America's Most Road Ragin' Cities Miami, the land of fun and sun, is the most road rage filled city in America. The "In the Driver's Seat Road Rage Survey" study held by automotive roadside assistance
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Miami boasts a shockingly high percentage of tailgaters, helping them attain their top spot on the list. (Photo: Getty Images)
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club AutoVantage polled over 2,000 commuters in 20 different metropolitan areas, asking them to rate road rage and rude driving via a telephone survey. The survey, which was conducted by Prince Market research has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percent, found the top five road raging cities to be Miami, with Phoenix and New York coming in second and third.
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| Less surprisingly, slow drivers or rushed driving were found to be the leading causes of road rage. (Photo: Getty Images) |
The leading causes of road rage were thought to be rushed driving, or being stuck behind a slow driver. Also, those commuters with longer commutes, or younger commuters were found to be more likely to respond negatively to an aggressive or rude driver, with the most common reactions being honking the horn, cursing, or gesturing obscenely. Also interesting, the study found no difference in the likelihood of aggressive driving between male or female drivers. Miami in particular scored very poorly in tailgating, with Miami drivers reporting a 63 percent likelihood of seeing tailgating throughout their commute. Even more shocking, a quarter of all commuters reported seeing at least one driver run a red light every day.
Additionally, almost all the respondents reported having observed a drive
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| Younger drivers, and those drivers with longer commutes were found to be most liable to become aggressive behind the wheel. (Photo: Getty Images) |
r talking on a cell phone in the past week, and the majority of respondents confirmed seeing drivers talking on cell phones daily. Fittingly enough, almost all respondents also owned up to talking on a cell phone while driving, while a whopping 64 percent also confessed to driving too fast at least some of the time, which coincidentally was also found to be a leading stress factor for 57 percent of all commuters.
On the end other of the scale, Minneapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Seattle and Atlanta ranked as the five more courteous cities in America, with less speeding, aggressive lane changes, and road rage than the others. Todd Smith, director of corporate communications for AutoVantage's parent company, Affinion Group said "The advent of road rage is part of every day life, it's just a fact of life."
AutoVantage hopes the survey will help educate people on how to recognize and resist road rage. Some tips to prevent road rage are as
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| New York ranked third on the list, while Minneapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Seattle and Atlanta ranked as the safest five cities. (Photo: Getty Images) |
follows: first off, allow yourself enough time to get to your destination without hurrying. While on the road, try not to speed, but also don't crawl along holding other drivers up. Keep a good distance and avoid tailgating the person in front of you, and should someone cut you off, assume it's an accident, because chances are it is. If you find yourself already the victim of road rage, try to avoid eye contact with an angry or adversarial driver, and never retaliate. Retaliation may escalate the conflict, which will most likely aggravate the aggressive driver more. Finally, if you find yourself being followed, harassed, or threatened by another driver, do not proceed to your destination. Instead, divert to a police station if possible. If not, make your way to the nearest well populated area slowly and calmly.
