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Road rage is the stuff of newscasts and nightmares. All of us have experienced the wrath of an aggressive driver at one point in our lives, whether they were tailgating you so close that you felt their breath on the back of your neck or they cut you off and almost forced you off the road.
Knowing what road rage is and how to protect yourself from it can make the difference between a totally fine drive home from work and a totaled car.
What Is Road Rage?
Road rage is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “anger or violence between drivers, often caused by difficult driving conditions.” Whenever a person experiences anger behind the wheel of a motor vehicle or acts on emotion and becomes aggressive while driving, that’s road rage.
Acts of Road Rage
Road rage can take many forms, ranging in severity from angrily tapping your hand on your steering wheel to committing vehicular homicide. Most of the time, however, acts of road rage take on one or more of the following forms:
- Tailgating
- Weaving in and out of lanes
- Aggressive driving
- Reckless driving
- Distracted driving
- Speeding
- Excessive acceleration
- “Burnouts”
The above list of examples of road rage is far from exhaustive. There are countless other ways for angry drivers to act on their emotions—many of which are entirely illegal. Most acts of road rage can at best get you a ticket and at worst send you to jail.
Factors That May Contribute to Road Rage
The primary reason drivers commit acts of road rage is because they’re angry or frustrated and do not know how to properly manage their emotions. One common cause of road rage is drivers who are experiencing traffic delays, such as a traffic jam or closed lanes. If there is heavy traffic, congestion, frequent red lights, etc., the risk of encountering an angry driver is increased.
If a driver is running late, they are also prone to increased acts of road rage due to their perceived need to get to their destination faster. This impatience has been shown to lead to acts of speeding, tailgating, weaving, and more.
A key factor for drivers participating in road rage, however, isn’t some aspect of the road or its conditions. Instead, it’s the driver’s belief that they will remain anonymous, often asking themselves, “Why should I care? I’m never going to see them again anyway.” This leads to a sense of security that enables them to act out aggressively in ways that they might even know are considered untoward or socially unacceptable.
Lastly, it could all boil down to the driver’s learned behavior. If they are from an area where road rage is commonplace or if they were raised to believe road rage is acceptable, then they will likely participate in road rage more often than other drivers.
How to Avoid Road Rage
Fortunately, there are a few ways to avoid road rage—even if you are the road-rager yourself.
If You Are the Aggressive Driver
If you find yourself becoming angrier and angrier while you drive, that’s okay. Everybody gets frustrated from time to time, especially when other drivers are being incompetent. However, what is not okay under any circumstance, is acting on those negative emotions in a violent or aggressive way. Here are a few tips to help you prevent your rage from building while you drive:
- Don’t rush. Give yourself plenty of time to get where you need to be. This way, you will not have that pressing anxiety or fear of being late to stress you out or force you to take unnecessary risks.
- Take a moment to breathe. Inhale for five seconds. Pause. Exhale for five seconds. Pause. Then repeat. This will help you calm down so that you will be in a better position to process your emotions and drive safely.
- Give other drivers a break. It’s possible they’re just learning how to drive or maybe they’re lost. You don’t know what’s going on in their lives that could be causing them to drive so poorly.
- Do not make negative comments or gestures. Yelling or flashing inappropriate hand signals at other drivers will only make you angrier, especially if they respond by doing the same. Instead, simply wave calmly to them or don’t make any gestures at all.
- Lay off the horn. Honking out of frustration typically will not resolve any problems and will just stress out the other drivers on the road.
- Never get out of your vehicle to confront another driver. This level of escalation is likely to put you in a dangerous situation and can even get you arrested if a police officer believes it to be on the level of assault.
If You Are Another Vehicle
If you are driving on a public roadway and notice somebody blaring on the horn, speeding, and weaving in and out of lanes, beware! That’s an aggressive driver. In such a situation, try to incorporate one or more of the following tips to keep yourself and your passengers safe:
- Get out of the aggressive driver’s path. Safely change lanes, gradually slow down, or even exit the highway to keep a safe distance away from the aggressive driver. This will give them a clear path to speed right past you without making you the target of their rage.
- Do not reciprocate. If they are screaming and yelling at you, flashing rude hand signals, etc., try to ignore them. Do not yell back. Do not make gestures back. Do not even make eye contact. Doing any of those things back and forth with the other driver will likely lead to an escalation of tensions.
- Watch your back. If you fear that you are being followed by an aggressive driver, call the police and report your situation immediately. Keep your doors locked and—if possible—drive to the nearest police station.
- Do not stop your vehicle. If you’re being followed by another driver, do not stop. That’s especially true when dealing with angry or aggressive drivers, as they might be intent on harming you. If you see the other driver get out of their vehicle, call the police and leave the scene immediately.
