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Road Rage

Road rage refers to a broad range of reckless, aggressive, or even violent behaviors related to driving. The term emerged in the mid-1990s in Great Britain, then spread to the United States. Although road rage attracted considerable media attention, there was little evidence that road rage was a new or growing problem. Rather, its rise to prominence reveals how social problems can become the subject of public concern.

History of the Issue

Concern with dangerous driving behavior is as old as the automobile, and traffic laws are designed to control bad driving. Periodically, particular problems come to public attention. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, drunken driving became a focus for social movement activism and legislation. Similarly, the press in particular cities occasionally claimed to discover local waves of freeway shootings; for example, during the summer of 1987, media drew attention to freeway violence in Los Angeles. This was a classic, media-created crime wave: By juxtaposing a few cases of shootings involving drivers or passengers and speculating that these represented a new, rapidly increasing form of crime, the press conveyed the impression that freeway violence was a serious problem. After a few weeks of intense coverage, however, the media shifted their focus to other topics.

The term road rage first came into common use in Great Britain in 1994. The British media used the term to describe fights between motorists as well as dangerous, aggressive driving. The automobile insurance industry and roadside towing services claimed that road rage was becoming common. Commentators not only sought to explain road rage but also began to identify related problems, such as “trolley rage” (disputes between shoppers with supermarket shopping carts—called trolleys in Britain) and “air rage” (unruly passengers on airliners).

It was not until 1997 that road rage became a visible issue in the United States. The American Automobile Association (AAA) issued a report that described road rage as an important traffic problem, Congress held a hearing on the issue, and the media began to cover the topic. As in Great Britain, commentators identified other “rage” problems, although only air rage received serious attention.

The Magnitude of Road Rage

Road rage lacks a precise definition, and commentators use the term in different ways. The most troubling cases involve intentional acts of violence by motorists, such as shooting at or deliberately ramming another vehicle, but these cases are relatively rare. One review of media coverage identified only 10,037 incidents—involving only 218 deaths—in the United States during a period of nearly seven years; while this total probably isn't complete, it suggests that deliberate violence might account for less than 1 in 1,000 traffic fatalities. Many commentators equate road rage with “aggressive driving,” but this term also lacks a clear definition. Cutting off or tailgating another driver may seem clearly aggressive, but what about speeding, or failing to signal lane changes? Still other definitions focus on the experience of anger; that is, a nonaggressive driver who is cut off by someone else may become angry (that is, experience road rage).

Because there is no clear definition of road rage, it is impossible to measure the problem's magnitude accurately. A National Highway Traffic Safety (NHTS) official estimated that two-thirds of traffic fatalities (about 28,000 deaths per year) might be linked to aggressive driving, but no basis for this estimate was given. Moreover, it is worth noting that traffic fatalities (usually measured as the number of deaths per 100 million miles traveled) have been declining for decades, and continued to fall during the 1990s, when claims about road rage circulated. If road rage was becoming more common, this trend did not lead to an increase in the rate of traffic deaths.

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