The Jean-Paul Sartre play No Exit isn't about a bad driving experience. But the most famous line of this existential work, "Hell is other people," comes close to summing up the sentiments expressed by many Club members about their fellow motorists.

Consider the hard-edged words of Robert L. Delmonico, a resident of Merrick, as he fired off a three-page letter to Car & Travel last year, bemoaning the fact that so many drivers "have utter disregard for the law...are discourteous....oblivious to what is around them...don't know the rules of the road" and, perhaps most damning of all, "just don't care."

Each year Car & Travel's editors receive hundreds of letters complaining about the state of affairs on today's highways. Some are provoked by jarring potholes, blinding headlights and misleading highway signs. Other traditional targets include triple-jackknifing truckers and money-grabbing toll-takers. Yet in the past 12 months or so, Club members responding either to an article in this magazine or an unpleasant roadside experience have reserved their harshest judgment for other drivers.

Many do more than just complain about the present state of affairs. They call for greater police enforcement, heavier penalties for traffic violators, stricter licensing procedures and the like. Delmonico, for example, offered a 15-step program to address the problem, from repealing Right on Red to installing surveillance cameras on highways. But underlying many of their views is the notion that what is needed most is an attitude shift by drivers.

Discipline Problem

The thread that runs through many letters is that the greatest threat to motorist safety these days is the deterioration not of our roadways and bridges, but individual driving discipline.

"When I first learned how to drive," writes Jeffrey L. Cohen of Wantagh, "I was told that driving is a privilege, not a right. This was over 20 years ago. Today, I see people driving whose privilege should be taken away from them. Remember when the yellow light meant slow down? Now it means speed up,and when the light turns red, the next two cars can go through the intersection."

Similarly, Michael Marrero of Elmhurst, in an e-mail, asks: "Have the rules changed? Thirty-five years ago, when I received my license, a big part of the written test was based on the Right of Way. And putting on your signal meant that you intended to make a turn, change lanes or enter a highway when traffic was clear and it was safe to do so. It did not mean, 'Ready or not, here I come.'"

Louise J. Mastromarco of Flushing, who in a letter identifies herself as a 60-year-old woman with 44 years of driving experience, concurs with this sentiment. "Today, it's different out there," she sadly concludes, as she takes motorists to task for failing to use their turn signals.

Shared Concerns

Don't make the mistake of branding these writers as a bunch of grumpy old motorists, who have let nostalgia shape their conclusion that today's drivers are a less disciplined lot.

Sgt. Lou Dini of the Suffolk County Highway Patrol, who specializes in traffic enforcement, says, "Yes, I've noticed a decline in people's courtesy to each other-tailgating and other common infractions." He believes one reason is that "more people are under pressure. They have so much on their minds that they are driving with divided attention." He also makes the interesting observation that the practice of tinting windshields (some beyond the legal limit) deprives motorists of the ability to make eye contact, so necessary in acknowledging each other's existence and communicating intentions.

Last year, New York State's Department of Motor Vehicles championed legislation, now in effect, that promotes public consciousness-raising on two manifestations of motorist misbehavior-aggressive driving and road rage. It requires inclusion of these subjects on prospective drivers' written tests, in DMV's driver's manual and in the curriculum of pre-licensing and defensive-driving courses.

An instructor for one of those defensive-driving courses is Al Tetta, a Club traffic safety specialist who teaches AAA's Driver Improvement Program (DIP). "There is a growing lack of courtesy, part of it the result of society's fast and stressful pace," he says, echoing Sgt. Dini's comments. "This shows up more and more as aggressive driving and even road rage. We've reached the point where some drive in fear of not knowing what the other driver is going to do to them."

Those are not simply his views, he points out, but those of the students who take his DIP course for insurance premium discounts or point reductions on their driving records. The students-whether they have been driving for five years or half a century-all seem to agree that the greatest dangers they face on the road today come from drivers who go through stop signs and traffic lights, speed, tailgate, weave in and out of travel lanes and talk on cell phones or otherwise engage in distracted behavior. And these observations match up nearly perfectly with what the state regards as the leading contributors to crashes, he says.

Aggravating the situation, many readers tell Car & Travel, has been the emergence of sport-utility vehicles and cell phones.

Perhaps nowhere have members crossed swords with more passion in recent years than over the SUV. Its critics complain not only about the view-blocking height and poor fuel-economy performance of the vehicles, but the attitudes of those who sit behind the wheel. "Many drivers of SUVs have an arrogance about them-perhaps from the feelings of power these oversized cars bring," wrote Phyllis Bonder of Sea Cliff in a letter published last year.

The popular SUVs also have their spirited and unapologetic defenders. Shelly Nakdimen of Monsey writes: "The 'letter rage' against SUVs is un-American in not allowing people freedom to choose the car they prefer to drive. It's probably rooted in jealousy. It's not the SUV that causes accidents, but the drivers of both the SUV and the small cars who do not drive safely."

Unlike SUV owners, cell phone users are subject to special restrictions in New York State, which no longer permits talking on hand-held devices while driving. The regulation, however, hasn't stemmed criticism of talk-and-drive phone users.

"The only change I've seen [since the ban went into effect in November 2001] is people holding the phone in their right hand (so their phone use is not as obvious) and driving with their left," writes Greta S. Fischer of Oceanside.

Widespread use of the cell phone may also partly explain why so many drivers have forsaken the turn signal, suggests Andrew A. Lambert of Eastchester. "People drive with one hand on the wheel and another on the cell phone. How does the driver signal a turn? Obviously, he or she doesn't." (Mrs. Mastromarco offered a simpler explanation: "I think drivers are lazy.")

Car & Travel readers have noticed that the turn signal is not the only piece of car equipment motorists often fail to employ at appropriate times, as required by law.

"On my rainy-day travel on Route 22 from Yorktown to Peekskill," reports R.J. Smith of Cortlandt Manor, "I counted more than 55 cars that had their wipers on, but no headlights." And writes Dorothea Mier of Spring Valley: "It's infuriating how many vehicles do not have their lights on in bad weather. Maybe they can see, but they need even more for others to see them."

Aiding and Abetting

When it comes to reckless driving, some readers argue that those who build the vehicles are not blameless for today's reckless behavior behind the wheel.

"When will the automobile industry take responsibility for much of the carnage on our roads?" asks Joan Holmes of Babylon. "They show cars [in TV commercials] speeding, weaving, driving down the center of curved roads, sliding through mud and crashing through underbrush,all accompanied by frenzied, loud, fast- music."

Richard Polgar of Maspeth also castigates the "irresponsible" commercials that depict "driving on winding, rain-slick mountain roads at unrealistic speeds or racing through woods and streams without the least care for anyone or anything in their path."

Law enforcement should be charged, too, with aiding and abetting motorist indiscretions, writes Larry A. Kayser of Wantagh. "How many times have we seen a police car change lanes without signaling and with the driver obviously not belted up? How do we explain this to our children?"

Sam Foo of Brooklyn, in his e-mail, goes so far as to suggest that, when it comes to red-light running, maybe we can dispense with officers on the beat. "I've noticed that at intersections where red light cameras are located, there is a very high degree of compliance with the traffic law. It's like having a police officer at the intersection."

The Club's Tetta emphasizes self-improvement, particularly through stress reduction, in his defensive driving class. Rest, a reliable and comfortable car, skill improvements and choosing a less problematic, if longer, route to work can reduce tension and make for better driving.

"What is needed most out there," he says, "is an attitude adjustment. Each one needs to work on it."

No less an existential hero than Walt Kelly's Pogo may have summed it all up: "We have met the enemy and he is us."