ENGLISH ARTICLES

There’s a man on my bumper

SOMETHING unexpectedly nasty happened to me one Sunday evening recently. I was driving towards Otley in West Yorks after visiting a friend in a village near Wetherby. The weather had been bad, which was lucky because in good weather the roads around Otley can become clogged and slow with caravans and trippers who have grabbed a day out on the moors. This evening the roads were quite clear.

About 15 minutes from Otley a white minibus pulled out in front of me. There were a few children inside it. I followed the minibus for about 10 minutes. It was travelling quite slowly, between 35 and 40 mph. When we came to a wide and clear stretch of road, I thought I would overtake. I pulled out and accelerated. The minibus accelerated too. I put my foot right down. The minibus increased speed also, so that we were travelling neck and neck at about 65 mph. A car appeared from the opposite direction. The driver of the minibus made no attempt to slow down and my only choice was to cut in front of him. This has happened to me several times on the motorway, which I use a lot because of my job. Man in fast car is overtaken by me, a woman, in a small Fiat Panda. Man’s pride is put out of joint and he’s on for a race. Man number two (usually in a Ford Sierra) steams up behind flashing headlights wildly. I grip the wheel in terror, forced to drive at a shaky 95mph to escape them both.

This, however, was not the end of the story. The minibus driver chased me to the centre of Otley, driving three feet away from my bumper. I was not only irritated by his behaviour, I was frightened.

We stopped at some traffic lights. Suddenly my car door was opened and there stood a small man in a flat cap – the minibus driver. He grabbed me by the neck and tried to pull me out of the car. When he could not get me out, he slapped me round the face three or four times, sending my glasses flying. He shouted abuse, pushing his face into mine.

As soon as the lights changed to green he ran back to his minibus, got in and drove off. I still do not know how I had the presence of mind to scribble down his number. Then I think I must have screamed and sobbed a lot until I was found by a lady who telephoned the police.

I have always experienced the worst chauvinism from behind the wheel of a car.

I have seen the meekest of males metamorphose into aggressive and bullying individuals who shout abuse out of their windows and make vulgar gestures in their mirrors. As for motorways, they are the showground for male machismo and I, in my little car, am the red rag for the bull.

But, resorting to physical violence? I now drive with all the doors locked so that no one else would be able to invade my space to let off steam.

Philippa Lowthorpe The Guardian

Experts fear start of ‘road rage’ trend

by Don Russell, Daily News Staff Writer

The local traffic report is starting to sound like the police blotter

On Aug. 3, while trying to park his car on South Street, a 23-year-old West Philly man was shot in the head by another driver who wanted the spot.

A week later, an argument between the occupants of two cars on Allegheny Avenue erupted into gunfire. A 19-year-old woman was shot in the head.

On Aug. 12, the driver of a sport-utility vehicle tried to run a van driver off the road in Upper Darby. After a collision, the first driver stabbed the second in the leg.

How long till we have to buckle on both our safety belts and our bulletproof vests when we climb behind the wheel?

Police say incidents like these – known as road rage – are still rare in the Philadelphia area. But traffic experts are worried we may be seeing the beginning of a far more deadly trend.

‘It’s going to get worse,’ said Leon James, a University of Hawaii traffic psychology professor known as Dr. Driving.

James and others believe violent highway incidents are merely extreme examples of our everyday aggressive driving behavior. The Daily News reported last month that drivers who have abandoned civil roadway behavior are causing about half of all serious traffic accidents.

‘Tailgating, running red lights, speeding and hazardous lane changes are common behavior on the highway,’ said James.

‘Aggressive driving is not extreme any more; it has become a cultural norm on the highway,’ James said.

And it’s going to get worse for two big reasons, experts say. First, traffic is becoming more congested. That means drivers have more opportunities to engage in violent encounters. Second, we are a violent society that is proud, not ashamed, of aggressive behavior.

