About 80% of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage last year, according to a new report released by the AAA Foundation.
Examples of angry and aggressive driving behaviors including purposefully tailgating, yelling at other drivers and intentionally cutting off another vehicle.
Road rage behaviors included things like getting out of the vehicle to confront another driver or bumping another vehicle on purpose.
Dr. Carey Ryan, Professor of Psychology at UNO, explains some of the factors that can trigger road rage.
"Provocation or aggressive stimuli. If someone else does something, that’s aggressiveness and you respond aggressively. We don’t think necessarily about a person may have had a hard day or they screwed up and hopefully they recognize it and maybe they did and you just didn’t know or whatever. But that desire to make other people pay is a little too strong.”
AAA suggests a few ways to help prevent road rage include tolerance and forgiveness. And if someone is aggressive with you, they advise you to avoid eye contact, never make gestures and call 9-1-1 if needed.
To view the full report, the website is AAAFoundation.org.