Road Rage
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has been a hot topic with the Michigan Media. This is not a coincidence. The battle against Road Rage and Aggressive Driving was thought up in Washington D.C. The Insurance Industry and the safety lobby thought up the campaign. The government is providing grants to the states to combat road rage.
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has been around for a long time. It is a good idea to curb unsafe driving but the states are not doing that. Michigan is using funds to purchase laser speed detection devices to write more speeding tickets. This is not getting unsafe drivers off the road. The unsafe drivers are tailgating, hogging the left lane, weaving through traffic, or driving too slow. If we want to combat road rage we should use the publicity and funding to target the problem - not collect more revenue from those driving a reasonable speed.
Please write your legislators and newspapers to tell them what is going on! Below is an example letter.
The article "Furies of the Road" lists several things motorists can do to avoid aggressive behavior. I would like add "Keep Right Except to Pass." The left lane of a freeway is designed as a passing lane and should be used only for that purpose when traffic conditions permit. Cruising in the left lane forces traffic to pass on the right, which leads to people being cut off and other aggressive behavior.
The government can also do more to calm aggressive driving. They need to set speed limits to the speeds the roads and cars are designed for. Road engineers should be setting speed limits - not politicians. We need to build roads and develop systems that reduce congestion. We need to educate drivers and enforce lane usage laws. Police need to get out of the business of revenue collection and get out on the highways and help the flow of traffic. Sitting in the weeds with a radar gun does not combat aggressive driving. With improved driver education, reasonable speed limits, and good road design, we can help motorists get to their destinations quickly and safely.