The Stress of Daily Driving - Buffalo State College



According to Gulian, Glendon, Matthews, Davies and Debney (1990), driver stress has become a major concern in European communities, given that more than half of the European workforce commute to work via private automobile. Specifically, the negative effects of driver stress have been demonstrated through increased physical symptoms (e.g. work absenteeism), psychological symptoms (e.g. disrupted mood and aggression), and performance difficulties (e.g. occupational accidents and reduced productivity). For some drivers, stress can result from a general dislike of driving, where they come to view driving as a generally stressful event. For other drivers, it is specific events rather than the act of driving itself that leads to stress.

Gulian et al. (1990) have chosen to focus on the general stress experiences in their research and developed a diary method in order to explore the personal and situational factors that people experience, either while driving or from events outside of driving, that might increase the general tendency to view driving as stressful. Their past research has found that some drivers are more likely than others to develop a general stressful tendency concerning driving, and that personal characteristics like a desire for control, can increase driver stress levels even more (Gulian, Matthews, Glendon, Davies, & Debney, 1989). The diary consisted of questions about the journey (e.g. congestion level, types of roads), current problems at home/work, current health, and quality of sleep. Drivers were then asked about their feelings while driving and before leaving work, and then allowed to provide open ended comments about their daily experiences with driving, work, and leisure. Their results argued that driver stress can be very complicated because it was related to negative driving experiences, such as traffic jams and being in a hurry, and also to problems outside the driving environment, including lack of sleep and work fatigue.

I believe that Gulian et al. (1990) apply a great deal to my life because I drive for almost an hour every day and typically find driving to be fairly stressful. Upon looking at my own experiences over the past few days, I have seen that it is not only the act of driving itself that makes me stressed while driving, but some of the things that have happened at work or home. For example, one day last week I had to drive to Niagara Falls for 6:00 PM and was supposed to get off work in Buffalo at 5:00 PM, which would have given me plenty of time to reach my destination. However, another employee was late coming in to work and I had to stay to cover. As a result, I did not get to leave work until nearly 5:30 which gave me half an hour to drive a 25 minute trip. The problem was that my anxiety levels were climbing with every minute that they were late because I knew I would now be pressed for time. When I finally got to leave, the traffic to Niagara Falls was somewhat busy and now my stress levels were much higher than normal because of the time crunch created by my delays at work.

Just as Gulian et al. (1990) argued, my stress was influenced by a combination of personal factors, driving events, and non-driving events. The personal factor is my desire to be in control of things and so I do not like to be late. In this example, my coworker (a non-driving factor) was controlling my time, so I felt rushed and anxious. Once I got on the 190, the actual traffic was slower than usual (a driving factor) so my anxiousness increased even more. My stress kept getting higher as the trip went on. I started to try things to go faster, but they did not work, making me feel even more out of control. When I finally got to my destination I was completely stressed out and did not have a very good time. The next morning, I felt more tired and irritated when driving back into work, which could easily have been due to the bad experience the night before. In sum, I believe that Gulian et al. (1990) were right because driving stress really is influenced by a complex mix of personal, driving and non-driving factors.

References

Gulian, E., Glendon, A. I., Matthews, G., Davies, D. R., & Debney, L. M. (1990). The stress of driving: A diary study. Work and Stress, 4, 7-16.

Gulian, E., Matthews, G., Glendon, A. I., Davies, D. R., & Debney, L. M. (1989). Dimensions of driver stress. Ergonomics, 32, 585-602.

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