Essay On Misconceptions

What do road rage, long road trips, and cell phone conversations have in common? Besides the fact that many people have done all of them, sometimes all at once, the answer is that a surprising number of people have misconceptions about each one of them. While these car misconceptions seem plausible on the surface, the law, statistics, and cognitive science say otherwise. Here are the misconceptions:

Road Rage and Aggressive Driving Are the Same Thing

Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, the law sees them as two different things. One will get you fines and higher car insurance premiums, while the other can land you in jail. Aggressive driving is a series of traffic offenses that endanger the driver as well as others on the road. The person engaged in aggressive driving does it for reasons other than threatening another motorist. He may tailgate out of habit or as a way to indicate that he'd like you to speed up or move over into the slower lane. He cuts off another car because he decides that he can pull off the maneuver, not because he wants to intimidate the motorist.

The person who commits road rage is guilty of using his car to threaten another motorist. When someone threatens another with bodily harm with an apparent means such as with his car, he is guilty of assault which is a criminal offense. When someone commits road
However, you are more likely to get into an accident near your home. There are two reasons for this. First, you do most of your driving near your home. You commute to and from your home and you do lots of local errands such as buying food, going to nearby stores, and so forth. Driving is risky no matter where you do it. Since most of your mileage is done within a radius of 30 miles of your home, you are more likely to get into an accident within this radius. Statistically, most of your exposure to the risk of driving occurs near your