The Aggressive Driver: A Look Behind the Wheel

As I sat in the passenger seat of Jason's car, I couldn't help but think about how he got behind the wheel. He was notorious for his aggressive driving skills, and I had nominated him for a crash course as a last resort. But as we hit the road, something unexpected happened. Jason's demeanor changed, and he became a completely different driver.

At first, it started with little things. He would honk at pedestrians who dared to cross the street in front of us, or tailgate other cars on the highway. It was as if he was competing in some sort of game, where he was determined to come out on top no matter what. But as we continued driving, Jason began to slow down, and his aggressive behavior started to fade away. He even slowed down at roundabouts, which is a feat in itself.

"Okay, calm down, calm down, reign it in," I said to him, trying to keep up with his sudden change of pace. "He tends to not slow down at roundabouts. We shouldn't do that around the roundabout, bloody race track." Jason chuckled and nodded in agreement, and for a moment, I forgot about our earlier conversation.

As we drove through the city, Jason was his usual self, cutting off other drivers and yelling at them through the window of his car. "Oh, shut up!" he exclaimed, as someone cut him off. "30 mile an hour there you go! I do get quite aggressive whilst driving, get over you what are you doing?" Jason's friends refused to travel with him, and those who did like Friend Philip didn't enjoy it. "Don't look at well, why is he sticking his nose out?" one of them asked.

Meanwhile, Jason was focused on the road ahead, and for once, he seemed to be concentrating. I couldn't believe how much better his driving was now that he wasn't being aggressive. He shot red lights like a pro, coming to a complete stop at every intersection. "You are the lights are on red, the lights are on red, the lights are on red!" he exclaimed, as if he was reading from a script.

As we approached a junction, David pointed out that Jason had actually been driving in amber light for six seconds before changing lanes. Jason looked sheepish and apologized to everyone involved. "I don't think he realizes how dangerous a vehicle is," David said, shaking his head.

Despite the improvements in Jason's driving, there were still moments of aggression. As we turned onto a private road network in Suffolk, Jason was suddenly back to his old self. "What are you doing?" someone asked him, as he accelerated rapidly down the road. But then, something unexpected happened. Jason took the corner slowly and smoothly, using both hands on the wheel.

The advanced driving instructor, Ian Palmer, was impressed with Jason's behavior. "You're doing really well," he said, turning to me. "Beneath the aggression, there's actually a considerate and competent driver." I couldn't believe it - Jason was having a moment of clarity behind the wheel. But as we continued driving, I wondered how long this would last.

The Aggressive Driver: A Study in Contrasts

As I sat in Jason's car that day, I realized that his aggressive behavior was not just about the act of driving itself, but also about the emotions and thoughts that came with it. Jason was a man who felt a deep sense of territoriality towards his vehicle, and this feeling often boiled over into aggression on the road.

The data supports this theory. Studies have shown that people who tend to be more aggressive while driving are also more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior in other areas of their lives. In fact, one study found that bumper stickers, personalized plates, and spoilers all correlated with instances of road rage. These small details marked out individuals as having greater territoriality towards their cars.

But what's interesting is that this aggression is not just about the car itself, but also about the person who drives it. According to a survey conducted in Great Britain, over 30% of drivers experience aggressive road rage incidents every single week. And it's not just men who are prone to this behavior - women and children can be equally guilty.

So what's behind this aggression? Is it a matter of personal space, or is there something deeper at play? As I sat in Jason's car that day, I realized that the solution to road rage was much simpler than I had ever thought. When confronted with an aggressive driver, the best course of action is to stay calm and polite.

As we continued driving through the private road network, Ian pointed out how Jason's behavior had changed dramatically. He was no longer yelling at other drivers or cutting them off - instead, he was calmly following the rules of the road. And as we pulled up to a stop sign, Jason turned to me with a sheepish grin.

"I'm really sorry about that," he said, turning to face Ian. "I don't think I realized how fast I was going." Ian nodded in approval, and for a moment, I forgot about our earlier conversation.

As the day drew to a close, I couldn't help but wonder if Jason's aggressive behavior was just a phase. Would he revert back to his old self once we left the safety of the private road network? Only time would tell. But for now, it seemed that Jason had found a way to control his aggression behind the wheel.

