According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 54 percent of law enforcement officers who responded to a survey conducted in all 50 states believe road rage is a major problem.
I’m here to tell you from personal experience that for some, road rage isn’t just a problem. At least with BYU students whom I’ve encountered, I believe it’s an educationally — afflicted epidemic.
Over fall break, in line with the University of Utah’s strong emphasis on family values and fun, I took my mom to see a concert in Las Vegas. On both legs of the trip, I saw more Utah travelers than I expected. Recognizing cars from Utah was easy — I just looked for any of our state’s license plates. What became more interesting was to note which Utah cars had BYU license plate holders versus Utah cars’ license plate holders that were from the good ol’ U. My mom’s car falls into the latter category because I attend the U, and my mom displays her pride in my attendance at the U with a U license plate holder on her car.
Before my Vegas trip, I’d never really been harassed while driving my car — even when I’d drive to work in Provo. On this trip, however, my mom and I experienced so much negative treatment from BYU — identifying drivers that I can only attribute it to our schools’ rivalry, set off by her U license plate holder.
On the drive to and from Vegas, I saw many other U-identifying cars. We’d wave at each other, smiling happily as we recognized our common bond: the good, the right, the red…the U. It was my observation that drivers with U license plate holders allowed us to pass them, were nice and in general considerate to us.
Contrarily, almost without fail, every time we were tailgated or honked at on our trip, it was by the driver of a car with a BYU license plate holder. On my trip, my experience was that all of BYU — identifying drivers were rude, exceeded the speed limit consistently and tailgated us and other U — identifying cars until they moved out of their way and let them pass.
I would like to attribute the road rage we experienced with these drivers to something other than their school affiliation, but I have a hard time believing there’s any other reason but school affiliation behind these BYU-ers’ road rage.
Having worked and lived in Provo for many years, I know that BYU is a stifling environment that is largely devoid of fashion sense, driving ability and football prowess, among other things. (Well, recently BYU’s football record might not match my opinion, but we know the U’s football team is just better, as we will prove soon.) I guess going to a school like BYU could make me a cranky driver, too. For heaven’s sake, if you’re going to go to a school that strives to have all of its students live by and adhere to an Honor Code that emphasizes “consideration of others in personal behavior,” shouldn’t that include being considerate and not committing road rage while driving — even against cars from your rival school?
I would submit to you that tailgating, speeding and rudely honking at other drivers, simply because you know in your heart or you’re jealous that they go to a superior educational institution (the U), is not “personal behavior in consideration of others.”
In the end, my mother and I followed our own kind of Honor Code by finding forgiveness, pity and understanding for the BYU road-ragers. After all, they do go to BYU. Although I know not all BYU students and alumni drive this way, and some U students probably commit road rage against BYU drivers sometimes themselves, my recent driving experience did nothing but confirm my belief that I’m at the right school for the right reasons: great students, education and football that far surpass those at BYU.
The next time you fall victim to a BYU road-rager, please remember and adhere to the unofficial U Honor Code: to act at all times in a manner that evinces what the U stands for and the U’s superiority to our blue-schooled rivals. That means being the bigger person and not committing road rage, because that would make you and the rest of us at the U look bad. For the benefit of the rest of us U drivers, please don’t perpetuate a negative image for us as the BYU drivers caused me to have about BYU on my last trip. Just stay calm, remember the unofficial U driving Honor Code and revel in the inner knowledge that we’re better than BYU — in driving, football and pretty much everything else. This might mean that you can only think about honking at the car passing by with the BYU license plate holder and not actually do it even when you want to. Just remember to do mental honks, friends. Mental honks.