Does driving encourage narcissistic and sociopathic behavior? Is this a problem of negligence or lack of empathy? What can be done?

It’s summer now, so I’ve been opening my window to cool off my room. Sadly, my room faces a mixed use, mainly residential, thru street. Usually, the street is pretty quiet, except for a few things: idiots playing terrible music on car stereos not designed to handle it, horn honking, and car alarms.

I probably wouldn’t even be asking this question, except the antisocial behavior of drivers hardly stops there. Many drivers seem utterly indifferent to the needs of other human beings. I recently decided to ride a bike for my own health and to save on transportation costs ($89/month for a transit pass here). I follow the rules, but I frequently get cut off, often negligently and dangerously. I find drivers often do stupid and risky things even when I’m a pedestrian, but it seems that as a biker they should at least be a little more cautious because, like it or not, bikers have no choice but to share the road with drivers.

I used to chalk the problem up to incompetence (Americans just don’t learn to drive, no matter how much we depend on it), but now I’m not so sure. These days I really think indifference to the world outside a person’s Hummer or Chevy Suburban is simply a matter of lack of empathy. Being halted for a moment behind someone at a traffic light hardly seems like a reason to blare a horn that drowns out the entire block, and I can’t imagine anyone’s trip is so important that the seconds it takes to yield to a biker with right-of-way are precious.

Is antisocial driving behavior exclusively a product of how we live? Is it an issue of urban planning? What can be done, if anything, about it? Could more car-free lifestyles encourage empathetic behavior?