Why do some people speed and race in the traffic?

Question

It is inevidable that they would get in accident soon or later and hurt others who are not involved, I just don't get it. It's like ego trip that their car is faster than other's car? Or are they competing to kill someone else?

Answer 1

Young, stupid and invincible

Over time it becomes quite evident to anyone paying attention that if you keep seeing all the people you NASCAR'd by at the next traffic light, you are going nowhere fast.

The only time speeding is useful is if you are on an open road going a long distance; otherwise you are just a mook.

Answer 2

Because they are complete and total idiots who seem to think they are invincible. From my experience, they are most likely young men driving poorly modified imports.

I hate people who are speeding and flying in and out of lanes at high speeds. Or are speeding when conditions are poor. (4WD means 4 wheel DRIVE...not 4 wheel STOP!!). I don't see any reason for it. That is how innocent people get killed. It's too bad they have to kill innocent people instead of themselves. If you are driving like an idiot, I have no sympathy at all if you were to die. It's just natural selection!

It is very possible to speed safely. If you are actually driving the car (and not talking on the cell, putting on makeup, doing hair or whatever else) you can speed along with the flow of traffic. You use the passing lane for passing only. If someone behind you wants to go faster, then you pull over a lane and let them by. (Then use them as a rabbit and keep up with them in that lane). You DO NOT go the same speed in the passing lane as the cars in the next lane!!! That sucks. You do not go slower than the flow of traffic, it is a good way to cause an accident. You need to go with the flow of traffic! Anytime you are behind the wheel, you need to be driving the car, paying attention to all the other cars on the road and what is up ahead.

I know the NASCAR track has days, and the dragstrip has days where people can take their cars out on the track! There is the SCCA that holds races so people can take their cars out to race. I wish people would use these avenues instead of endangering the lives of innocent people.

Answer 3

They may speed and race in traffic for several reasons. They may be late for work, they may have an emergency and have to get to the hospital right away, they may not care about anyone else but themselves.

Answer 4

Their mental anxieties are getting the best of them...

Plenty of speed demons eventually get what is coming to them... ["butchered up" or sent on to "where they belong" through death]

Does this help any?

Answer 5

some are just stressed out , some are late , some are drunk or on drugs ( prescription or illegal ) some think they are the best driver on the road and have to prove it , but most are just idiots

Answer 6

Idiots. They are just asking for the inevitable.

Answer 7

there late or they want to see what does the car do

Answer 8

Maybe it's because of the adrenaline rush that they get.

Answer 9

WHO SPEEDS?

Sex

2.6 Many studies have concluded that male drivers are more likely to speed than female drivers. The Buchanan (1996) study for the then Scottish Office found male drivers twice as likely to commit a minor speeding offence and four times as likely to commit a serious speeding offence than female drivers. French, et al (1993) found young male drivers more associated with higher driving speeds. Exceeding speed limits and other traffic regulations was proposed, by Norris et al (2000), as a constituent of higher male accident risk. Shinar et al (2001) found male drivers reported themselves less likely to drive within speed limits. When responding to speeding issues, Brook (1987) reported men aged between 25 and 54 generally regarded speeding as less serious than did women. Waterton (1992) found men under the age of 45 years who drive over 10,000 miles per year reported high levels of traffic violations. Arnett (1996) found driving over 20 mph above the speed limit correlated positively with sensation seeking in men.

2.7 Analysis of the speeding behaviours and attitudes of female and male drivers led Meadows and Stradling (2000) to conclude that greater proportions of male drivers indicated preference for high speed, reported speeding behaviour and pro-speeding attitudes but that greater proportions of female drivers thought the possible adverse consequences of speeding more likely to occur.

2.8 However, not all studies reached the conclusion that speeding is predominantly a male pursuit. Wasielewski (1984) found no link between gender and vehicle speed. Boyce and Geller (2002) believe that over three different age groups both men and women drive with similar degrees of risk. They suggest that women are less likely to admit to risk taking while driving. Parker and Stradling (2001) found female drivers under the age of 20 reported similar speeding behaviour as male drivers in the same age group. Parker et al (1995) found that male drivers are more likely than female drivers to be involved in crashes linked to traffic violations including speeding. Interestingly, Lajunen et al (1998) found women drivers reported similar amounts of anger at similar intensities to that reported by men, leading them to assume that women drivers are managing to contain their feelings of aggression to a greater extent than men.

2.9 This suggests that the present study should pay particular attention to analysing female as well as male drivers' attitudes to, and reasons for, speeding.

