Community driving: all the road rage
by Charlie Peverett in Your car on 08.06.08
There’s an interesting interview on the Freakonomics blog with Tom Vanderbilt, author of the forthcoming book Traffic.
He has some good stuff to say about what it is neatly summarised in the subtitle of his book: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us).
Vanderbilt argues, convincingly, that road rage and generally rude road behaviour is encouraged by the loss of “key attributes that facilitate human cooperation” during most driving conditions - such as the ability to hear one another, and the ability to avoid eye contact. Likening the act of driving to being online, he says that it’s the relative anonymity that encourages disinhibition.
However, he also also thinks that the internet could be harnessed to allow good drivers to get their own back.
Lior Strahilav at the University of Chicago has argued for universal “how’s my driving” stickers, so we could all exchange eBay-style feedback on the road, reporting cheaters — people who aren’t playing by the rules. I think this is a promising solution.
It is indeed an interesting idea, but how bad would infringements have to be to be reported? Because feedback is all about ease and timing.
Last year I was beeped and gesticulated at by a lorry driver for a mile or so, apparently because I was rude enough to be travelling in front of him. Seriously, I have no idea what I’d done to upset him, but he left me in no doubt as to his feelings on the matter.
Now, this guy was driving for a local contractor, and his office number was on the side of the vehicle. He was easily identifiable, and easily behaving badly enough for me to want his bosses to know what an idiot they were employing.
But by the time I’d got home, the outrage had subsided, and with it any impetus to dob him in.
So I wonder whether, in lieu of cars with internet connections and voice recognition, the self-policing car community is a little way off yet.
Add your comment