Which of your clients are road-ragers?

More Canadians are witnessing road rage, but fewer and fewer are admitting to doing it themselves, according to new survey results.  

81% of Ontario and Alberta drivers claimed to have witnessed road rage, while only 6% admit to engaging in it, a new RatesDotCa survey found.  

Comparatively, last year’s iteration of the survey found 78% of Canadian drivers (not exclusive to Ontario or Alberta) witnessed road rage, yet only 51% admitted engaging in it. 

Road rage is a display of aggressive behaviours, including honking, flashing lights, obscene gesturing, tailgating, brake chequing, hitting another vehicle intentionally, rolling down a window and yelling, or cutting off other drivers, cyclists or pedestrians, RatesDotCa explained.

The more extreme cases involve drivers who get out of their vehicles to confront others.

While the pool of respondents was reduced geographically, the overall trend in people admitting to road rage has decreased drastically since last year.  

“The discrepancy in numbers can be at least partly explained by the difference in geographical focus, as both Ontario and Alberta have major urban centers with higher levels of traffic where people are more likely to experience/see incidents of road rage,” RatesDotCa told Canadian Underwriter. 

Yet, the data still show a steep drop in those who admit to engaging in road rage.  

Women in both provinces are slightly more likely (7%) to report engaging in road rage behaviours than men (5%) and younger people in the age group of 18 to 54 are just as likely (3%) to engage in road rage behaviours than those who are older than 55, per the 2023 survey.  

In Ontario, 5% of drivers admitted to having rolled down their windows to yell at someone, while 35% of drivers have witnessed it. Another 8% have used obscene gestures on the road, while 41% have seen others do so. 

Plus, 15% admitted to tailgating, 13% to cutting off another driver and 12% to brake-chequing. 

When it comes to collisions, insurers will be interested to know 34% of drivers have witnessed it, while 5% admitted having done it. 

In Alberta, 4% of drivers have rolled down their windows to yell at someone, while 31% have witnessed it. Another 8% of drivers have used obscene gestures on the road, while 41% claimed they’ve seen others do so. 

And 6% of Alberta drivers claimed they’ve collided with another driver’s vehicle when road-raging, while 32% have witnessed it. 

Comparatively, 2022’s results found that even though men and women claimed to engage in road rage equally (51% each), men were more likely to engage in confrontational person-to-person behaviours like obscene gesturing (17% versus 12%), rolling down the window to yell at someone (10% versus 6%), and stopping and existing the vehicle (4% versus 1%).   

Moreover, younger Canadian drivers were more likely to have been involved in a vehicle collision due to road rage (15% of people aged 18 to 34, versus 7% of those 35 to 54, and 3% of those 55-plus).  

Feature image by iStock.com/globalmoments