Mental health and transportation: the dangers and prevalence of road rage within the transportation system
Date
2012
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Historically, and particularly within the past several decades, the human health effects caused by use of the world’s transportation systems have been studied in growing detail. Greater acceptance of the various connections between human physical and mental health and transportation has led to efforts for improving the interactions between them. Unfortunately, one mental health issue that has received relatively little attention regarding the true dangers associated with it and the factors that can influence it, has been road rage. In 2006, the seriousness of road rage and its associated behaviors was recognized and given a medical diagnosis called intermittent explosive disorder. Now that road rage is accepted as a legitimate danger to the safe, effective, and efficient operation of the transportation system, it is important to understand its prevalence, and the characteristics of drivers that can be used to predict potential for it. By distributing a modified version of the Deffenbacher Driving Anger Scale to a wide variety of drivers and compiling the data collected from that, it was possible to determine just how common driving anger and road rage truly were. It was found that nearly all drivers of either gender and any age were prone to at least moderate levels of anger, though specifics about driver commutes, such as length and type of commute, did significantly influence likelihood of experiencing anger. While it is likely impossible to ever eliminate this driving anger entirely, there are measures that can be taken to significantly reduce the frequency of its occurrence. By implementing changes to modern transportation engineering city design and development models, particularly focusing on reducing or reimagining urban sprawl, improving traffic flow in city driving, and implementing more strict anti-road rage laws which discourage drivers from acting on their driving anger, it is possible to eliminate some of the factors most likely to induce driving anger and road rage, thereby reducing the frequency of road rage occurrence within the transportation system as a whole.