The Aggressive Driver: A Lesson Learned

As I reflected on my experience with Jason that day, I realized that there was more to driving than just following the rules of the road. It's about the emotions and thoughts that come with it - our territoriality towards our vehicles, our fear of being cut off or losing control.

But most importantly, it's about staying calm and polite when confronted with an aggressive driver. When we approach these situations with a sense of serenity and understanding, we can often avoid conflicts altogether.

So the next time you find yourself on the road behind Jason (or anyone else) who is exhibiting aggressive behavior, take a deep breath and try to stay calm. It may be difficult, but it's worth it in the end.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey peter stop red light tonight in a unique experiment we challenge the driving habits of two of britain's worst motorists jason hello using state-of-the-art technology created exclusively for this experiment we aim to help them change their ways as they come face to face with their own dangerous driving that's pretty bad i'm lost for word this is crash course happily our cars and our roads are safer than they've ever been today cars are four times safer than they were just 15 years ago they're better designed better regulated more rigorously tested and bristling with advanced safety technology and the uk's roads themselves are 25 safer than five years ago as a result of better signage better surfaces and redesigned junctions we have one of the safest roads systems in the whole world where the uk has been in the top three for the last sort of 10 years and road casualties are dropping every year but in spite of that too many of us are still being hurt or killed in cars today almost 400 accidents will have been reported in the uk 64 people will have been seriously injured and five people will have died and in over 90 percent of accidents there's just one person to blame a bad driver i'm afraid if you look at all the police records all the research it's people who cause crashes it's mistakes it's errors it's not looking is the top actual cause of most crashes what can be done well shock tactic campaigns have had a lot of success right around the world like this online ad showing the dangers of applying makeup at the wheel but could the shock of actually experiencing a crash and seeing the results also have a positive effect on people's driving well tonight that's what we want to find out our first dangerous driver is jason what are you doing huh i'm jason redshaw and i live in sunny blackpool i run a small chain of little businesses we have fancy dress shop we hire out uh costumes with a master great collection yeah it's not weighty but it depends how you work with it yeah and we hire out props right now jason drives a bmw z3 sports car you can put your seatbelt on lad he was nominated by david his business partner of 14 years i nominated jason to be on the show because of his driving habits he tends to be a little bit erratic behind the wheel fabulous jason knows he does some things on the road that he shouldn't and has agreed to take part at david's request and go for what he believes is some expert tuition because nobody will let me out i've got i'm going i've had one or two three or four cars that have met an untimely end one went into a lamp post one went into the back of a taxi one went into a wall i do think i've been lucky i really do in the car there's probably been a couple of instances where i'd probably come close to even losing my own life i've been caught for speeding twice i'll be honest i've speeded many many many times i'll happily admit what's your speed 140. it's only down here 30 mile an hour yeah well where's the signs whenever i've had a brand new car i've always gone down onto the the m55 you can open a car and really push it and see what you can get out of here it's a thrill it's exciting yes it's dangerous i think i did one two five and then the dashboard started to vibrate so it was a case of okay calm down calm down reign it in he tends to not slow down at roundabouts we shouldn't do that around the roundabout bloody race track oh shut up 30 mile an hour there you go i do get um quite aggressive whilst driving get over you what are you doing huh oh how bloody close do you want to get what are you doing many of jason's friends refuse to travel with him and the rest like friend philip don't enjoy it don't look at well why is he sticking his nose out he doesn't look at what's going on he doesn't concentrate he doesn't look at the corners and he just doesn't care what's that cyclist i can see him i can see him there's a car stopping here jesus christ most dangerously of all jason shoots red lights like he shot a light yesterday up red light you are the lights are on red the lights are on red the lights are on red it was on amber it wasn't it's on red it was on amber david it was definitely red the lights were on red and had actually changed from green a full six seconds before jason reached the junction preoccupied looking around david can't take any more of jason's bad driving and nominated him for crash course as a last resort i don't think he realizes how dangerous a vehicle is i tend to get a little bit anxious if he's if he's out in the car i've done theory tests driving tests speed awareness tests i'm not sure what else there is to do that would make me curtail my driving scary 90 of us believe that we are above average drivers which is of course impossible like jason though 85 of us admit