Cities with Scary Driving Conditions: Collisions and Road Rage

What can make a U.S. city one of the scariest places to drive in? To some people, the difficulty of the road itself can be enough, such as the I-70 Glenwood Canyon roadway in Colorado. This narrow, 12.5-mile interstate winds through narrow mountainous areas. For motorists afraid of heights, this stretch of road might rank in the top 10 scariest places to drive.

However, many commuters face something much scarier every day: road rage.

Road rage. The term road rage covers a wide range of behaviors that commuters face daily. Some are mild, such as making comments or shouting about other drivers to passengers. These feelings of anger can escalate to honking the horn, making obscene gestures or yelling at another driver. The more dangerous road rage behaviors can include making sudden lane changes, deliberately tailgating or cutting off motorists.

Causes of road rage. Traffic congestion and the behavior of other drivers during traffic slowdowns are contributing factors in the creation of scary road rage situations. In 2008, Prince Market Research conducted a road rage survey for AutoVantage. In that survey, 43 percent of the respondents reported that they had honked their horns at offending drivers in the last month. Other respondents admitted to cursing (36 percent) or waving their fists or arms (11 percent) and 1 percent admitted to slamming into offending vehicles. Each scenario is scary in its own right. In some of the extreme road rage incidents, behaviors have included physical confrontations.

The Scariest Cities

Driving habits are a major contributing factor in road rage and vehicle collisions. In a study at Mississippi State University, a connection between aggressive driving and a higher crash involvement was acknowledged. Worries about personal safety and poor driving can make any metropolitan area scary, and they can put it on the top 10 scariest places to drive list.

Each of the following cities has some of the worst driving situations in the U.S., according to the "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report," which ranks 200 metropolitan cities in relation to their collision statistics.

1. Washington, D.C.

2. Baltimore, Maryland.

3. Glendale, California.

4. Hartford , Connecticut.

5. Newark, New Jersey.

6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

7. Elizabeth, New Jersey.

8. Providence, Rhode Island.

9. San Francisco, California.

10. Los Angeles, California.

Sources:

www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/04mar/04.htm

https://www.autovantage.com/global/scripts/promo.asp?ref=avAUTVANonlgs01

www.ssrc.msstate.edu/divisions/masep/pubpdfs/exploratorystudy.pdf

http://allstatenewsroom.com/categories/6/releases/4529

www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=ragetest

www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/drowsy_driving1/speed_volII_finding/SpeedVolumeIIFindingsFinal.pdf