A quick survey of your driving habits:

Which of these forms of aggressive driving or motorist behavior have you experienced or observed in the past week?

- Driving faster than the speed limit

- Tailgating/Driving too closely behind

- Changing lanes without signalling or allowing proper space between cars

- Erratic lane changes

- Flashed headlights from annoyed motorist

- Passing on the shoulder or the break-down lane

- Ignoring traffic control devices, such as stop or yield signs, railroad crossing signals and traffic lights

- Rude/obscene gestures

- Verbal Abuse

- Deliberately blocked by another vehicle

- Physical assault

OK, confession time: which of those acts have you committed yourself?

Of course, none of us would even dream of such rude conduct had we not been provoked by other drivers. After all, it’s common knowledge that “everyone who drives faster than I do is a maniac, and everyone who drives slower than me is an idiot.”

Kidding aside, that phrase is considered the road rage motto. And the aggressive driving habits listed above are the most common precursors to kinds of road rage that have serious consequences.

A recent survey found that 50% of drivers confronted with aggressive driving respond with aggressive behavior of the own. The survey showed 34% of drivers report honking their car horn at an aggressive driver, 27% yell, 19% make an obscene gesture, 17% flash their car headlights, 7% make the same aggressive driving maneuver and 2% say they attempt to run the aggressive driver off the road.

“Aggressive driving” and “road rage” are often used interchangeably, but the phrases refer to different incidents and levels of severity. Aggressive driving is dangerous and careless, whereas road rage is deliberate.

The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) defines aggressive driving as “when individuals commit a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property.”

Road rage, on the other hand is a criminal offense and defined by the NHTSA as ”an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of one motor vehicle on the operator or passenger(s) of another motor vehicle or is caused by an incident that occurred on a roadway.”

Road rage is an inappropriate response to situations encountered while driving. The incidents can lead to a car wreck, damage to vehicles, serious personal injury or worse.

A well-publicized incident in Nashville happened in March when a man apparently became enraged by the Obama/Biden bumper sticker on the car in front of him. He honked his horn, made obscene gestures and pointed toward the bumper sticker, according to the other driver who was in the car with his 10-year-old daughter.

When the driver with the bumper sticker stopped at a stop sign, the angry man drove his SUV into the car’s bumper and began pushing the vehicle almost up onto the sidewalk before driving off. He was later arrested for reckless endangerment, among other charges.

In June, a Crossville police officer watched the driver of a pickup truck swerve toward a motorcyclist and cause that cyclist to run off the road. The pickup driver was stopped and arrested. When asked why he drove the way the officer had observed, the pickup driver said the motorcyclist flipped him off and made him mad.

In one of the most extreme cases of road rage, a Colorado man was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison in 2007 after being convicted of first degree murder for causing the deaths of two people in a road rage incident.

In light of such tragic potential outcomes, road rage reactions are never appropriate. And often the excessively aggressive or angry response comes from something completely unrelated to the driving incident, such as a family quarrel, high outdoor temperatures or troubles at work.

Our highways are getting more congested and commuters are spending more time behind the wheel every year and that ramps up drivers’ stress levels. People need to make an effort to be in the right mindset to stay calm and focus on the primary task of driving safely and avoiding an auto accident when they are getting behind the wheel of a car.

The automotive website Edmunds.com has a great list of Top Ten Tips to Prevent Road Rage. It includes these suggestions:

1. Get enough sleep

2. Plan ahead of time – don’t be in the habit of leaving just enough time to drive to an appointment.

3. Do no use driving as a way to blow off steam.

4. Listen to relaxing music or even a comedy channel.

5. Relax your grip on the steering wheel and take occasional deep breaths.

6. Don’t take other drivers’ actions as a personal insult – it’s not about you!

7. Hostility can lead to several health hazards – beyond potential injuries from a car wreck.

8. React the same way you would if someone did something rude to you in a restaurant where you’re much less likely to lash out.

9. Analyze your own driving – do you regularly commit any of the aggressive driving offenses listed at the beginning of this article?

10. Remember simple courtesies and practice kindness.

It all comes down to self control and making the choice not to let someone else’s actions – no matter how egregious and worthy of retaliation they may be – draw us into a confrontation. An aggressive response can, at the very least, get you angrier and ruin your mood for the day, possibly result in a car crash and property damage or lead to something much worse.

It’s not your job to fix all the lousy drivers out there on the road. When you are driving, your job is to stay aware of your surroundings, including careless and dangerous motorists, avoid hazards and accidents and get to your destination safely.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 4:18 pm and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.