Age

2.10 Speeding is more associated with younger drivers, (Parker et al, 1992; Stradling et al, 2000a; Ingram et al, 2001; Shinar et al, 2001). The age group 21 to 25 years was found by Buchanan (1996) to be the group most likely to speed on all types of road except motorways where most offenders were in the 26 to 29 years age group. Examination of speeding over age groups found the number of speeders lowering around the age of 40 years. Some studies also found a general sliding scale of lower reported speeds as age increases (Ingram et al, 2001; Stradling et al, 2000a; Shinar et al, 2001).

2.11 From a survey of drivers detected by speed cameras in Glasgow only 2% of the males in receipt of speeding tickets were in the 'boy racer' age group between 18 and 24 years of age, (Campbell and Stradling, 2002). Shaw and Sichel (1971) report this situation had already been identified by the 1960s where it was also found only 2% of speeding drivers in the US were under the age of 18. It was interpreted then that either young male drivers do not speed or, more likely, that they take care to speed when and where they are least likely to be detected.

Driving style

2.12 From a comprehensive study of English car drivers Stradling et al (2000a) examined the demographic and driving characteristics of speeding, violating and thrill-seeking drivers. This study found two population segments whose driving behaviour put themselves and other road users at risk. The first group was young and mostly, but not exclusively, male drivers. The second group were drivers from high income households, living out of town, driving larger engine cars for high annual mileage as part of their work. Therefore, Stradling et al (2000a) concluded that English drivers who speed, who violate other rules of the road, and who seek thrill when driving pose greater risks to themselves and to other road users. They argued that speeders should be constrained because in their study 35% of car drivers who had been penalised for speeding in the previous three years reported also having been accident involved in that period. This compared to 22% of those who had not been penalised, indicating that the kind of drivers recently caught for speeding were 59% more likely to have also been recently crash-involved. However, there was no data in that study to demonstrate that such drivers had their crashes while speeding, only that speeders were more likely to have crashes.

2.13 Cooper (1997) reported that US drivers with four or more excessive speed convictions had double the crash rate of other drivers, and that drivers with more than the average number of general traffic violations were more likely to be involved in crashes and in crashes caused by excessive speed. This compliments the findings of Preusser (1988) who reported that people driving at high speeds were found to have 'inferior driving records'. The Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR 2000) found that a speed which drivers claim is appropriate feels too fast for the same people when they are pedestrians, cyclists or residents.

2.14 Fildes et al, (1994) analysed Australian research conducted prior to the Victoria Speed Camera Programme. Those drivers more likely to exceed the speed limit include drivers under the age of 34, those driving without passengers in the vehicle, and business travellers. Further categories of those likely to exceed the speed limit include: drivers who reported that they were late for their destination; those driving vehicles that were four years or newer; drivers with a high weekly mileage in urban areas; and those who had been involved in at least one crash in the previous five years. The survey found neither the distance travelled before the interview nor that still to be travelled were significantly related to travel speed. Sex of the driver, ownership of the vehicle and tiredness did not significantly relate to travel speed. The survey distinguished between urban and rural roads. For urban roads, exceeding the speed limit was more likely for drivers who were under 34 years old, those reporting high safe driving speeds, drivers of cars less than five years old, and drivers on business with a high weekly mileage.

WHY DO DRIVERS SPEED?

2.15 Travel and transport decisions, including whether to speed, arise from the interaction of opportunity, obligation and inclination, (Stradling et al, 2000b; Stradling et al, 1999; Wardman et al, 2000). Opportunity arises from the capability of vehicles to drive comfortably at high speeds on clear, open, well-surfaced roads that seem to invite the speeder to press down on the accelerator. Obligations occur as drivers feel responsibilities to those they are carrying as passengers and to the transient others with whom they are currently sharing the road, and as people find their lives organised in such a way that they are led to drive fast to meet time schedules. Inclination derives from the pleasure many - though not all drivers - gain from driving at higher speeds.

Opportunity and obligation

2.16 A number of examples of drivers' feelings of opportunity and obligation towards speeding are included in Silcock at al's (2000) findings of explanations for fast driving. From their study on factors influencing driver speed, Silcock et al (2000, page 2) produced a list of the eight most prevalent reasons drivers in their study gave to justify speeding:

* Unintentional
* In a hurry (e.g. to collect a child at school)
* Being 'forced' to speed (by someone tailgating me)
* The limit is wrongly set for this location (based on experience of similar roads with higher limits)
* My modern car can stop more quickly than those on the roads at the time the limit was set, therefore my speeding is safe
* The same limit should not apply at all times (the empty road, late at night)
* The limit does not apply to me because I am an above-average driver
* My speeding is acceptable because it is not a lot over the limit and others abuse it more flagrantly.

