Aggressive Driving and Road Rage: How to Keep Your Cool Behind the Wheel

We’ve all been there. Somebody starts tailgating you in the fast lane and angrily flashing their high beams. Or you accidentally cut them off, and they follow you down the highway screaming and flipping the proverbial bird for the next 20 miles. Road rage comes in many shapes and flavors, but they’re all dangerous—and avoidable.

While it can feel cathartic to let out aggression behind the wheel, it can swiftly lead to serious injury or fatalities. Let’s talk about some of the causes of road rage, as well as some actionable tips to keep in mind if you find yourself on the wrong end of someone else’s anger.

What is road rage, exactly?

Let’s define our terms here. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines road rage as “an intentional assault by a driver or passenger with a motor vehicle or a weapon that occurs on the roadway or is precipitated by an incident on the roadway”. But what does this really mean?

Road rage is a dangerous and potentially deadly behavior that can occur when drivers become extremely angry or frustrated while on the road. It can be triggered by heavy traffic, slow drivers, or rude or aggressive behavior from other drivers. Surprise, surprise: Being stressed out or too tired to drive can make road rage worse, as can alcohol or drug use.

Road rage is more than just an attitude—it translates into actions on the road that could get you, or others, killed. Shouting, horn-honking, and rude gestures can swiftly escalate into swerving between lanes, tailgating, or changing lanes to cut off other drivers. 

That can lead to accidents, of course, as well as physical altercations if motorists leave their cars for a face-to-face confrontation. Things get even hairier if one or both drivers have guns. Yikes.

What causes road rage? 

Road rage doesn’t come out of nowhere—it’s often triggered by a mix of stress, emotions, and situations. Understanding these triggers can help you stay calm behind the wheel.

Stress 

Stress during a drive is a common cause of road rage. Heavy traffic, running late, or being stuck behind a slow car can all lead to frustration. Multitasking—like checking directions, watching your speed, or managing distractions like loud passengers—can add to the pressure.

Other drivers

Aggressive driving from others is another big factor. When someone cuts you off, speeds recklessly, or tailgates, it can feel personal, triggering anger or even a desire to retaliate. These behaviors can easily spark heightened emotions, especially when your safety or sense of control feels threatened.

Personal temperament

Some people are naturally more prone to anger, stress, fatigue, impulsivity, or irritability, which can make them lash out. External stressors like financial worries or work frustrations can make even minor annoyances—like a slow merge—ignite intense reactions.

Environmental factors

Bad weather, unfamiliar routes, loud music, or a messy car can cause or add to frustration and increase the risk of road rage.

Driving in general

Driving requires constant decision-making and quick reactions which keep you on high alert, and can amplify impatience or anger. Crawling through rush-hour traffic after a long day, for instance, is much harder when your energy is drained.

How does road rage affect a driver? 

Road rage can seriously affect both your mental and physical well-being. When emotions spiral out of control behind the wheel, it doesn’t just ruin your drive—it impacts your safety and overall health.

One immediate effect of road rage is a spike in stress levels. Frustration and anger from aggressive driving or stressful situations can send your body into fight-or-flight mode, increasing your heart rate, tensing muscles, and making breathing shallow. While natural in emergencies, frequent stress like this can wear you down, leaving you irritable, mentally drained, and more prone to future anger on the road.

Mentally, road rage clouds judgment. Anger narrows your focus, making it harder to notice traffic signals, pedestrians, or other vehicles. It can lead to impulsive decisions like speeding or weaving through traffic, increasing the risk of accidents. This constant cycle of aggression undermines safe, defensive driving.

Physically, road rage often leads to dangerous driving behaviors like tailgating, sudden braking, or reckless lane changes, putting you and others at risk. These behaviors can cause accidents and endanger passengers, pedestrians, and drivers nearby. The effects may even linger after you leave the car—chronic road rage can contribute to long-term issues like high blood pressure, headaches, or heart problems. Over time, it can also affect relationships, work, and personal happiness.

The good news? Recognizing these effects is the first step to breaking the cycle. By managing anger and stress, you can protect yourself and improve safety for everyone around you.

What should you do if you’re the one feeling a bout of road rage?

