Aggressive Driving

Introduction

“Aggressive driving” is operating a motor vehicle in a selfish, pushy, or impatient manner, often unsafely, that directly affects other drivers. This description arose from a consensus among traffic safety experts after they reviewed driving scenarios. They also concluded that aggressive driving, in most cases, results from interaction between the driver and the driving environment. For this reason, resolving the problem lies not only with enforcement but also with modifying or eliminating, where possible, those external triggers in the driving environment. Education, engineering, and enforcement must be combined in a multidisciplinary approach that seeks solutions to the causes and not just the symptoms.

Several difficulties arise with most recent or current programs intended to address aggressive driving. First, they tend to enforce many traffic laws regardless of whether the violator’s actions affect other road users or have been linked to crashes at the enforcement location. Second, few programs have been properly evaluated. Often, success is measured by the number of tickets written, or hours of enforcement patrol. Finally, factors that affect driving and that may have contributed to aggressive driving, such as badly coordinated traffic signals, are not addressed.

Media portrayals and political responses to the problem have sometimes created confusion as to what aggressive driving really is. There is a difference between aggressive driving and “road rage.” The latter is criminal behavior employing a car as a weapon, or involving assault arising from driving confrontations. Moreover, many of the documented cases of road rage may not have arisen from earlier acts of aggressive behavior on the road.

In addition to providing objectives and strategies for dealing with the problem, this guide provides assistance with developing, enacting, and evaluating programs.

Effective programs

1. Require a champion, a person within an organization who can both provide leadership and obtain support from others.
2. Need to involve many disciplines representing interests outside the primarily involved organization.
3. Need to link aggressive driving to crashes and to measure outcomes in terms of reductions in crashes or correlative measures.

A more comprehensive discussion of aggressive driving is found in Appendix 6. This appendix examines the literature that addresses definitions and research. It also examines the subject from a psychological perspective, especially the link between frustration and aggression. This appendix established the basis for this guide.

Because the topic of aggressive driving is a relatively new one, and because arriving at an operational definition has not been easy, there is a lack of data available about the nature of crashes involving aggressive driving. In trying to determine whether a problem exists, it will be difficult to locate these crashes using current data sources. Although some crash reports provide for indication of driver-contributing circumstances, such categories do not allow one to identify all truly aggressive driving actions. Narratives provided on the form by reporting officers may be the key source of information on current forms.

New definitions and new coding options are needed. At least one state has placed a check box on its crash report form to identify aggressive driving. Officers have been given an official definition to use. This type of modification may ultimately be necessary in any jurisdiction that desires to document the problem in an accurate manner.