Prevalence of Self-Reported Aggressive Driving Behavior: United States, 2014

Background

• Nearly 2 in 3 U.S. drivers believe that aggressive driving is a bigger problem today than three years ago, while nine out of ten believe aggressive drivers are a serious threat to their personal safety (AAAFTS, 2015)

Objective

• To provide estimates of the prevalence of aggressive driving behaviors

Methods

• Survey conducted in the United States in 2014, a sample of 2,705 U.S. licensed drivers age 16 and older who reported having driven at least once in the past 30 days, weighted to reflect the U.S. population
• Subset of questions from AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index

Key Findings

• 78% of U.S. drivers reported having engaged in at least one aggressive driving behavior at least once in the past year
  • Most common behaviors:
    • Purposefully tailgating another vehicle (50.8%)
    • Yelling at another driver (46.6%)
    • Honking their horn “to show annoyance or anger” (44.5%)
  • One-third of all respondents said that they had made an angry gesture at another driver
  • One in four drivers reported that they had purposely tried to block another driver from changing lanes
  • 11.9% of drivers said they had cut off another vehicle on purpose
  • A small proportion of drivers admitted to engaging in behaviors beyond the scope of general aggressive driving and which may be considered road rage:
    • 3.7% reported that they had exited their vehicle to confront another driver
    • 2.8% reported that they had bumped or rammed another vehicle on purpose
• Male drivers were more likely than female drivers to report each of the aggressive driving behaviors examined
• Drivers may underreport engaging in aggressive driving behaviors due to their negative social connotation, and thus the true prevalence may be higher than the estimates reported