About the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
Funding for this study was provided by voluntary contributions from motor clubs associated with the American Automobile Association and the Canadian Automobile Association, from individual AAA club members, and from AAA-affiliated insurance companies.
This publication is distributed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in the interest of information exchange. The findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.
This study was commissioned after the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety observed a growing concern with the problem of aggressive driving.
A 1995 study performed by the Road Safety Unit of the Automobile Association of Great Britain found that 90 percent of the drivers surveyed had experienced "road rage" incidents during the preceding 12 months.
In early 1996, the AAA Potomac club commissioned a study from The Gallup Organization to investigate driver concerns. The study found that Washington
What were some of the factors at work in aggressive driving incidents?
The Foundation approached Louis Mizell, owner of a corporation that maintains databases of crime reports in Bethesda , Maryland
The following document contains Mr. Mizell's study, along with the 1995 AA Road Safety Unit study and a subsequent paper published by the AA in November of 1996
The number of aggressive driving cases reported to Mizell & Company has increased every year since 1990. While some of this apparent increase may be caused by the variation in sources and increased awareness and therefore increased reporting of such incidents, such variation is almost certainly not significant. Mizell & Company consulted 30 major newspapers, reports from 16 police departments, and insurance company claim reports to construct the database for this study.
Reasons Violent Traffic Disputes Occur
Motorists involved in fender-bender collisions and silly traffic disputes are increasingly being shot, stabbed, beaten, and run over for inane reasons.
In most human behavior there is a stated and unstated, or conscious and unconscious, motivation. The motivation for traffic disputes is no exception. While the event that sparks the incident may be trivial, in every case there exists some reservoir of anger, hostility, or frustration that is released by the triggering incident.
The Role of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence plays a surprisingly large role in aggressive driving.
Motorists who Crash into Buildings and Other Property
Using their vehicles as weapons, aggressive drivers frequently vent their anger by crashing through offices, private homes, restaurants, hotels, government buildings, hospitals schools, and other properties.
And some motorists, struggling with their own inner demons, are just angry at the world.
Children as Victims
The victims of irrational highway violence are frequently not the intended targets but innocent passengers and pedestrians. Children, the most innocent of bystanders, are frequently the victims of aggressive driving.
From January 1, 1990 to September 1, 1996 at least 94 children under the age of 15 were injured or killed in aggressive driving incidents. Some were wounded or killed by gunfire; others were injured or killed when aggressive drivers, frequently a relative, rammed or forced a vehicle off the road.
- Vehicles of Mass Destruction
- Bulldozers, Tanks, and Tractor-Trailers
- Advice for Motorists
¥ Lane blockin
¥ Tailgating
¥ Signal use
¥ Gestures
¥ Horn use
¥ Failure to turn
¥ Parking
¥ Headlight use
¥ Merging
¥ Blocking traffic
¥ Car phones
¥ Alarms
¥ Displays.
¥ Eye Contact
Reduce Your Own Stress
¥ Consider altering your schedule
¥ Improve the comfort of your vehicle.
¥ Don't drive when you are angry
What Causes "Road Rage"?
In some cases it appears that incidents of road rage are caused by simple misunderstandings between drivers. A driver may make a momentary error of judgment but the perception of another is that he is driving aggressively.
How to Avoid Succumbing to Road Rage
Be aware of the precursors. Follow our general recommendations for avoiding stress and fatigue (see below). In particular, try to disassociate yourself from problems that have no bearing on the journey.
How to Avoid Becoming a Victim
Our survey information indicates that the great majority of people (96 percent) have not found that the road rage incidents have affected their confidence to drive.
Background
"Road rage" has caught the public eye and become embedded in the common vocabulary. It can be used to refer to a variety of behaviors, from specific incidents of roadside assault (or, indeed, murder) to any exhibition of driver aggression. People perceive that society as a whole is becoming more violent, and our behavior behind the wheel is no exception. In January 1995, 62 percent of 526 drivers surveyed by the AA agreed that the behavior of motorists has changed for the worse in recent years1. Home Office statistics support this perception -- between July 1995 and June 1996, violent crime rose by 10 percent.2
There are several reasons why driving might be more likely to give rise to anger and aggression than walking. Naatanen and Summala's first suggestion is that the exertion of walking might help tap any pent-up aggression, so that the act itself might help prevent the possibility of aggressive behavior. Driving, on the other hand, may provide a greater field for stress and tension to accumulate, without providing an outlet.
Psychological Mechanisms of Aggression and Rage
It may be useful in addressing this point to revert to wider analyses of aggression. In many animals aggression is undoubtedly a basic biological response -- an evolutionary drive which helps to ensure a species' survival. In humans, however, it is still unclear to what extent a firm biological basis for aggression can be assumed, as opposed to being a learned response developed through imitation of others and reinforced by the experience of its results.
Is Driving Aggression an Index of General Aggression in Society?
Individuals vary enormously in their propensity to display aggression. The positive responses which previous expressions of aggression have elicited will lead certain people to rely on aggressive behavior as a method to achieve their own ends.
Environmental influences on aggression.
It is widely accepted that there are numerous environmental variables which can, under certain circumstances, either provoke aggression or increase the likelihood of its occurrence.
Noise
Research suggests that noise is an unusual environmental influence on aggression, because it influences the intensity of aggression which has already been provoked, rather than adding to other variables which might together culminate in aggression. To an extent this can be seen as a result of the direct effect of noise on frustration rather than aggression.
Temperature
The incidence of violent crime is widely reported to increase during the summer months.
Overcrowding
The effects of overcrowding on aggression are difficult to calibrate or predict, primarily because, unlike noise and temperature, overcrowding is a wholly subjective environmental feature. Direct measures of population density or available space can be correlated experimentally with aggression levels, but only when the density is perceived by the subjects of the experiment to constitute overcrowding.
Individual differences and the car as an annex of the home
Individual differences in our predisposition to be aggressive may be important in the driving experience in deciding the outcome of conflict.
Interpersonal Communication
"Cures" for Road Rage
It is important that we challenge the thoughts that provoke anger before there is opportunity for the successive waves of anger to compound.
Punishment
It is the AA's view that those so-called "road rage" offenses that are not adequately covered by motoring law are covered by existing criminal law.
Putting Driver Aggression in Perspective
As a phenomenon which has only comparatively recently raised public concern, and one for which statistical evidence is not routinely collected at present, the incidence of injuries and deaths attributable to driver aggression is difficult to ascertain. Attempts to estimate the potential number of road rage cases tend to be based on the extrapolation of small-scale surveys, which is a tenuous methodology given the difficulties in providing an accurate prognosis of the problem.
