Have you ever honked or shouted at another driver in anger? If you said yes, you’re not alone. According to a study we conducted, in 2022 54% of people experienced road rage, and 68% of people observed more road rage in other people.
What Is Road Rage?
Road rage encompasses a variety of aggressive driving behaviors such as:
Yelling at, cursing, or making rude gestures toward another driver
Driving aggressively or refusing to allow vehicles to merge or change lanes
Swerving or attempting to swipe or damage another vehicle
Threatening another driver with a weapon
Physically assaulting another driver
Following a driver to intimidate or scare them
Threatening to damage or actually damaging a vehicle
What Causes Road Rage?
Road rage can be caused by a number of things: job stress, anxiety about home or work, the strain of living and driving in a busy urban environment, a tendency to displace anger, and stress overall.
Our survey found that 79% of respondents had their road rage triggered by anger at other drivers. Of the people more likely to get ragey due to non-driving factors, the most common triggers were work stress (63%), bad traffic or congestion (52%) and stress from issues in their personal lives (49%).
What Are the Effects of Road Rage on Your Driving Ability?
Being angry triggers your body’s stress response. This “fight or flight” response, is your body’s way of trying to handle potentially dangerous situations.
When it’s triggered, a part of the brain called the hypothalamus starts releasing hormones that increase your heart rate, tense your muscles, and quicken your breath.
And while this response was probably super helpful to early humans who had to flee from something big and fast with teeth and claws, it doesn’t serve us well in the driver’s seat.
Angry drivers tend to drive faster, leave less following distance, have a narrower scanning area, and are more likely to change lanes unnecessarily.
While leaving less following distance and driving faster may seem relatively harmless, these behaviors can escalate into more serious road rage, increasing the likelihood of a collision.
According to our study, 62% of people surveyed felt more road rage in 2022 than they had in years past. Seventy-five percent were followed by another driver after a road rage incident, and 27% were in a crash due to their own road rage.
Follow these simple tips to keep calm, drive safely, and prevent road rage from ruining your day.
5 Simple Tips to Calm Road Rage
1. Plan Ahead
Think about what causes you stress and how you can avoid those triggers. If a certain intersection is always a mess, find a different route. If there’s a highway exit where people tend to drive poorly, take an earlier exit and cruise along the access road. Maybe there’s a time of day when you’re at your worst: 59% of our survey respondents said they’re most likely to experience road rage in the morning. If you can skip driving during rush hour, for example, do that!
Make sure you have directions to your destination before you leave. Fumbling with the maps app on your phone at a red light is dangerous and stressful. Know the route beforehand and you won’t have that worry.
Leave plenty of travel time. Check how long it will take to get where you’re going and add a few extra minutes for traffic or wrong turns. Nothing dials up the stress more than the feeling of being late.
Get plenty of sleep. Not only can driving drowsy be as dangerous as driving under the influence, but it can make you impatient and easily irritated with other drivers.
2. Be Kind and Follow the Rules
Remember the Golden Rule? If everyone followed it, the roads would be much safer! Even when other drivers don’t treat you with respect or courtesy, give them the benefit of the doubt. When another driver cuts you off, and you feel your temper flare, take a few deep, slow breaths and try to let it go.
Follow the rules you learned back in drivers ed:
No tailgating.
Yield the right-of-way.
Take turns merging.
Pass on the left.
Watch out for pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers.
Use your turn signals.
A simple smile and humble wave go a long way and may even inspire other drivers to be more patient and kind. Spread the love!
3. Turn Down the Volume
If you know you tend to get antsy or frustrated while driving, have a playlist of music that chills you out ready to go if you need it.
Be sure to keep the volume to a reasonable level. Loud music can increase your chances of getting into an accident. Podcasts and audio books are great ways to entertain yourself without amping up the road rage. Or choose soothing music like softer jazz, rock, or classical.
4. Don’t Forget to Breathe
Your body has a relaxation response that is the opposite of your stress response. Abdominal breathing is an easy way to flip that relaxation switch.
When you feel road rage bubbling up, take a few deep breaths to calm yourself down. Try breathing in for three counts, holding your breath for three counts, then blowing the air out of your mouth for three counts.
It only takes a few breaths to get a nice dose of relaxation and feel a renewed sense of patience for other drivers.
5. Take a Defensive Driving Course
Our survey found that 72% of people who had experienced road rage in themselves or others this year changed their driving behaviors, and the most frequent change was taking a defensive driving class. Defensive driving will refresh your skills and teach you techniques for staying safe on the road. Knowing you have that knowledge in your back pocket can help calm your nerves when things get intense.
Taking an online course can also provide financial benefits in the form of reduced insurance rates and traffic fine reductions.
Other Drivers With Road Rage
Calming your own road rage is a fantastic goal and will make you safer on the road. But that doesn’t change the fact that other drivers can still be a threat. Our survey found that 30% of people experienced road rage from other drivers often or every time they drive, and of those drivers, 65% have felt unsafe due to another driver’s road rage.
What to Do If You Are in a Road Rage Situation
First, stay calm. Freaking out will only make things worse. Try to let the aggressive driver pass or get around you, and don’t make eye contact. If you think that someone is following you, don’t pull over, and don’t drive home. Getting out of the car might indicate to them that you are interested in a physical altercation. Your best bet is to try to get away from the aggressive driver without incident. In most situations, you should be able to move to another lane, take a turn, or let them pass and go on their way.
Road Rage Is Not Inevitable
We live in a high-stress time, in high-stress environments. Driving anxiety and distracted driving are on the rise, and it seems like traffic gets worse all the time. But none of that means you are fated to be an angry or aggressive driver. Ultimately, road rage is a choice, and you can choose to use the strategies we’ve talked about to keep yourself calm on the road. Good luck out there, driver!
*This article was updated on 08/22/2024.
