Road Rage Goes Online
'You're an Idiot,' And Other Festive Holiday Greetings Online or En Route, Drivers Spell Out How They Feel
By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 20, 2006
The pilgrimage to Thanksgiving dinner is often a battle against rude, obnoxious drivers and the impulse to throttle them.
But this holiday season, there's no need to keep that anger to yourself. Entrepreneurs have come up with ways to let off steam.
The Web site platewire.com allows motorists to post the license plate numbers of offending drivers on the Internet and tell the world what a moron that guy was on the Capital Beltway. The Web site was created by a Fairfax man who said he wants to shame people into driving better. Police disapprove, saying the best tactic is to call authorities.
On the Web site, license plate numbers are accompanied by pointed, sometimes-profane commentaries on the motoring skills of their owners. They are listed under headings such as "Maniac" and "Jerk on the Phone."
"Great job driving down the BW parkway," reads one post about a Maryland driver. "How many people did you cut off with that tank of a vehicle? Get off your cellphone and drive. Was that your kid in backseat too?"
Mark Buckman, a Fairfax computer consultant who started the site with his stepbrother Luke Sevenski, said he is outraged by careless, rude or inattentive drivers.
"We are a society driven by fear -- the fear of being ostracized," he said while driving in Fairfax recently. Buckman, 32, started the site in May with $5,000. He said it now gets 500 to 2,000 unique hits a day and has hundreds of postings about bad drivers from as far as Los Angeles.
There are no known instances of subjects of the mean missives actually seeing them.
So why are people taking the time to post what is basically a primal scream?
"It is the psychology of venting," said Leon James, a professor at the University of Hawaii and co-author of "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving." "It is the same as when we get to the office after a commute. We cannot start work until we have a cup of coffee and have someone listen to our driving story."
But does it work?
"Venting reactivates the original stress hormones. It keeps you obsessively focused on proving the other person wrong," James said. "What kind of help is this?"
He suggests just forgetting and moving on. But that's easy for him to say. James doesn't have to drive across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge twice a day.
That's where Mika Larson's "Road Rage Cards" come in. The cellist-turned-entrepreneur sells a book of signs designed to send more immediate messages.
Messages such as "GET OUT OF THE FAST LANE, MORON!" and "YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" and "I HOPE THAT CELLPHONE GIVES YOU CANCER" are among the more family-friendly signs.
She came up with the idea for the cardboard signs after being frustrated with drivers "who didn't seem to have anything in their heads, not using their blinkers, littering," she said. "I did my fair share of screaming at them through my window. To no avail."
For those who want to upgrade from cardboard, gadgetuniverse.com sells a "license plate billboard" for $39.95 that allows you to display four different greetings on a small LED sign tucked under a rear license plate. You could say "hello" -- or tell the driver of that tricked-out Honda on your tail to back off.
If you really want to get creative, $199 buys the MobileLED MD-550, which plugs into a car cigarette lighter and comes with a small keyboard that allows you to type any message on a large electronic display board mounted inside your rear window.
These are all terrible ideas, said Fairley Mahlum, spokeswoman for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
"Your job is not to teach others how to drive," she said. "Your job is to get to your destination."
Anything that responds to aggressive or rude driving makes matters worse and could lead to a confrontation.
"By responding and reacting, you are being just as aggressive," she said. "It's understandable that people are getting frustrated. But it's all in how you handle that frustration."
Police officers with decades of experience on the roads say the same thing: Don't react. Don't escalate. And if someone's actions on the road are really threatening, pick up your cellphone and dial #77, the non-emergency number for police.
But for a furious driver who was just cut off, that often is not good enough.
"When people call in, they are hot and they want justice," Virginia State Police Sgt. Terry Licklider said. "They say, 'I want you to go out and arrest that person or give them a ticket.' But the justice system doesn't work that way."
[Photo: tinyurl.com ; Luke Sevenski, 27, left, and his stepbrother Mark Buckman, 32, started www.platewire.com to shame bad drivers. Users can post the license plate numbers of drivers who are rude or dangerous.
Photo Credit: By Nikki Kahn; Story: tinyurl.com ]
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