Corrections or additions?
This article by Bart Jackson was prepared for the January 30, 2002
edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Curbing Road Rage
Oh merciful heavens, dear, that misguided
man up ahead, just swept right in front of me without signaling and
now has slammed on his brakes inches from my bumper. I do pray the
poor soul is not ill.” Is this your reaction to the little
vagaries
of your fellow travelers along Route 1? Statistically not. The
Insurance
Council of New Jersey claims the odds are much more likely that you
will ignore all your Zen mentor’s teachings, become very human, and
loudly call that individual’s parentage into question.
Those interested in learning just how well we are controlling our
emotions on the road — and the exact price of our anger —
should attend the “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” seminar
at the monthly dinner meeting of the Insurance Women of Mercer County,
on Wednesday, February 5, at 5:30 p.m. at Freddie’s Tavern, 12
Railroad
Street, West Trenton. The featured speaker is Rachel Enoch,
consumer education and research supervisor for the New Jersey
Insurance
Council. She sets down the facts, and helps create an accurate picture
of our behind-the-wheel habits. Cost: $20, including dinner. Call
Bonnie Adams at 609-883-1300.
The Insurance Women of Mercer County, a chapter of the national
organization,
includes women from life, auto, health, and all other branches of
insurance. It invites adjusters, bill payers, agents, file clerks
— anyone except vendors — to join. The group has
first-Wednesday
monthly dinner meetings.
A new traffic light goes up in America every 31 seconds. Most of our
interstate highways reached their safe and effective capacity in the
early-1970s. It is indeed an asphalt jungle out there, particularly
in our own Garden State. Yet despite it all, you will probably never
fall into a fit of real road rage. The example of the North Jersey
man who in response to a fender bender, leapt from his car, dragged
out the offender, and beat him senseless remains rare.
Road rage is, after all, the extreme. The law defines and punishes
it as a criminal offense entailing a deliberate assault by a driver
on human or moving auto; or an assault following some traffic-induced
altercation. “This may not be your style,” points out speaker
Enoch, “But the seeds of it lie in us all.”
Aggressive driving includes such dangerous discourtesies as
tailgating,
improper lane changes, and drag racing off a traffic light. Enoch
grew up in Randolph, received a bachelor’s from Richmond University
and a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania. Recently she
and others from the Insurance Council of New Jersey sought to
determine
the extent of aggressive driving habits in our state.
Sampling a broad spectrum of New Jersey motorists, the council
administered
the Larson Drivers’ Stress Test. Developed by Yale University’s John
Larson, the test is designed to gauge relative degrees of Impatience,
Anger, Competition, and Punishing Behavior. The results proved that
the urge to surge dwells in more than the rare crazy whose rage makes
the news.
Impatience. Rated on a frequency scale of “always”to “never,” drivers were asked how often they became visiblyupset while e.g. waiting for a parking place, encountering slowdriversor falling behind in your personal schedule. Less than one half ratedthemselves at always or highly impatient. (Viewed the other way, ourstate’s impatience glass is nearly half full.)Anger. Do you express visible anger toward drivers whoe.g. slow down in front of you for no reason; cut you off or dragslowly, well below the speed limit, or make unexpected stops? Hereis where New Jersey tempers truly shone with well over 50 per centdisplaying high-to-moderate amounts of anger at those annoying,deserving#$@*&.Competition. Do you compete with yourself? e.g. “Imade this trip yesterday in 20 minutes, and today I’m alreadybehind.”How about beating the other fellow through the toll booth? Do youever race, or push the pedal just a little towards the limit at astop light to beat out the driver in the next lane? Apparently only30 percent of Garden State drivers admitted to such frequentbehaviors.Punishing Behavior. For any clumsy motorist’s offensedo you respond with a curse or some digitally symbolic gesture? Ormaybe you go a bit further by flashing your lights at this inept soul,blocking her, or riding her tail — only when its necessary? Well,you are in good company. Forty percent of those surveyed frequentlydisplayed moderate-or- more amounts of such punishing behavior, with10 percent ranging into the high category.Since 1990 over 13 