Road Danger Reporting by Citizens

Aggressive and dangerous driving has been around since humans first mounted horses. The taking out of frustration and anger on others, and carelessness, uncare even hatred for others, are not going to go away as long as we are human. The question here is: what actions are appropriate to reduce its danger to people in our community.

Headline incidents occur when two aggressive drivers interact repeatedly in an escalating series that ends in physical violence. But, for every reported case, there are many that stop short of headline-grabbing results. It is these cases, precursors to more serious interactions, that if properly handled might serve as early warnings of trouble, and a rational way of dealing with the problem.

There are a number of factors that lead to aggressive driving. Time pressure is a well documented one - most aggressive driving is done on the way home from work, especially on Fridays. Anonymity also plays a part - urban areas experience much higher rates of aggressive driving than rural areas. But we must look elsewhere for the ways in which people can become convinced that it is OK to deliberately endanger other people. The stress modern society places on winning is well supported as a factor by driver interviews. Righteousness (the 'punitive' personality), and the ethic of controlling everything about us, are equally well supported. Decades of continuous exposure to TV shows in which vehicles are driven in wildly inappropriate and dangerous ways are suspected by many as well. Such factors make it seem that the problem is far too large for one community to handle! But, that may not be so.

In the United States, there is a program, #77, to permit citizens to report cases of aggressive and dangerous driving. It is currently active in Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia, and is aimed at citizens on the road, who use their vehicular cellphones for the purpose. Maryland gets up to 300 calls a day. It is strictly an as-it-happens and advisory process - police are directed to the location and lay charges if an officer observes a subsequent infraction. No citizen identification is required.

Currently (May 2002), the Ontario Provincial Police are accepting similar calls, at *OPP (*677). However, they do not cover major municipalities such as Ottawa.

For a while, the Township of King, north of Toronto, asked for written submissions from those who observed dangerous driving within the township. The idea was that one submission would result in a letter, the second concerning the same vehicle in a police visit, and a third in enforcement action. However, it seems to have run into difficulties - queries are no longer being answered. Many trucking companies subscribe to "How's my driving" phone reporting services with similar procedures but unknown results.

Should Ottawa follow one of these leads? The idea has much to recommend it.

• Studies show that increasing the likelihood of apprehension greatly reduces almost all human problem behaviours. There are far more drivers than police on our roads, so enlisting citizens successfully can reduce the number of problem drivers and the accidents they cause.
• Being able to do something about a problem is an effective stress reliever. Drivers who can make a report will not feel powerless in the face of danger. That will help them to avoid overreacting to the problem driver, and will aid them to continue to drive safely in general.
• People generally have a more negative view of police as drivers than in any other role. Such a program can encourage citizens to feel that the police and they are cooperating, which will improve the ability of police to help us keep our community safe.

But, it also has significant problems.

• It is often unsafe to get close enough to a problem vehicle to read the license plate, especially when it is located under a truck box and covered with mud. Most vehicles do not have any larger identification mark.
• Using a cellphone while driving increases the chance of an accident, as does the attention diversion necessary to write down the dozen digits or so of a "How's my driving" number plus vehicle number for later use.
• In many situations, there is significant danger in pulling over to write down sufficient details to fill out a form (for example, on the downtown portion of the 417), and many, perhaps even most, drivers will not have a passenger able to do it.
• There may be a disproportional number of reports from one of the major classes of problem drivers, those who react negatively to everyone who does not meet their, usually rigid, cultural norms ('punitive' drivers).
• The police will feel that their turf is being invaded, and civil libertarians that privacy is being compromised (cf. the interactions that resulted in the current ban on unattended photo radar to catch speeders in Ontario).
• Current legal procedures are inadequate to protect against unreasonable harassment of the person reported or of the reporter (such as the present Ontario requirement that people be required to physically travel to the location where any report occurs, even in cases of obvious error).

John Sankey
other notes on community matters