Would common courtesy and patience help reduce the accident rate
Driving on US road is an exercise in frustration. This becomes worse during rush hour (which is actually almost 5 hours a day; from 07h00 to 09h30 and from about 16h00 to 18h30) Commuting is a mindless and frustrating time for all drivers. The cars all around you are driven by people seemingly on a mission to get somewhere in a hurry. They are all irritated at the mass of other cars surrounding them and keeping them from their destination.
This frustration is born from a busy life. Those people who subject themselves to the horrors of commuting on a daily basis have a job t go to or escape from in the evenings and the time spent in the car while commuting is seen as a waste. And other traffic all pushing a jostling adds to the sense of helplessness. Frustration builds up and often manifests itself as road rage. This road rage has led to many Auto accidents in LA
Road rage is a phenomenon that has been brewing over the last 50 years as the number of cars on the road increases and the ability of the roads to cope doesn’t. It is that irrational burst of anger at some reasonably insignificant deed of another driver; maybe he tried to get into your lane ahead of you. Possibly you got into the queue to get off the motorway which was backed up and he comes sailing past and jumps the queue in front of you. Possibly he is either driving too fast and overtaking dangerously or even more frustratingly ambling along slowly in the fast lane.
A lot of the frustration might be abated with us re learning some skills we seem to have forgotten: Manners and patience. It costs very little to say please and thank you, so why don’t we say please to the driver in front of whom we are trying to push, and why don’t we say thanks when another car has moved over or made way for us. Little things like that may lift the mood or at least take the steam out of the frustration build up.
Japan has a population half of the United States, most of whom crowd into coastal cities Almost 70% of that country is mountainous and thus sparsely populated. The over-crowding is intense and if it weren’t for the fact that they are a well mannered peoples they would rip each other apart in endless bloody battles. The claim that manners are like a lubricant that stops the friction when too many bodies rub together.
Patience is another lesson we could learn from them. They will sit in their cars in worse traffic than is experienced in LA and it will be borne without rage. The term they use is “gaman” suru which is not directly translatable but means do patience with fortitude and a calm mind. Well we could do with some of that here in LA.
Inevitably going along with the frustration and road rage comes car accidents.. Someone goes to fast and loses control, someone in too much of a hurry so overtakes or tries to take a gap not there.
If you are hurt in an accident this way consult a Personal Injury Attorney in Los Angeles who will represent you and ensure that any costs you incur are covered.