A major new survey from the RAC has highlighted an increasing concern on the issues of road rage on the UK’s major highways.
In the RAC Report on Motoring which was published this week, 1,753 drivers were interviewed asking them what their most pressing motoring worries were and while the use of mobile phones was the top concern, the worries were notably lower than last year’s report.
Worryingly, the incidence of “aggressive behaviour of other drivers” is an increasing concern for the drivers of the UK. While 30 per cent said road rage was their number one concern, up two per cent from 2018’s report, the proportion who said this was their biggest concern has doubled from four per cent to eight per cent, putting it in fourth spot of the top 20 motoring concerns.
Cost of fuel and condition of local roads were also ranked highly in the list, second and third respectively, but aggressive behaviour of other drivers was the highest ranked concern on the increase.
“The most likely explanation must surely be a combination of factors including the pressure of modern life, reliance on the car for so many journeys, record volumes of traffic and congestion leading to never before seen frustration at the wheel,” said the RAC’s road safety spokesperson Simon Williams.
“Perhaps it is also the case that our tolerance of other people who make mistakes while driving is falling. A quick sorry in the form of an apologetic wave could go a long way to taking the heat out of a situation, but unfortunately all too often it is a hand gesture of another sort that leads to an unpleasant car confrontation.”