What’s going to reverse the trend? Earlier this month, the National Conference of State Legislatures tackled that question during its annual meeting in Philadelphia. Some legislators – though none from Pennsylvania or New Jersey – said they had tried to introduce new laws that outlaw aggressive driving. None have been adopted so far because lawmakers have been unable to define aggressive driving. But Carol Petzhold, a Maryland legislature delegate, insisted, ‘You and I know what aggressive driving is when we see it.’

Other experts believe the problem can be solved with enforcement of existing laws. That’s the cornerstone of a new program in the Washington, D.C., area called Smooth Operator. Police initiated the program after a 80mph road duel on the George Washington Parkway killed three people. In its first two weeks, Smooth Operator ticketed more than 27,000 drivers for speeding, tailgating, improper passing and failure to obey signals. By comparison, the Daily News has found that Philadelphia police rarely write tickets for aggressive driving. For instance, in 1995, police wrote 137 tickets for red-light running, which is the city’s No. 1 cause of accidents.

Though experts say increased law enforcement is a big part of the solution, psychologists like James say the problem runs even deeper into the soul of our violent nation.

‘We’re born into road rage; we inherit it from our parents,’ said James. ‘We acquire it automatically as children from adult drivers, cartoons, television, and commercials. Every driver at some point has these violent thoughts against another driver,’ he continued. There’s a Jekyll and Hyde transformation when we get behind the wheel of a car. The car is our castle and the road is our freedom. When somebody gets in the way of it, we get hostile,’ James said.

For James, the solution is better driver education that stresses the ability to contain hostility and to avoid disputes. ‘If we don’t do something, these violent incidents are going to get worse,’ James said. ‘What’s increasing is our acceptance of road rage, our self-righteous indignation about other drivers. People feel almost proud of their aggressiveness.’

The Philadelphia Daily News

Students make an exhibition of themselves

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

THIRTEEN art students given a grant and sponsorship of £1,600 to put on an exhibition spent the money on a week’s holiday on the Costa del Sol and returned home claiming that the trip was conceptual art.

Two sponsors, including the Leeds University students’ union, which gave a grant of £1,126, said they had been misled by the students. They claimed that the stunt gave art a bad name and demanded their money back. But the 13 students said their holiday – when they swam, sunbathed and visited nightclubs – was designed ‘to challenge people’s perception of art’ and to make people discuss whether there was any limit to what could be described as art. One of the students, Emma Robertson, said: ‘This is leisure as art. It is art and it was an exhibition. People have very set ideas about what art is and we are interested in the media reaction because we want people to discuss what art is.’ About 60 lecturers, local artists and fellow students invited to the first-night party for the exhibition – enigmatically titled Going Places – were surprised when they entered a gallery empty except for a large bowl of sangria, the sound of flamenco music and a drama student dressed as an air hostess with a megaphone.

As they stood around, uncertain what would happen next, they were ushered on to a double-decker bus, driven to Leeds-Bradford airport and left in a bar overlooking the arrivals area. A short time later, they saw the entire troupe of laughing, sun-tanned, third-year students – who had used the money to buy £185 flight-and-accommodation packages – march through Customs armed with souvenirs. The two groups met, the stunt was explained and they all adjourned to the bar again, running up a bill of £180. They spent a couple of hours discussing the meaning of art before they were bussed back to Leeds city centre.

The students’ union, which said it had been led to believe that the art students were mounting a more traditional exhibition, suffered a serious humour failure yesterday. Ruth Wilkin, the union’s communications officer, said: ‘We have asked for the money back. When we gave the money there was no mention of any holidays. We have very limited resources and we are trying to raise £20,000 for a minibus with access for the disabled. It is fairly outrageous and pretty upsetting to see some of our students taking money for a holiday when it should have been spent on a much worthier cause.’ Myles Dutton, who runs the Dixon Bate art shop in Leeds, was one of several commercial sponsors who gave more than £400 for what they thought was a conventional exhibition. He said: ‘I gave £50. It’s not a lot but I feel I have been duped and I want my money back.’ A university spokesman declined to condemn the students and said: ‘It should be noted that on little more than £1,000 they managed to spend a week in Spain, hire a space for the exhibition, hire the double-decker bus and keep a tab behind the bar at the airport. They got a lot out of it.’

The Daily Telegraph