Everyone loses their head on occasion. If you’re feeling that rage rising while you’re behind the wheel, here’s what to do:

1. Stay calm: Take a deep breath and try to remain calm. Remind yourself that getting angry will not solve the problem and will only make things worse.
2. Don’t give in to temptation: Avoid eye contact, don’t flip the bird (or a passive-aggressive peace sign), and don’t lay on the horn. 
3. Pull over!: Find a safe spot—such as a rest stop or parking lot, not the shoulder of the highway—and take a few minutes to calm down before continuing your journey. Open that Headspace app for a 10-minute meditation, or listen to some calming music (Brian Eno’s ambient period works better than thrash metal).
4. Practice empathy: Remember that other drivers are human beings—they really are!—who are likely going through their own shit. Try to be understanding and avoid getting angry at minor mistakes or misunderstandings. Yeah, we know, easier said than done.
5. Seek help: If road rage is a persistent problem, it might be time to find a therapist who can dig into why being in the car causes you to lose your cool. More on that later.

“When you get upset when someone cuts you off, it usually means you are interpreting their actions as being dangerous and personally directed at you. Your emotional response is personal as well. As you become more self-aware, you will eventually notice that you make an early choice to interpret the situation that way. And once you have awareness of that moment, you realize you are free to choose a different interpretation that leaves you freer, happier, and safer.”

Deepak Chopra

What if you’re on the receiving end of someone else’s road rage?

On the internet, a maxim generally holds true when it comes to blogs or social media: Don’t feed the trolls! In much the same way, it’s important not to engage with aggressive drivers, since it’ll only make the problem worse. (And, unlike on the internet, you’re hurtling through space at 60+ mph in this case.)

If you’re not able to ignore a problematic driver, you’re making a cycle of aggression worse. This cycle can continue to build, with each person becoming more and more angry and aggressive—and more and more certain that they’re in the right, and the other person is the irresponsible creep who doesn’t deserve to have a license. 

Here’s some actions you can take to protect yourself and others if you encounter an angry driver:

1. Stay calm and avoid making eye contact.
2. Keep a safe distance from the other vehicle, and don’t try to speed up or cut in front of the other driver.
3. Don’t gesture or make any other actions that might be seen as “provocative.”
4. If the other driver is following you closely or tailgating, pull over and wait for them to pass.
5. If the other driver is threatening you or trying to cause an accident, see if you can safely get their license plate number, and call a police station immediately.

Road rage incidents can lead to…

Road rage has serious consequences, and its effects go beyond just a bad mood. Here’s a look at some potential consequences of road rage: 

Car accidents

Aggressive driving behaviors like tailgating, speeding, and reckless lane changes greatly increase the risk of crashes. These range from minor fender benders, property damage to unassuming third parties (such as driving into a light post), all the way to severe accidents that result in injuries or fatalities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that aggressive driving is responsible for 66% of traffic fatalities. However, it’s important to distinguish between aggressive driving and road rage. While road rage can fall under the umbrella of aggressive driving, the two are not identical. Aggressive driving includes a variety of unsafe behaviors, such as speeding or reckless lane changes. For an incident to qualify as road rage, it must involve extreme and intentional acts of violence or aggression behind the wheel.

Imagine this: You’re driving down the freeway, already running ten minutes late for an important meeting. In a rush to save time, you start speeding and weaving between lanes to overtake slower vehicles. While your behavior is risky, aggressive, and can lead to a crash, it’s not road rage—you’re not acting out of hostility or directing aggression at other drivers.

Now, flip the scenario. You’re the driver who just got cut off by the speeder. Frustration boils over, and instead of staying focused on your own driving, you accelerate and tailgate the offender. This is a classic case of road rage—deliberate, aggressive behavior aimed at another driver, fueled by anger. 

Violent altercations

Escalated tempers can lead drivers to pull over for face-to-face confrontations. These heated exchanges sometimes turn physical, and in extreme cases, weapons may become involved, causing catastrophic outcomes. 

In 2024, road rage incidents involving gun violence claimed the lives of 120 victims and left 338 others injured across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. As of February 15, 2025, the trend continues, with 18 fatalities and 34 injuries already reported this year.

Legal trouble

Reckless driving actions tied to road rage—such as swerving or brake-checking—can lead to serious legal consequences. Tickets, fines, and even criminal charges are all possible outcomes.

According to the Governors Highway Safety Administration, 15 states have addressed aggressive driving in their legislature, and laws that specifically address aggressive driving behavior have been passed in 11 states. Wondering what penalties you can face for bouts of road rage or aggressive driving? Check out state laws on aggressive driving. 

