Avoiding Road Rage

Driving can become frustrating at times. It is important to focus on your response to that frustration. Otherwise, aggressive driving can take over.

The AAA Foundation estimated how many drivers “engaged in the following angry and aggressive behaviors during the previous year”:

  • Purposefully tailgating: 51 percent (104 million drivers)
  • Yelling at another driver: 47 percent (95 million drivers)
  • Honking to show annoyance or anger: 45 percent (91 million drivers)
  • Making angry gestures: 33 percent (67 million drivers)
  • Trying to block another vehicle from changing lanes: 24 percent (49 million drivers)
  • Cutting off another vehicle on purpose: 12 percent (24 million drivers)
  • Getting out of the vehicle to confront another driver: 4 percent (8 million drivers)
  • Bumping or ramming another vehicle on purpose: 3 percent (6 million drivers)

Road rage is an extreme case of aggressive driving.

It may come to a surprise to you to learn that, “more than 10,000 road rage incidents committed over seven years, and found they resulted in at least 218 murders and another 12,610 injury cases” (AAA). 

Things can get unnecessarily nasty when it comes to road rage. 

Here are a few tips to follow if another driver gets aggressive: 

  1. Stay Away
  2. Do no reciprocate and or respond
  3. Try to be tolerant
  4. Don’t stop