The 'Best' Ways to Incite Road Rage

Jerky driver behavior – also known as the cause of road rage – comes in a breathtaking variety of forms. There’s improper speeding (sub-classified as i. people who drive like they’re drag-racing, ii. people who drive slowwwwly like they’ve nowhere to go, and iii. people who maddeningly vacillate between the two extremes). You’ve also got your tailgaters, no definition necessary. And your scumbags who flout traffic signals, your lane cutters, your weavers, your cell phone talkers, your erratic brakers, your middle-finger flickers and your selfish creeps who will not for the life of them let you merge into that lane.

This taxonomy, more or less, comes from a recent study published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention that mined driver gripes from the weird world of websites that invite people to vent their road rage online (with the very satisfying inclusion of license plate numbers). Christine Wickens, a post-doctoral fellow with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada, analyzed 5,624 complaints, made between 1999 and 2007 in North America, on the website RoadRagers.com, which sadly no longer appears to be live.