2.17 Further factors relating to speeding identified by Silcock et al (2000) were self-image; vehicle power and comfort; cultural factors; passengers; enforcement; and road environment. Rietveld and Shefer (1998) also identified a variety of factors that determine optimum speed level. These included travel time costs, cost of arriving late, monetary costs of driving, costs of accidents, costs of fines or enforcement, utility of driving per se, and external costs such as noise and emissions. The study considered the private costs and external, or social, costs which drivers consider when choosing at what speed to drive. Drivers not considering external costs, instead only making speed decisions on their own private costs, can be deterred through fine penalties for exceeding maximum speed limits.

2.18 This suggests that the present study should examine drivers' reasons for speeding in greater depth to gain a better understanding of how and why different types of people speed for differing reasons.

2.19 Feelings of obligation for drivers have obvious associations with work. Stradling et al (2000c) assessed driver responses for links between driving and employment. They found that people whose employment required them to drive some of the time tended to drive faster, breach the rules of the road more often and score lower on a self-report safety scale. Overall 16% of this group of drivers had been prosecuted for a speeding offence within the previous three years, but 37% of people who drove a car every working day and drove over 14,000 miles per annum had been penalised for speeding offences.

Inclination

2.20 Furnham and Snaipe (1993) found a link between convictions in traffic violations, including speeding, and high personality scores of thrill-seeking and boredom susceptibility. Boyce and Geller (2002, page 62) found "type A personality was a significant predictor of speeding and close following".

2.21 In an initial study at Indiana State University, USA , Gabany et al (1997), devised a list of reasons people give to explain why drivers speed. This list was divided into categories: ego-gratification; thrill, excitement, risk-taking; time pressures, disdain of driving; inattention. Waterton (1992) found 29% of drivers thought accidents were caused by driving too fast. Respondents reasons for speeding included lack of perceived danger and that speeding was not 'dangerous driving'.

2.22 Silcock et al (2000) found the majority of drivers rated their own driving as average or above average. Similar findings led Walton and Bathurst (1998) to caution against measuring drivers' attitudes by asking for comparisons to 'the average driver'. Respondents will judge their opinion of "the average driver" in a way that lets them see their own ability as superior. The study found that while respondents estimated their own driving speeds accurately they overestimated the driving speed of 'the average driver'. Also, Lajunen et al (1997) caution that 'impression management' should be controlled for when drivers are questioned on 'normal' behaviour, as there will be a tendency for respondents to provide socially desirable responses.

IS SPEEDING A 'REAL' CRIME?

2.23 Speeding is not seen as a 'real crime' by most drivers, according to Corbett (2001) who believes this means that attempting to dissuade drivers from excessive speed will be a difficult process. The impression of control drivers have requires to be examined further to address the impressions of invulnerability that many speeding drivers show.

Attitudes to speeding

2.24 System Three (1997) suggested that the effectiveness of enforcement lies in the driver's perception of the offence as morally wrong or merely technically wrong; the likelihood of detection; and the severity of the punishment for the offence. This is consistent with the findings of Tyler (1990) who examined three factors that influence legal compliance in general: deterrence, peer opinion and personal morality. Tyler differentiated people who decide to keep within the law due to instrumental decisions and those who have a 'normative commitment' to keep to the law. People making instrumental decisions are guided by their chance of getting caught if they break that law. This is expensive to the authorities that must rely on sufficient enforcement to give a high likelihood of being caught. This method may still result in high numbers of people breaking that law. Law abiding due to normative perspective, decisions involving morality and peer opinion, entail people making the judgement that the law should not be broken either because the person holds the belief that the illegal action is morally wrong or because the person accepts the authority of those enforcing the law. Getting people to voluntarily keep within the law is extremely cost effective and results in fewer people breaking the law in question.

2.25 Research by System Three (1997) found penalties did encourage drivers to adhere to the 'unofficial' speed limit especially around speed camera sites. They found there was a general perception that the driver will not be prosecuted unless they drove at least 10mph over the posted speed limit. Habitual speeding drivers perceived being caught as a chance they had to take. DETR (2000) found breaking the speed limit is not perceived by many as a criminal act. These opinions on speeding were in contrast to those of drunk driving and dangerous driving, both of which the respondents viewed as serious crimes.