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Kindly ask road rage to step out of the vehicle
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By SUSAN PAYNTER
Rage may be riding along today when you stop to grab groceries or drive to work.
If it's not in your car, it could be screaming obscenities into your tailpipe.
Northbound in the stop-and-go on Seattle's Eastlake Avenue East last Friday, verbal shots were fired between two drivers in the outside lane.
The cause of the fury? Neither would yield, so both were stuck behind a bus.
In the turn lane in front of the Crown Hill QFC two days earlier, the tableau had been even uglier.
The mid-40s man in the white Ford Explorer was right, of course. The elderly driver in the yellow Skylark had lost his reflexes and should not be on wheels. But leaping out in the middle of stalled traffic to spray the f-word into the old man's open window wasn't helping anyone.
Increased road use but not road space means too many maddened lab rats on the maze of Seattle's roadways. Merge that with anger, profanity and summer road repairs, and what we've got here is a situation.
What we need here is Bill Murray telling us what he told Punxsutawney Phil in the movie "Groundhog Day": "Don't drive angry!"
It's as much a lesson in survival as a matter of civility, says Dr. Roland Maiuro, a University of Washington professor of psychiatry who runs the anger management program at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center.
A million more people will move to the region in the next 10 years -- maybe half of them at the wheel.
"The forecast for a decrease in road rage is not good," Maiuro said.
Meanwhile, an open sluice pipe pours profanity from movies, television and everyday conversation these days. And still, we aren't numb. "Obscenity still means what it means," Maiuro said. The four-letter word of choice still says, 'I'm going to attack you in the worst possible way.'"
The person yelling heightens his own sense of danger. And the person on the receiving end gets an adrenaline rush, explains Richard Kirby. A lecturer in the UW's School of Business, he is working with nationally acclaimed road rage expert Leon James to find ways to tie peaceful driving techniques to high school driver's education.
In cars, we can't communicate with horns that say, "Sorry but I'm late for day care," or "Oops, I didn't signal," Kirby points out.
With tempers spiking, verbal abuse turns to physical attack. We gesture or even grab the driver identified as the enemy. Or worse, we reach into the glove box and grab a gun.
As in war, Maiuro says, language dehumanizes the object of aggression. Before a dog bites, it usually growls. Before drivers attack, they usually disrespect their target.
He's the Jerk in the Jeep. The Meathead in the Mercedes.
It's constructive that citations and fines of as much as $480 can be issued. They tell perpetrators of road rage that they'd better back off. But Maiuro says that isn't enough.
"We're having a major regional adjustment reaction," Maiuro said. "We're losing our way of life as we have known it, losing our space to move. And when you restrain someone, they don't tend to like it."
What to do?
On June 15, Kirby will talk to drivers education specialists from every high school in Idaho about the practical applications of "driver psychology." He hopes Washington state will be next.
His UW students have developed suggested public service spots such as "Cage the rage and arrive alive" that could pop up between songs on the radio.
But far better than slogans and citations is simply swearing off road rage every time you turn the ignition key, Kirby says.
The same way you can set the odometer before a trip, you can set your mind and your mood by saying something peaceful to yourself before pulling away from the curb.
It sounded too good to be true -- especially to the ears of a girl who learned to swear in the back seat of her dad's brand-new Buick in 20 miles of Montana road construction.
But since it figures that abusive language does fuel anger, it also figures that soothing language might have the opposite effect.
I've been trying it out the past couple of days.
The dawdler in front of me gabbing on his cell phone is still an idiot. But he won't hear it from me.
Susan Paynter's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call her at 206-448-8392 or send e-mail to: susanpaynter@seattle-pi.com
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