million Americans have been killed orseverelyinjured due to aggressive driving accidents. New Jersey’s 4.8 millionregistered vehicles have unfortunately held up their bitter end. Of280,000 accidents annually, the Insurance Council claims, one thirdare due to aggressive driving.”One thing this survey proved,” says Enoch., “is thataggressive driving spreads wider than any possible profile.” Theold myth about young boys under 25 in red cars doing 95 percent ofthe tailgating has proven to be exactly that. Old and young show thesame anger “and there are a lot of mommies hiding behind theirgreat big SUVs. They are as guilty as men.”Solutions are not simple. Certainly, if you see an aggressive drivercoming, Enoch’s advice of putting your pride in the back seat remainssensible. Also, it wouldn’t display a loss of personal power if youmoved over for that person behind who wanted to speed on a littlefaster. And if she really gets obnoxious, you can grab your cell phoneand report her to the #77 hotline set up by Congressman Franks. Butin the end, we might all live a little longer by paying attentionto our own tranquility.A few years ago, my friend on the way to Princeton Medical Centerwas suddenly cut off by a thoughtless motorist pulling into anintersectionin Cranbury. Both cars halted in time to avoid any damage. Yet myfriend flung open his door, and began slamming his fists on theoffendingauto’s hood.Granted, my friend was on his way to visit his recently stricken wifeand discuss her upcoming brain surgery. His new job demanded a commuteto Washington, D.C., and gave him enough hours on the road. He hadhad it. He was large, powerful and surely must have terrified theolder lady inside the car he was assaulting.In the end, he exhausted his arms and his anger, and retreated. Withinseveral minutes, my friend resumed the manners of a gentleman thathave been his habitual trademark. At the time, I personally had neverheld a driver’s license and did not really understand all his fuss.But today, having spent the last two years behind this magic wheel,I recall those other drivers who have cut me off and realize thatthere, but for a few bad circumstances, rage I.— Bart JacksonTop Of Page`Free’ Money?Entrepreneurs — if you are ogling the pot of”free”money that the government dishes out to promising technology firms,look far forward into the future. It’s one thing to get a grant todevelop your technology, and it’s quite another to fulfill therequirementsof that grant.Take the Small Business Innovation Research program. These grantsrequire the entrepreneur to take a discovery out of the laboratoryand into the marketplace. It must go commercial.Only by going commercial can you make the big money. SBIR grants canyield $100,000 for the first phase and $750,000 for the second phase.But typical profits for the first and second phases generally runat seven percent. For the really good money, the entrepreneur mustget to Phase III.How to get to Phase III is the topic for a workshop on SBIR PhaseII Proposal Preparation, presented by the Newark-based TechnologyCommercialization Center (TCC). Gail and Jim Greenwood willlead the workshop on Tuesday, February 5, at 8:30 a.m. at Rutgers’Cook College campus center in New Brunswick. Cost: $60. Call973-353-1923(E-mail: scitech@yourbizpartner.com or www.yourbizpartner.com/scitech)SBIR is the federal government’s largest R&D grants program targetedto the small business community, says Randy Harmon, director of theTCC. “It is inarguably the best source of risk capital availableto help fund the development of promising new technologies. And theodds for the SBIR grants are very good, one in eight for Phase I andtwo in five for Phase II.”The workshop will teach Phase I winners and applicants more aboutthe second phase of the SBIR/STTR programs — how Phase II differsfrom Phase I, how the Phase II programs vary tremendously among theagencies, and how to prepare the Phase II proposal.Harmon’s Technology Commercialization Center (TCC) is part of theNew Jersey Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC) of RutgersGraduateSchool of Management. Along with the law firm Hale & Dorr, the TCCCis also putting together an advisory board to help Phase II companiesjump the commercialization hurdle.”Historically, not enough technology has been commercialized,”says Harmon. “We have companies that are SBIR factories. Theycan crank out the proposals but are not as strong at commercializingthe technologies. But the federal agencies have been putting moreemphasis on the commercialization plans.”The College Road-based law firm is collaborating with Harmon to findpersonnel for the advisory board in such areas as accounting, finance,and