Novaco, whose focus is on commuting, says try to avoid commuting. Take public transportation, work a flexible schedule to avoid peak congestion, get a job that lets you work at home.
If none of that is possible, he says, ``Do whatever you can to optimize your conditions. Get the most comfortable car you can afford. Equip it with a good set of listening resources. Humor is an especially good antidote to anger.''
Ron Chapman, the cheery morning voice on KVIL-FM radio in Dallas, as well as program manager, has practiced that philosophy for two decades. He knows his listeners are stuck in their cars, and he wants to keep them mellow.
``You give people something positive to hang on to,'' says Chapman. ``People call us and tell us, `I was in a traffic jam for 40 minutes, and the only thing that got us through was you guys because you made me laugh.'''
Nonetheless, he wonders if this battle can be won.
``I think there's an un-civiling of America that's going on,'' Chapman says. ``We're less courteous of each other than we used to be, and I think there's more tension on the road. But more than anything else, the number of cars has grown and it's virtually impossible to do anything about that.''
But if we can't change the automotive world, we can still work on ourselves. Bob Weiner, a Plano psychologist, says the car is an ideal place to apply stress management techniques.
``People who get so upset in traffic allow the environment to control them too much,'' Weiner says. ``You can turn it around and decide, `There's nowhere else I can be. I'm just going to relax. This time doesn't have to be wasted.'''
He advocates everything from biofeedback to a good audio tape to help you ``de-escalate.''
``If you're very emotional, you can break the tension cycle either through your thoughts or through your body,'' he says. ``You learn to recognize symptoms and then practice techniques.''
And if that jerk cuts you off?
``I use the example that holding onto anger is like hanging onto a red-hot coal,'' the psychologist says. ``The most damage is to yourself.''
by CNB