A chain reaction of aggression

Driving angry doesn’t just put you in danger—it can set off a chain reaction, making others on the road act aggressively too. This “domino effect” can escalate quickly, putting everyone at risk, including pedestrians and cyclists. Think about it: one person tailgates, the other retaliates, and suddenly a small mistake turns into full-on road rage. Instead, staying patient and choosing safety over confrontation can help break this cycle and keep everyone safer.

Keep in mind, “aggressive driving” includes risky habits like speeding or tailgating, but it’s not the same as “road rage,” which involves deliberate acts of violence or extreme aggression. That said, both are dangerous and put everyone on the road at risk, often leading to serious, life-changing consequences.

Why is tailgating particularly dangerous?

Tailgating while driving is most definitely not a party. It’s a reckless driving behavior in which one car follows another way too closely, often at high speed.

This creates a scenario in which the tailgating driver doesn’t have enough time to respond safely to what’s happening around them. For example, if the vehicle in front of a tailgater suddenly slows down or stops—the so-called “brake check”—the tailgater may not have enough time or space to stop safely, which can lead to a fender bender, at best, or a more traumatic rear-end collision.

As a general rule, a safe following distance is two seconds or more. Choose a fixed object on the road, such as a street sign or a tree. When the vehicle in front of you passes the object, count the number of seconds it takes for your vehicle to reach the same point. If it takes two seconds or more, you are maintaining a safe following distance. If it takes less than two seconds, you should increase your distance to allow for safe stopping.

What do road rage statistics show?

According to a survey conducted by Nextbase, the generation most likely to experience road rage is Millennials. 

However, it’s important to note that road rage isn’t exclusive to Millennials—drivers from any generation can experience it. Stress, frustration, or even a bad day can get the better of anyone, regardless of their age.

The study also found that the most common form of road rage is tailgating (more than a quarter of all incidents), followed by cutting in and speeding.

Wondering which states experience the most incidents of road rage? Let’s take a look at the top ten: 

State	Percentage of accidents due to aggressive and/or careless driving
Louisiana	62.2%
New Mexico	50.1%
Montana	71.2%
Colorado	61.9%
Arkansas	62.3%
New Jersey	72.1%
North Carolina	54.5%
Delaware	47.6%
Wisconsin	56.4%
Georgia	42.5%

What should I do if I’m experiencing road rage on a regular basis?

A therapist can help you work through what’s causing your road rage. And no, that doesn’t mean you’ll end up lying on a couch, unpacking how your driving aggression is all your mother’s fault. Therapeutic approaches you might find useful would include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation techniques, and anger management training.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a branch of psychotherapy that focuses on changing negative patterns of thinking and behavior in order to improve mood and reduce symptoms. In the case of road rage, a therapist might use CBT to help the person identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs that contribute to their aggro behavior on the road.

A person with road rage might have thoughts such as “all other drivers are out to get me” or “I have to be the first one to get where I’m going, no matter what.” 

A CBT therapist might help the person recognize these thoughts as irrational and replace them with more balanced and realistic thoughts, such as “other drivers are just trying to get where they need to go like me” or “it’s okay to take my time and drive safely.” 

Will road rage affect my car insurance rates?

Getting into an accident will certainly affect your auto insurance rates, so in that sense, playing into road rage is a risk factor here. 

At Lemonade you can score discounts on your car insurance policy for practicing safe driving habits—including keeping a safe distance and limiting night driving.

But the app also picks up reckless driving habits that are common with road rage. No, it won’t know if you’re making rude hand gestures at neighboring drivers. But it can sense aggressive driving behavior like slamming on brakes, abrupt changing of lanes, and excessive speed. 

Before we go…

Road rage just isn’t worth it. And while it can be really hard to practice empathy—to look at the enraged driver tailgating you and imagine what his or her day has been like, and why they’re acting so erratically—it’s your best bet to stay safe, and stay alive.

Now take a deep breath, practice a moment of gratitude… and spend a few minutes finding out how much you’d pay for Lemonade Car insurance.

FAQs

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A few quick words, because we <3 our lawyers: This post is general in nature, and any statement in it doesn’t alter the terms, conditions, exclusions, or limitations of policies issued by Lemonade, which differ according to your state of residence. You’re encouraged to discuss your specific circumstances with your own professional advisors. The purpose of this post is merely to provide you with info and insights you can use to make such discussions more productive! Naturally, all comments by, or references to, third parties represent their own views, and Lemonade assumes no responsibility for them. Coverage and discounts may not be available in all states.