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Motorists are under permanent stress
DPA

London/Hamburg, Oct 6 (DPA) Recent studies have confirmed that two-thirds of motorists suffer from permanent stress as they torture their way through endless traffic jams with blood pressure rising in anger over situations they cannot control.

Driver assistance systems can, however, do a lot to reduce stress and several car manufacturers already have technology available in their top of the range models that makes driving to work a lot easier.

A recent British study has even found that commuters can experience greater stress than fighter pilots going into battle or riot policemen.

The stress is exacerbated by the fact that motorists are seldom in a position to control their situation as they sit waiting behind the wheel in a traffic jam with time for an important appointment slipping away, the study found.

The Austrian automobile club (OeAMTC) and the Cologne Research Institute Psychonomics came to a similar conclusion as the study conducted by British stress expert David Lewis. However, it also found that nine out of 10 motorists would not like to swap their car for other transport like the train or bus.

Every new traffic situation has the blood pressure and pulse rate rising but most stress triggered by anger is over the behaviour of other motorists, according to the Austrian study.

In principle, higher alertness and muscle tension prepare the body for quick reaction and a new situation, according to stress experts. But long car trips also lead to exhaustion and tiredness. Lewis even identified a so-called "commuter amnesia" where people forget large parts of their journey because of stress.

The German Centre for Traffic Sciences (IZVW) in Wuerzburg has found that professional road construction management can significantly reduce traffic jams and improve road safety.

Advanced warning systems and inter-vehicle communication technology, where cars learn to communicate using laser, ultrasound and video-imaging systems, will also do a lot to reduce congestion in future.

One example is German marque Mercedes, which claims that the technology in its new S-Class significantly reduces driver stress compared to other cars.

The S-Class is equipped with the distance control 'Distronic Plus' that controls distance to the car in front in the speed range zero to 200 km per hour. The system brakes the car automatically as it nears the vehicle in front and accelerates when traffic starts moving again in traffic jams.

In a recent test conducted in Germany, drivers on the Berlin-Leipzig-Dresden-Berlin route were presented with typical stress factors. The average heartbeat of those drivers in the Mercedes was five beats per minute lower than that of the other drivers, largely because of the immense improvement in driver assistance systems.

The S-Class is also fitted with a radar-based park assistance system that helps the driver manoeuvre into a parking gap down to the centimetre and warns of obstacles 11 metres ahead. Radar-based night vision especially improves vision and warns drivers on lonely country roads of animals or other obstacles up ahead.

But electronic assistance systems will never change human nature. A row with the spouse, problems at work and the other stresses caused by modern life often play a role in traffic behaviour with drivers giving vent to their frustration by blowing the horn and showing general disrespect towards other motorists.

Kay Schulte of the German road safety association (DVR) advises such motorists to pull aside for two or three minutes and, if nothing else helps, to let out an ear-splitting scream.