A new book out examines how different cultures help determine different driving habits. The book, "Traffic," by Tom Vanderbilt, states, for example, that drivers honk their horns all the time in Mexico but they don´t in Los Angeles. Countries like France and Belgium have more accidents than other European nations because they issue fewer traffic tickets.
The psychology of driving is such that it tends to make us anonymous, and that permits many people to behave more rudely with their cars than they ever would in face-to-face contact. But conversely, a broken traffic light generally returns us to polite social behavior as we take turns going through the intersection.
One theory presented that I´ll heartily agree with is that improvements in car safety have prompted people to drive more aggressively, resulting in more accidents. I would add that the explosion of SUVs on the road has added greatly to that tendency.
What does this have to do with the environment? Driving fast, accelerating and stopping, idling in congested traffic -- these are all great and largely underrated gas guzzling causes, which of course contributes hugely to carbon dioxide entering the air, resulting in pollution and global warming.
One interesting suggestion is congestion pricing, which would charge people to drive into high traffic areas. Such a fee might reduce traffic congestion -- and would help the environment as well.
Much of Vanderbilt´s book focused on the correlation between aggressive driving and safety, which involves environmental management as well. Safety and garbage trucks is a huge ongoing issue, and one of the problems is how the trucks affect the traffic around it. Aggressive driving to go around a waste truck leads to increased accidents.
If we really want to reduce our fuel consumption, we have to change behavior that´s ingrained in the American fabric. And driving fast will be one hard habit to break.