to acting aggressively in our cars what are you doing tailgating cutting up and screaming at other drivers so why do we act like this anonymity plays a big role you feel secluded within your vehicle other people you can't necessarily see within their vehicle so it might mean that even the most mild-mannered individual on the road would have the propensity to let anger boil over into some sort of aggression and when it's our territory that's being threatened the anger gets very personal indeed many people take territoriality into their car so although they're on a public road their car is part of their territory therefore any threats any perceived aggressive driving towards them might be taken more seriously so is it possible to spot a potentially territorial and aggressive driver before things get nasty people who tend to have greater territoriality within their vehicles will often adorn their vehicles so in america has been a study to show that bumper stickers for instance correlate with instance of road rage similarly ornaments in cars spoilers personalized plates these are the sort of things that mark out someone as having greater territoriality in relation to their car and which might mean that they are more prone to road rage the likeliest road rage culprits are men aged between 35 and 50 and driving blue bmws a demographic jason fits into perfectly what are you doing by and large on the whole aggressive people out there on the road are typically aggressive in life in fact great britain is home to some of the angriest drivers in the whole world with a third of us experiencing an aggressive road rage incident every single week cars certainly level the playing field in terms of let's say physical discrepancies between potential protagonists when you're in the car you might feel that you are cushioned from the social consequences of any actions that you do and then it turns out that actually this chaps rather a big chat so that anonymity can break down very quickly for the majority of us road rage means a bit of swearing and some creative sign language but if you do come up against an aggressive and angry driver the solution is simple be polite apologize and get out of their way then you won't be involved when it all goes wrong for them what are you doing after seeing jason's aggressive driving on public roads we took him to our private road network in suffolk he thinks he's simply here for a day's intensive tuition with advanced driving instructor ian palmer so as i'm saying i really want you to start thinking about your safety that's the most important thing isn't it it says he's unaware he'll be involved in a crash and with ian alongside him jason's on best behavior tell you what doing really well with this car he shows that beneath the aggression there's actually a considerate and competent driver do you know why i think you're doing really well because i'm probably more concentrating on the car because there's less distractions good and you're using both hands yes yes even david who's come to watch is surprised he never pulls away from the lights that slowly but how will jason cope when he comes face to face with his own dangerous drivinghey peter stop red light tonight in a unique experiment we challenge the driving habits of two of britain's worst motorists jason hello using state-of-the-art technology created exclusively for this experiment we aim to help them change their ways as they come face to face with their own dangerous driving that's pretty bad i'm lost for word this is crash course happily our cars and our roads are safer than they've ever been today cars are four times safer than they were just 15 years ago they're better designed better regulated more rigorously tested and bristling with advanced safety technology and the uk's roads themselves are 25 safer than five years ago as a result of better signage better surfaces and redesigned junctions we have one of the safest roads systems in the whole world where the uk has been in the top three for the last sort of 10 years and road casualties are dropping every year but in spite of that too many of us are still being hurt or killed in cars today almost 400 accidents will have been reported in the uk 64 people will have been seriously injured and five people will have died and in over 90 percent of accidents there's just one person to blame a bad driver i'm afraid if you look at all the police records all the research it's people who cause crashes it's mistakes it's errors it's not looking is the top actual cause of most crashes what can be done well shock tactic campaigns have had a lot of success right around the world like this online ad showing the dangers of applying makeup at the wheel but could the shock of actually experiencing a crash and seeing the results also have a positive effect on people's driving well tonight that's what we want to find out our first dangerous driver is jason what are you doing huh i'm jason redshaw and i live in sunny blackpool i run a small chain of little businesses we have fancy dress shop we hire out uh costumes with a master great collection yeah it's not weighty but it depends how you work with it yeah and we hire out props right now jason drives a bmw z3 sports car you can put your seatbelt on lad he was nominated by david his business partner of 14 years i nominated jason to be on the show because of his driving habits he tends to be a little bit erratic behind the wheel fabulous jason knows he does some things on the road that he shouldn't and has agreed to take part at david's request and