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Study: 96% of people have witnessed road rage recently, but fewer admit to aggressive driving themselves

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By Susan Meyer Info icon
Updated November 7, 2024
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Susan Meyer

Senior Editorial Manager

Credentials
  • Licensed Insurance Agent — Property and Casualty

Susan is a licensed insurance agent and has worked as a writer and editor for over 10 years across a number of industries. She has worked at The Zebr…

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Ross Martin

Insurance Writer

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  • 5+ years in the Insurance Industry

Ross joined The Zebra as a writer and researcher in 2019. He specializes in writing insurance content to help shoppers make informed decisions.

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  1. Key findings
  2. Disconnect in witnessed versus committed behavior
  3. Generational differences
  4. Distracted driving more concerning than road rage
  5. Avoiding road rage
  6. Methodology

Despite all the safety advancements over the years, driving remains the most dangerous activity that most people do daily. 

To some extent, the riskiness is in the hands of the driver. The driver controls what risks to take, how fast to go and how defensively to drive. However, there are also some wildcards. One of the biggest ones is the other drivers on the road. Distracted driving, intoxicated driving and aggressive driving contribute to the majority of traffic accidents and fatalities each year.

Aggressive driving and road rage alone contribute to 66% of traffic fatalities in the U.S. Aggressive driving can include behaviors like tailgating or weaving in and out of traffic to more directly antagonistic behaviors like shouting obscenities, rude gestures or even violence.

The Zebra periodically surveys drivers to learn what behaviors they’re experiencing (or committing) while on the road. Here’s what we learned:

Key findings

Running a red light/stop sign tops the list for most frequently witnessed behavior. Over half of respondents had witnessed this behavior.

96% of respondents had witnessed at least one of the aggressive driving behaviors, but only 66% admitted to committing any.

Honking out of anger was the most common behavior respondents admitted to doing themselves.

What people are seeing doesn’t match what people are doing

When people think of road rage, they often think of the more targeted cases like yelling curses or rude gestures. Or they think of the more extreme violent cases that make the news with weapons being used or a vehicle being forced off the road.
 
However, aggressive driving behaviors like weaving in and out of traffic and tailgating are much more common and nevertheless destructive to traffic patterns and safety. 
 
In our study, when asked what aggressive driving behaviors they had witnessed in the past 6 months, running a red light topped the chart with 52% of respondents reporting witnessing it. This beat out drivers weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating and cutting others off. 
Chart_Q2_241025_2

However, when it came to which aggressive driving behaviors they were on the receiving end of, 45% of drivers said they had experienced tailgating in the past 6 months. 44% said they had experienced being cut off, bringing it to a close second.

Chart_Q3_241025_2

So, who is doing all this tailgating, light running, and cutting off of other drivers? Apparently, not the survey respondents.

When asked what behaviors they themselves had committed in the past 6 months, 35% said absolutely none, which was the number one answer. 22% admitted to honking at another driver out of anger. Interestingly, this was only fifth on the list of witnessed behaviors and fourth on the list of experienced behaviors. This is down signfiicantly from our previous study where 82% of people admitted to aggressive driving or road rage behaviors. 

This draws into question the reliability of people to monitor and reflect on their own behavior. People are naturally much better at witnessing and reporting bad behaviors in others than in admitting to it themselves, even anonymously.

Different generations witnessed and experienced different behaviors

When looking at the data across generations, we see similarities and differences in what was witnessed, experienced and committed.

For example, these are the top witnessed behaviors by generation and the percentage of people who witnessed them.

  • Gen Z: Tailgating (54% of people witnessed)
  • Millennials: Running a red light (54% of people witnessed)
  • Gen X: Weaving in and out of traffic (50% of people witnessed)
  • Boomers: Weaving in and out of traffic (60% of people witnessed)

This begs the question, are different generations witnessing different occurrences of aggressive driving, or are they just more attuned to notice different behaviors? 

We also see differences in what was experienced, but along the same lines (with Gen X and Boomers sharing a top behavior):

  • Gen Z: Being cut off (50% of people experienced)
  • Millennials: Being cut off (45% of people experienced)
  • Gen X: Being tailgated (42% of people experienced)
  • Boomers: Being tailgated (50% of people experienced)

There is one data point on which the generations are absolutely in lockstep and that’s on the road rage or aggressive driving behaviors they themselves commit. Across generations, people reported first that they didn’t do any of them, and if they did, it was universally honking out of anger. 

 

People are less concerned with road rage than with other driver issues

Most of the more extreme road rage behaviors were less common, but still reported. For example, 13% of respondents reported being forced off the road by another driver in the last 6 months. 9% reported being rammed by another driver. And 10% reported having another driver start a physical altercation with them!

With these exceptions, the aggressive behaviors people are witnessing or experiencing – tailgating, light running, cutting off, etc.-- are less worrisome to them than other unsavory driving behaviors. We asked respondents to rank which they consider the greatest threat to driver safety: distracted driving, intoxicated driving, road rage or aggressive driving, speeding, reckless driving, or drowsy driving. Distracted driving was the clear winner. 30% of drivers ranked it as their number one. Speeding and reckless driving were second. 

Road rage and distracted driving was listed as the most dangerous driving behavior by only 14% of respondents. What’s interesting is The Zebra’s previous studies show a correlation with distracted driving actually being a root cause of many cases of road rage. People are increasingly frustrated with distracted drivers, which in turn can make them take out that frustration on the drivers around them.

How to avoid road rage

If this study shows us anything is that’s people are driving aggressively on the road, even if they aren’t aware they’re doing it. 

Pay attention to your own behavior when you’re driving. Are you following too closely? Acting in an aggressive manner? Breezing through that light as it turned? On your cell phone while waiting at a light? 

If another driver is behaving erratically or aggressively, do not engage. Try to stay well clear of them and – if the situation warrants it —  report to law enforcement when it is safe to do so.

Methodology

This survey was conducted by Survey Monkey in October 2024 and recieved responses from 814 American drivers.Â