New research has revealed that two in three motorists have experienced road rage with Belfast and Sheffield having the angriest roads.

The analysis from Comparethemarket.com found that 62 per cent of drivers had encountered a road range incident, with close to one in three seeing two examples a week! The problem appears to be so bad that 30 per cent of motorists confess that they have actually had a face-to-face confrontation with a fellow driver.

While the red mist can fall for a number of reasons, the most common causes are tailgating (35 per cent) and slow driving (29 per cent), with slow drivers a huge source of frustration in Belfast, which has the highest area for road rage in the UK.

The report on the insurance comparison website found that both past and present experience can increase the likelihood of road rage.

“Our road rage tendencies are partly down to our experiences while watching others drive which can have a great impact on how we perceive what is normal while driving,” said neuro-linguistic expert Rebecca Lockwood. “For those who have grown up watching a parent express road rage, it can be common for us to inhabit these behaviours as we grow older.”

“Road rage is often intensified by external factors we experience in our day-to-day lives. While experiencing stress in other areas of your life it’s common for them to burst out in other situations.

“When we are experiencing road rage in the car, it’s much easier to forget that the other cars hold real people. It dissociates someone from the situation and creates a barrier between the person and the car.”

The report goes on to say that though road rage is not an actual offence under UK law, some 75 per cent of those surveyed believed that it should be recognised as a crime.

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