go for what he believes is some expert tuition because nobody will let me out i've got i'm going i've had one or two three or four cars that have met an untimely end one went into a lamp post one went into the back of a taxi one went into a wall i do think i've been lucky i really do in the car there's probably been a couple of instances where i'd probably come close to even losing my own life i've been caught for speeding twice i'll be honest i've speeded many many many times i'll happily admit what's your speed 140. it's only down here 30 mile an hour yeah well where's the signs whenever i've had a brand new car i've always gone down onto the the m55 you can open a car and really push it and see what you can get out of here it's a thrill it's exciting yes it's dangerous i think i did one two five and then the dashboard started to vibrate so it was a case of okay calm down calm down reign it in he tends to not slow down at roundabouts we shouldn't do that around the roundabout bloody race track oh shut up 30 mile an hour there you go i do get um quite aggressive whilst driving get over you what are you doing huh oh how bloody close do you want to get what are you doing many of jason's friends refuse to travel with him and the rest like friend philip don't enjoy it don't look at well why is he sticking his nose out he doesn't look at what's going on he doesn't concentrate he doesn't look at the corners and he just doesn't care what's that cyclist i can see him i can see him there's a car stopping here jesus christ most dangerously of all jason shoots red lights like he shot a light yesterday up red light you are the lights are on red the lights are on red the lights are on red it was on amber it wasn't it's on red it was on amber david it was definitely red the lights were on red and had actually changed from green a full six seconds before jason reached the junction preoccupied looking around david can't take any more of jason's bad driving and nominated him for crash course as a last resort i don't think he realizes how dangerous a vehicle is i tend to get a little bit anxious if he's if he's out in the car i've done theory tests driving tests speed awareness tests i'm not sure what else there is to do that would make me curtail my driving scary 90 of us believe that we are above average drivers which is of course impossible like jason though 85 of us admit to acting aggressively in our cars what are you doing tailgating cutting up and screaming at other drivers so why do we act like this anonymity plays a big role you feel secluded within your vehicle other people you can't necessarily see within their vehicle so it might mean that even the most mild-mannered individual on the road would have the propensity to let anger boil over into some sort of aggression and when it's our territory that's being threatened the anger gets very personal indeed many people take territoriality into their car so although they're on a public road their car is part of their territory therefore any threats any perceived aggressive driving towards them might be taken more seriously so is it possible to spot a potentially territorial and aggressive driver before things get nasty people who tend to have greater territoriality within their vehicles will often adorn their vehicles so in america has been a study to show that bumper stickers for instance correlate with instance of road rage similarly ornaments in cars spoilers personalized plates these are the sort of things that mark out someone as having greater territoriality in relation to their car and which might mean that they are more prone to road rage the likeliest road rage culprits are men aged between 35 and 50 and driving blue bmws a demographic jason fits into perfectly what are you doing by and large on the whole aggressive people out there on the road are typically aggressive in life in fact great britain is home to some of the angriest drivers in the whole world with a third of us experiencing an aggressive road rage incident every single week cars certainly level the playing field in terms of let's say physical discrepancies between potential protagonists when you're in the car you might feel that you are cushioned from the social consequences of any actions that you do and then it turns out that actually this chaps rather a big chat so that anonymity can break down very quickly for the majority of us road rage means a bit of swearing and some creative sign language but if you do come up against an aggressive and angry driver the solution is simple be polite apologize and get out of their way then you won't be involved when it all goes wrong for them what are you doing after seeing jason's aggressive driving on public roads we took him to our private road network in suffolk he thinks he's simply here for a day's intensive tuition with advanced driving instructor ian palmer so as i'm saying i really want you to start thinking about your safety that's the most important thing isn't it it says he's unaware he'll be involved in a crash and with ian alongside him jason's on best behavior tell you what doing really well with this car he shows that beneath the aggression there's actually a considerate and competent driver do you know why i think you're doing really well because i'm probably more concentrating on the car because there's less distractions good and you're using both hands yes yes even david who's come to watch is surprised he never pulls away from the lights that slowly but how will jason cope when he comes face to face with his own dangerous driving\n"