Road Rage Affects 80 Percent Of Drivers, Per AAA Study
DEARBORN (CBS Detroit) This can't be good for you: A new AAA survey found 80 percent of drivers expressing significant anger, aggression or road rage at least once during the past year because of inconsiderate drivers, bad traffic or other daily stresses that play out behind the wheel.
And the response is just as bad: Tailgating, flipping the bird and hanging out the window to yell at fellow drivers were all things drivers said they did when aggravated behind the wheel.
Why are drivers so hot and bothered?
WWJ's calm, cool and collected Ron Dewey spoke to metro Detroit commuters, including several who said they see things on the road nearly every day that drive them crazy.
Gawking at accidents and failure to use a turn signal were common complaints.
"It gets frustrating," one man told him.
"People that are not paying attention just make me angry," a woman in Southfield told Dewey, adding that she keeps her anger simmering down low and never confronts other drivers. "I just yell at myself, I get it out in the car, I don't create another aggressive situation," she said.
And that's a good thing because two out of three respondents complained about aggressive driving, saying they feel drivers are more aggressive than they were three years ago and that's a threat to their safety.
The survey found about eight million U.S. drivers admitting to engaging in road rage behavior like including purposefully ramming another vehicle or getting out of the car to confront another driver.
"Far too many drivers are losing themselves in the heat of the moment and lashing out in ways that could turn deadly," said Jurek Grabowski, Director of Research for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said in a press release.
Here's a breakdown of how the study found drivers react to feelings of road rage:
- 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 (7.6 million drivers)
- Bumping or ramming another vehicle on purpose: 3 percent (5.7 million drivers)
Kevin Stubblefield drives for a living and says his training to diffuse potential road rage situations has become second nature.
"It's all in how you handle it, nowadays you never know what's going to happen, somebody might have a gun, somebody could have a weapon, there's lawsuits flying around. It's not worth it, it's just not worth it," he told WWJ's Sandra McNeill.
If you find yourself getting hot under the collar on one of metro Detroit's congested roads during today's commute, keep in minds the words one driver in Southfield told Dewey: "As long as you get there safely, that's the only thing," he said.