Home | FAQ | Program | Staff | Safety Articles | Clearinghouse | Forms | Region F

Road Rage
By Gordon Robinson

On a recent ride through the Black Range I encountered "road rage." We had just come over Emory Pass, and it was a nice day for ride. It was deer season, and we had come across several hunters on the way. I was leading when a pick-up truck pulled onto the road in front of me. I saw the truck as it started to pull out into traffic so I slowed to let it in. I got suspicious right away because the driver took his time and acted like we weren’t even there. I kept a close eye on them. There was a little girl and an older man in the back. The man kept waving and doing things I didn’t like, so when I got the chance I decided to pass them and put some space between the pick-up and myself. When I looked into my rearview mirrors to see if it was okay to get back into the right lane, I noticed that they must of sped up. Right way I knew this was going to be trouble. After I got into the right lane, the pick-up pulled out to pass me. When they got even with me, I gently applied the brakes. This let them move in front of me faster then they expected to and put more space between them and me. After that, I saw a beer can come out of the driver’s side. I decided the best thing to do is slow down even more. Finally, they went on down the road and nothing more came of it. Things could have gotten out of hand if I hadn’t kept cool and just let them go. We have all had our experiences with it in one way or another. It might have been someone reacting to your headlight modulator. I have had them get upset with me over that.

According to the American Automobile Association, road rage has been increasing by 7% per year since 1990. An Australian study estimates that about half of all traffic accidents in Australia may be due to road rage. A study by Lex Research in the U.K. indicates that of Britain's some 2.8 million company car drivers, about 83% have been victims of some form of road rage during their working life. About 21% reported having been run off the road and 18% have been physically threatened by another driver!

Some attribute the rise in rage incidents to the recession and social and economic frustration. Gary Fite, Public Relations Manager for the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland, reckons that in many cases the cause of the anger that touches off rage incidents is bad driving. With an estimated 1,800 reported incidents of violent road behavior in the U.S. in 1996, it's a situation to be taken seriously. The incidents that trigger a Mad Max syndrome in the average driver are usually simple matters of discourtesy—for example, loud music, over-use of the horn, tailgating and changing lanes without signaling. These, of course, are usually just the trigger points. The actual causes can be traced back to all forms of stress, from being called into the boss's office for a friendly 'chat', to having just been dumped by your girlfriend. Pretty much, road warriors are the result of a flashpoint of all the accumulated stresses in one's life.

 

A 1995 study performed by the Road Safety Unit of the Automobile Association of Great Britain found that 90 % of the drivers surveyed had experienced "road rage" incidents during the preceding 12 months. In this study, 60 % of drivers admitted to losing their tempers behind the wheel during the previous year, and 1% claimed another motorist had physically assaulted them.

 

In early 1996, the AAA Potomac club commissioned a study from The Gallup Organization to investigate driver concerns. The study found that Washington area motorists felt more threatened by aggressive drivers than by drunk drivers; 40 % of the respondents said that aggressive drivers "most endanger highway safety," while 33 % identified drunk drivers as the primary risk. As for avoiding the Mad Max syndrome, here are a few tips from Dr Ricardo Martinez, Administrator of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to help you through your journey: