The academic division at BillSaysThis has completed a new study of the causes of traffic delays called “Analysis of Traffic by Driver Behavioral Characteristics” and has asked me to post the abstract here.
Delays, they found, can be divided into three groups: caused by stupid, moronic or idiotic driver behavior. There was some push for a fourth category, imbecilic, but the consensus was is just a subgroup of moronic.
Stupid driving is defined as driver actions which are based on poor or inconsiderate decisionmaking. Examples include driving significantly slower in only mildly bad weather (say, drizzling rain compared to a serious snow storm); squeezing into the exit lane at the last possible point; and, spacing out or losing focus due to a conversation (with someone else in the vehicle or on the phone), a song or discussion on the radio or simply getting lost in thought.
Moronic driving is defined as driver actions that do not conform to generally accepted rules of the road, such as frequent lane changes in stop and go traffic, or are based on excessive timidity, like driving 10 or more miles per hour less than the speed limit.
Idiotic driving is defined as driver actions that are reckless, beyond the limit of inconsideration, and completely cut off from consideration of their consequences. These are actions that cause collisions or spinouts though the driver causing the result does not always suffer him or herself. Example behaviors are pulling into traffic without confirming a clear entry path, street racing and, always a classic, changing one’s pants.
One of the BST researchers personally witnessed the first example just yesterday. On a semi-major surface road, with cars parked along the curb obstructing vision of drivers entering from an apartment building’s parking, a man attempted to turn left from the apartment parking. Another driver, a woman doing nothing that would fall into any of this study’s classifications, was driving towards the man in her lane on this street.
The man pulled out anyway. The woman’s midsized sedan was turned more than 120 degrees from her initial direction and, though fortunately neither driver appeared to be hurt, her car looked to be totalled. The man’s car showed minimal damage. Unfortunately for him a local police car was two vehicles behind the researcher’s.
The researcher and his wife were in the first car in the other direction, the one into which the driver was coming, and escaped joining the collision only due to the spouse’s alert, immediate reaction. Reportedly if the researcher had been any slower in applying his brakes their brand new vehicle, a lovely white Toyota RAV4, might have suffered significant damage with less than 200 miles on the odometer.
The researchers note that delays caused by road construction were outside the scope of this study but that delays caused by poor design or bad construction are considered as a sub-type of Stupid behavior.
“Analysis of Traffic by Driver Behavioral Characteristics” has been submitted for peer review prior to full publication.
BillSaysThis 