DALLAS – Rubbernecking isn’t the problem. It’s slowing down that gets you in a jam.

Anyone who’s spent hours inching along in traffic only to discover the cause of the slowdown is an abandoned car on the median or an accident on the other side of the freeway understands the frustrations of rubbernecking.

But experts say it’s perfectly natural – and a good idea – to pay attention to things going on around you while driving. Just don’t slam on the brakes to do it.

Also known as “onlooker slowdown,” rubbernecking brings traffic to a halt daily on roadways across the nation, and state transportation departments are finding creative ways – think massive “gawk screens” – to keep drivers’ curious eyes from wandering.

Rubbernecking came to a head in Dallas last week when hundreds of people lined highways to watch a slow-speed police chase with a semi truck roll through three counties.

Many people left their homes after seeing the chase on TV and parked along the route so they could watch it firsthand.

While the impulse to see the spectacle was natural – we’re a curious species and drawn to the unusual – it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to drive to the scene, said psychologist Lori Rice of the Transportation Safety Training Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The semi’s hijacker had a gun and no one knew where he was headed, although those who went to the scene probably felt they were watching the filming of a television show rather than the progression of a real-life drama.

“People don’t understand this is a dangerous situation. This is a safety issue,” Rice said. “They’re clogging traffic, creating a safety hazard and, perhaps, obstructing justice for the police.”

But it doesn’t take something as dramatic as a police chase to entice someone to brake for a better look, which forces everyone behind to slow down and can cause rear-endings or potentially deadly accidents.

Anything out of the ordinary – an abandoned car, construction crew or even a new sign – can spark human nosiness and a chain reaction of brake-pedal use, said Michael Kissel of the California Department of Transportation.

‘Gawk screens’

In California, they’ve been using “gawk screens” – plyboard shields fitted on a safety rail – to block drivers’ views of construction crews for years. Kissel said the screens keep traffic moving, decrease the number of accidents and keep construction workers safer. “We want people to focus on the road, and especially the people in front of them,” he said.

Harry Teng, now a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, published a report on rubbernecking and traffic flow in 2004.

He studied traffic on the side of the road opposite from where a traffic incident occurred. He found that 10 percent of accidents caused rubbernecking on the other side of the street and reduced road capacity by an average of 13 percent.

He also discovered that rubbernecking was less common in the mornings when people are rushing to work and more frequent in the evenings when they are headed home.

Teng’s conclusion wasn’t jaw dropping: “People need to focus on the road.”

Rick Phillips of the Washington State Department of Transportation, which is also experimenting with shields to block drivers’ view, said it’s important to make a distinction between slowing for safety and slowing for curiosity.

Texas law requires drivers to obey slower speed signs in work zones.

“You want people being cautious on the roadway,” said the incident response program manager.

But once you’ve seen a problem, evaluated it and determined it to be non-threatening – a survival instinct that can take place in microseconds – it’s important to keep moving, Rice said.

“It’s a natural response to turn and look, but you’ve got to return back to the driving task,” she said. “It’s something you’ve got to train yourself to do.”

That’s why psychologist Leon James wrote the book “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” to help people understand their own driving motivations.

“You can look at accidents, just don’t slow down,” said James, who teaches driving psychology classes at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Just like you can drink, just don’t drink and drive.”


Matt Scofield, 27, who commutes from Irving, to Fort Worth, Texas, said onlooker slowdown reduces him to a crawl at least twice a week.

He wonders what’s so interesting about an abandoned car or a blinking light that people need to slow down to stare at it.

“It’s so easy to not think of other people when you are alone in the car,” said the Web designer. “You are in a box and your actions have little repercussions, but there’s a guy like me just 100 feet behind you fuming.”

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(c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News.

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