Road rage --
A consequence of traffic congestion
Thanks go to the U.S. Department
of Defense (DoD)
for this very appropriate poster image from the Posters Collection at http://trol.redstone.army.mil/davis/poster.htm
Use of this image here is not an endorsement by either DoD or the U.S.
Army regarding any particular position on El Dorado County traffic
issues.
El Dorado Hills traffic has been
evolving in the same way, and road rage is growing. This is an account
of the first case of road rage directed at this author. It was not
severe enough to produce a physical attack but it did indicate that
another driver was mentally impaired by his emotions and that he was
not capable of driving rationally. It exemplifies an increasing problem
in El Dorado County and specifically in El Dorado Hills.
Event description
Time:
Monday morning, November 22, probably starting about midway between
about 8:45 and 9:30 a.m. I didn't record the exact time.
Location:
Onramp to US 50 westbound at El Dorado Hills Blvd. 
This afternoon photo shows a traffic
stream on the upper portion of the onramp with spacing between cars
similar to traffic at the base of the onramp in this incident.
Narrative description:
I had refueled at Harry Norris' Union 76 station and joined traffic
waiting in the left turn lane for the traffic light at El Dorado Hills
Blvd, facing west. When the signal changed to show a green left turn
arrow we proceeded. There were two vehicles
ahead of me and both turned into the #2 lane of El Dorado Hills Blvd.
southbound, stopping at a red light, and not entering the onramp. I
proceeded through the
intersection and immediately turned right to enter the US 50 westbound
onramp.
Entry to westbound US 50 onramp, where the main arterial crossing under
US 50 is named El Dorado Hills Blvd to the north and Latrobe Road to
the south.
:Traffic from El Dorado Hills Blvd. southbound turns right before the
light; traffic from Latrobe Road turns left at the light. Both roadways
merge into one lane just to the right of the small hill in the
foreground of this photo.
At that time northbound traffic from Latrobe Road had just been
released by green left turn
arrow. When I first crossed onto the transition to the onramp there was
a gap between vehicles in this traffic flow that would have safely
and easily allowed me to merge with the flow at the base of the onramp.
However,
the driver of the car that would have followed me after such a merge
accelerated to close the gap between it and the preceding car. The
driver's intention appeared to be to prevent me from merging
in front of him.
I quickly recognized that his rate of closure on
the car ahead would make it impossible for me to merge: If I had
continued
to merge and the trailing driver did not slow down the result would be
a collision between the two of us. Alternatively, If I had
continued to merge and the trailing driver had braked to avoid a
collision it probably would have triggered a multiple rear end
collision among the remaining cars from Latrobe Road.
Traffic engineers had anticipated merge issues here and
had clearly marked the entry to the onramp from El Dorado Hills Blvd.
to indicate that the EDH Blvd stream of traffic was yield to the
Latrobe Road stream.
I stopped and waited about 10 seconds for the
first opportunity to continue. During that time several vehicles
entering from Latrobe
Road passed with no more than 1-second spacing between each.
About one to two seconds after the
last car from the Latrobe Road stream passed the driver of the vehicle
behind me, a large light gold SUV, honked his horn. He had necessarily
stopped behind me and apparently was distressed at being blocked. His
intention was clear: I should not block him, we should both
violate the signed advisory to yield to the other stream of traffic, as
well as ignoring the actual need to avoid a collision. I
started as soon as traffic permitted, he then tailgated me up the
onramp. Soon after merging into freeway traffic I moved to the #2 lane
and he stayed in the #3 lane.
As we approached Prairie City he moved
into the exit lane, pulled
forward to a point abreast of me in the deceleration lane for the exit,
gestured strongly with the "one-finger
salute", and yelled at me, even though his windows were closed.
His face was contorted with rage and I could read his lips well enough
to recognize some well-known obscenities.
What does this tell us?
Comment 1, about the driver:
The SUV driver's attitude was essentially a case of irrational,
unwarranted, and dangerous road rage, reaching a level that would
impair his ability to drive safely. In my opinion this individual needs
counseling in anger management and maintaining objectivity and
alertness while driving. More specifically, he needs improvement in
maintaining situational awareness, defensive driving, and
courtesy. The drivers who turned in from Latrobe Road also used
aggressive driving habits, with at least the one and arguably all being
clearly negligent of defensive driving and appropriate
courtesy.
Comment 2, about congestion's impact
to quality of life:
This incident would not have been uncommon in Los Angeles when my wife
and I still lived there. That and traffic congestion were the most
important reasons we moved away to live in an area that provided a
higher quality of life. Traffic is already the most important factor
tending to degrade that quality of life in El Dorado Hills. When we
moved into El Dorado Hills in 1990 the lack of congestion and a high
degree of courtesy among the driving public were very substantial
rewards for living here.
That reward has been eroded and is now gone at many of the most
travelled parts of highway 50 and our arterial roads.
Comment 3, about need for better
traffic infrastructure development:
Our need for highway and surface street improvements is becoming
critical. We need additional traffic lanes on US 50 between El Dorado
Hills Blvd and Folsom NOW. We need a
substantially updated freeway interchange at El Dorado Hills Blvd and
widening of a portion of EDH Blvd NOW.
Actually, to meet the current needs construction should have begun a
few years ago. In current planning the earliest timing for the most
important construction is about 2009, and the planned changes are
inadequate to match population growth. The County should
reassess its priorities for
funding traffic infrastructure improvements and expedite work at the El
Dorado Hills Blvd/Latrobe Road
interchange.