Monday, September 29, 2008

Bumper Stickers = Aggressive Drivers

I recently read an article in the Baltimore's Child that gets sent home with Boy 2 every month.

This article was titled Bumper Stickers and Aggressive Drivers. Essentially the article was saying (according to some professor at Colorado State University) that the number of decals/bumper stickers you displayed on your vehicle was able to predict who the aggressive drivers were on the road.

The article says:

Their mere presence tags you as someone caught up in a territorial state of mind. Basically, by marking your car, you are saying that this piece of mobile territory is your personal space, like your home, and the streets you travel along are also yours. You feel you literally own the road.


Consequently, any driver who impedes your progress, cuts you off, or goes too slowly, elicits explosive anger out of proportion to the provocation and can produce aggressive driving to avenge the perceived slight.

My first impression is this is a bunch of crap. When I think of aggressive drivers I think of fast sports cars and those owners take pride in their vehicles and wouldn't dare put any sort of sticker on it. And I have a Dallas Cowboys decal on my truck and while yes I get annoyed with people that can't drive - I wouldn't consider myself an aggressive driver.

But my husband Shitface, he has several (I think at least 3) on his truck. While I don't think he's necessarily aggressive - I think he gets a bit of road rage when other drivers are not being cautious. But is this aggressive driving? I don't really think so. He may scream and at yell at people that can't hear him but he isn't driving any differently.

So what do you think? Do you think this holds any truth or is it just a bunch of crap? I'd be interested in hearing your opinions as I know I will definitely be paying attention to aggressive drivers while on the road.

[Editor's Note: "My husband" was offended that I didn't call him Shitface - so it has now been corrected!]

4 comments:

ToadMama said...

I don't think the number of bumper stickers has anything to do with it.

It was quite a refreshing change to see you refer to your significant other as "my husband" for a change!

Tiff said...

I don't think it has anything to do with it either. Jason in very aggressive however he would never put a bumper sticker on his car or his bike. Jessica has stickers all over her car and she is not aggressive at all. My vote is that it is a bunch of crap! What a strange thing to do a study on too.

shan said...

Uh, doesn't road rage = aggressive? I mean, it has "rage" right there and what is rage if not expressed aggression? That being said, I don't know if I necessarily agree with the results either.

And Tiff, you'd be surprised by the number of asinine studies that are conducted. Or maybe you wouldn't. But there's a lot of them out there.

stephanie said...

I'm wondering (but don't want anyone to spend money investigating) if there is a difference between people with bumper stickers and those with window clings.

But overall? Don't really care much; I just want other drivers to pay attention.

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