Anger Expressions of Bus Drivers and Passengers during Conflicts on the Bus

Abstract

Conflicts often occur between bus drivers and passengers or among passengers, leading to dangerous situations while driving. However, tools to explore drivers’ and passengers’ forms of anger expression are lacking. This paper describes the development of a bus passenger anger expression inventory (BPAX) and a bus driver anger expression inventory (BDAX) based on a 402 passenger sample and a 414 driver sample. Exploratory principal component analysis revealed five factors in the BPAX: verbal aggressive expression, verbal positive expression, personal physical aggressive expression, adaptive/constructive expression, and displaced aggression. Similarly, six factors were identified in the BDAX: verbal positive expression, use of the vehicle to express anger, verbal aggressive expression, adaptive/constructive expression, personal physical aggressive expression, and displaced aggression. Overall, gender showed a difference only in aggressive expressions of passenger anger, not in drivers’ anger expressions. Older, less educated, and lower-income passengers preferred to express anger aggressively and rarely relieved conflicts in a positive verbal way. For driver groups, differences in age, anger level, and city grade were reflected in their forms of anger expression. The results of this paper are significant for strengthening driver safety training, improving safety facilities in buses, enhancing passenger education on civilized riding, and perfecting laws and regulations.