Interstate anger
By Kelly Young

In 430 B.C., the philosopher Sophocles wrote this fictional account in Oedipus Rex:

But as this charioteer lurched over towards me
I struck him in my rage. The old man saw me
And brought his double goad down upon my head
As I came abreast. He was paid back, and more!
Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him
Out of his car, and he rolled on the ground.
I killed him…. I killed them all.

Twenty-four centuries later, people are still battling on the highways, but their chariots now have the power of 240 horses and their weapons are more deadly than double goads and clubs. The road rage problem is growing as roads around the world become more congested. From 1999 to 2004, the number of bottlenecks on America’s roads increased 40 percent, according to a recent study by the American Highway Users Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group. Scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a study last year showing that on more congested roads, researchers recorded more cases of aggressive driving than on less congested roads.

Researchers have typically described road rage as a psychological problem with a psychological, or even psychiatric, solution. Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto recently reported in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry that repeat road ragers frequently have psychiatric problems, including high levels of anxiety, stress and depression. They also tend to drink more than non-ragers. People convicted of road rage are often ordered to complete anger management or anti-aggressive driving programs. Self-help books and audiocassettes offer breathing techniques and prayers designed to help drivers relax so they don’t take a crowbar to someone’s windshield.

But new technology addresses the road rage problem from the car’s point of view. Rather than focusing on a person’s ability to control his emotions, companies are “road rage-proofing” their vehicles.

One approach is to remind drivers that the highway is jammed with other people, not just...