Leader of the pack: Are you inspiring road rage?

A recent study has precisely pinpointed the kind of behaviours that make other drivers’ blood boil.

Christine Wickens, a post-doctural fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, analysed the 5,624 complaints made on RoadRagers.com to find driving behaviours that are most obnoxious and likely to spark incidents of road rage. 

If you tick any of these boxes, stop it. (Comments in brackets are the author’s and are in no way representative of the researchers of this excellent little study.)

Weaving, cutting in (my Barina fits nicely into the little spaces)

Speeding (nah, not my weakness)

Hostile display (does poking out your tongue count?)

Tailgating (yeah, for crying out loud)

Lane usage (the white line is there for a reason, friends)

No turn signal (OK, but we have all done that)

Erratic breaking (erratic maybe, but not when it comes to breaking)

Traffic signals (orange does not mean press the accelerator to the floor)

Blocking (did you ever consider getting a job as a traffic cop?)

There’s more on the researcher’s list, but I think we get the picture.