marketing. Companies in this program provide the board memberswith a good executive summary of their plans and then meet with theboard for about an hour. “We are starting off reviewing thecommercializationplans of those who already have the Phase II grants,” says Harmon,”but we also hope to open it up to companies who are stilldevelopingtheir Phase II proposal.”Top Of PageVCs: Not All AlikeJoe Allegra, partner in the Edison Venture Fundat 1009 Lenox Drive, has been on both sides of the table. A venturecapitalist for just about a year, he spent most of the 1990s as ahigh-tech entrepreneur, founding software company Princeton Softech,and building it into a 60-person company. Princeton Softech waspurchasedfor $43 million in 1998 by Computer Horizons. Allegra stayed on fora while as the company’s president before trying on a VC’s suit ona trial basis. Discovering how much he enjoyed talking with theentrepreneurswho brought their ideas to the Edison Venture Fund, he signed on fulltime one year ago.Allegra speaks on “The Secret Language of Venture Capital”at a New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network meeting Wednesday, February6, at noon at the Doral Forrestal. Cost: $45. Call 856-787-7900.The main thing eager entrepreneurs tend not to understand aboutventurecapital, says Allegra, is that it is a business with a goal identicalto that of any other business — to make money. But while thatgoal is universal, different VC firms pursue it in different ways.Commonalities include the fact that VC firms manage funds thatgenerallyare invested for a period of 10 years. According to Allegra, mostof the firms’ investors “look for the ability to go to about threeto five times the money they put in.” Tenfold returns are evenbetter, but, says Allegra, “in the real world, companies don’tgo straight up.” Even modest challenges can reduce returns. Largerchallenges, like the ones that cropped up during the past severalyears, caused more than a few VCs to lose all their money.More careful now, VC firms look first of all for a strong businessmodel, says Allegra. But no business model is perfect, so managementteams, which will have to keep making real-world corrections to theplan, are given a close look.Beyond the common goal of making a lot of money from backing start-upswith solid plans and talented management, VC firms differ in waysentrepreneurs approaching them need to know.”We take companies with revenues of $2 to $15 million,” saysAllegra. His firm’s goal is to grow these companies into enterpriseswith revenues of $50 to $250 million. Other firms specialize inpre-revenuecompanies, early stage companies, or well-developed companies.”We’rein expansion stage companies,” Allegra says of Edison. “Wegenerally invest $3 million.” Other VC firms, he says, put injust a fraction of that amount, while others like to invest $10millionor more.Before approaching VCs, an entrepreneur needs to think about hiscompany’sstage, and how much cash it needs to get to the next stage.Perhaps more important, young companies need to think about what theyexpect from their venture capital partner. Some VCs just pour inmoney,says Allegra, while others, like his firm, take an active mentoringrole.Geography plays a role in narrowing the field of VC firms, too,especiallyin choosing among those that take an active role in the companiesin which they invest. Many venture capitalists stay close to theirown backyards, the better to interact with the management teams oftheir portfolio companies. Edison, for example, invests in companiesin the Mid-Atlantic region, stretching from New Jersey — oroccasionallyNew York City — south to Virginia.New Jersey, Allegra says, is under-served by VCs. Only 10 to 15percentof venture capital money raised in New Jersey stays in-state, he says.By way of comparison, 60 percent of the money raised in Californiastays put. “But,” Allegra observes, “there are as manyhigh tech companies here.”He sees the number of new tech enterprises only growing as largecompaniesstagnate or downsize. What that happens, says Allegra, “the smartpeople start their own businesses.”Top Of PageCCPA’s SearchMichael Hierl, president of the Pacesetter Group, has been namedto head a national search for a successor to Ellen Hodges, whoserved as president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Princeton Areafor more than 25 years. Until she left her position one month ago,Hodges had been the only person to head the Princeton Chamber.According to a written statement, Hierl will head a search committeemade up of “leading representatives from the constituencies theChamber serves.”Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
