In the past few years "Road Rage" has received increasing publicity and has been labeled an epidemic by the media. The author of this presentation has been studying this phenomenon since 1997 in an attempt to determine the extent of the problem, the causes, and current efforts to address the problem. This paper includes how the study was developed and results of a study that involved safety professionals conducting observations in actual traffic situations. The observers were also provided training involving the use of visualization techniques to diffuse anger through the use of humor in traffic situations. Informal interviews with participants were also conducted with a number of participants with some surprising and insightful feedback.
For the purpose of this paper Road Rage is defined as incidents involving verbal, visual, or physical abuse of a second party in traffic situations. Thisdoes not include incidents in which an individual becomes stressed in traffic without their anger and/or frustration escalating into an observable aggressive action toward another.
Illustration - Statistics on Perceptions driven by anecdotal vs scientific evidence (available in full paper)
The above statistics illustrate how public opinion may not be supported by scientific evidence. There is evidence media reports have greatly contributed to the perception of a Road Rage epidemic as illustrated below.
Illustration - "Road rage" Media Driven (available in full paper)
From 3 articles mentioning Road Rage each year from 1988–1993 to over 4000 reports in 1997 public awareness has been increased dramatically by the press. The dramatic increase coincides with the use of the term Road Rage being used by a congressman which appeared in the press in 1993.
You need look no further than the office water cooler in a major city to find someone with an opinion and a story about a Road Rage incident. In researching Road Rage on the Internet, one search engine produced over 7600 hits for the term Road Rage. Discussions in Internet chat rooms often deteriorate into Road Rage on the Information Highway.
Numerous researchers are attempting to quantify the extent of Road Rage incidents. One issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of a consistent definition of what constitutes Road Rage. A study by the National Highway Transportation Administration measured the number of accidents attributed to Aggressive Driving behaviors. Examples of aggressive driving behaviors were tailgating, changing lanes without signaling, failure to yield the right of way, and excessive speeding. Raw numbers showed an increase from 441,000 accidents in 1988 to 459,000 in 1997. This does not take into account increases in miles being driven over this period of time. A better measure of increases in aggressive driving is illustrated in the percentage of total accidents attributed to aggressive driving.
Illustration - Road rage epidemic (available in full paper)
While aggressive driving is a contributing factor to Road Rage, it does not necessarily indicate whether or not Road Rage is an increasing problem.