What is Road Rage?

Road rage (also known as "road violence"), is the informal name for deliberately dangerous and/or violent behavior under the influence of heightened, violent emotion such as anger and frustration, involving an automobile in use, in which a driver or other person lashes out against another due to frustration, stressful, or emotional over-load.

This can involve deliberately hitting another person, vehicle or object with his/her own vehicle and/or firing a weapon from it.  Other possibilities include [but are not limited to] hitting the person or vehicle with an item which is not his vehicle, but which ultimately hits another person or vehicle, and doing so with a deliberate act of aggression intending to cause damage and/or physical injury to another.

Getting out of one's vehicle to another person's vehicle and banging, knocking on the windows, and yelling insults, is another form of road rage.  Road rage can be caused by a variety of events, circumstances, and environments. The three main categories use to classify what causes road rage are the environment, instructive responses, and territorial defensiveness.
   

The Road Rage Driver:  What is the Cause of Road Rage?
Environmental conditions are the main factors associated with road rage. These conditions can consist of traffic congestion, another’s dangerous driving habits, the weather (heat, humidity, etc.), noise levels, stress, and time constraints.

The other two causes of road rage, instructive responses and territorial defensiveness are also closely related. Intrusive responses are actions of retaliation to get back at another for their careless driving. Territorial defensiveness is the act of defending ones personal space (the car) in response to another individuals driving.

Road rage is an extremely serious act; and it can be seen as a violation of property rights and/or an endangerment of personal security.

Finally a note of caution, as the old saying goes, we teach our children by our own actions, a drives experiencing road-rage with children in the back seat, is in effect teaching those children that road rage is an okay action. Please parents who have little ones on board your vehicle, think before you lash out with words or actions in a situation, as our children are precious and have minds that soak up facts faster than a sponge. -Birdy