{"id":19320,"date":"2016-05-18T12:01:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T12:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/?p=19320"},"modified":"2021-10-28T16:52:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:52:39","slug":"expedia-road-rage-report-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/expedia-road-rage-report-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Expedia Road Rage Report 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the days get longer and school winds down, I can\u2019t help but think about road trips. Our Expedia Viewfinder team got a head-start on the season by road-tripping Glacier Country, Montana<\/a>, over the past week. During Memorial Day, which comes later this month, more than 30 million Americans are expected to hit the roads as well.<\/p>\n

All this drive time means Americans\u2014and visitors to our great country!\u2014are set to spend hours behind the wheel. Because we at Expedia love data, we figured we\u2019d take a look at what people think about the behaviors they encounter on the road.<\/p>\n

Enter our annual Road Rage Report, an annual analysis of driving etiquette. The study, now in its third year, was commissioned by Expedia<\/a> and conducted by GfK, an independent global market research company. As part of the research, GfK asked more than 1,000 adult American drivers to articulate their opinions of fellow motorists, including which behaviors infuriate them the most.<\/p>\n

The results<\/a> were entertaining to say the least.<\/p>\n

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The most irritating behaviors<\/strong><\/p>\n

For starters, with 22 percent of the vote, survey respondents named \u201cThe Texter\u201d as the most aggravating driver on the road. \u201cThe Tailgater,\u201d that person who drives way too close to our rear bumpers, came in second at 14 percent, and \u201cThe Last-Minute Line-Cutter\u201d finished third at 13 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Left-Lane Hog\u201d and \u201cThe Crawler\u201d rounded out the bottom five of the ranking this year.<\/p>\n

Other notables on the list: \u201cThe Swerver\u201d (8 percent), \u201cThe Honker\u201d (3 percent), and \u201cThe Red-Light Racer\u201d (1 percent).<\/p>\n

Survey results also indicated that the most common motorist misbehavior is weaving in and out of traffic, which has been witnessed by 80 percent of respondents. The second most common offense is \u201cdangerous speeding\u201d (77 percent), followed by \u201cmultitasking\u201d (76 percent), being \u201ccut off\u201d (73 percent), and \u201caggressive tailgating\u201d (68 percent).<\/p>\n

Personally, I feel like I witness other drivers texting while driving more than anything else, but\u2014surprisingly, IMHO\u2014the data did not support this claim.<\/p>\n

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Rudeness by region<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our survey also looked at data by region, and findings here probably won\u2019t surprise you too much.<\/p>\n

A whopping 43 percent of survey respondents said drivers in New York City exhibit the \u201cworst road rage,\u201d making it the least courteous driving city in America. Los Angeles came in second on our \u201cRudeness Rankings,\u201d cited by 30 percent of survey respondents. Holding steady at No. 3: Chicago, which 16 percent of respondents tabbed as the worst.<\/p>\n

Of the 25 American cities listed in the study, Portland, Oregon, was deemed most courteous, cited by only 1 percent of respondents. The second most courteous city was Minneapolis\/St. Paul, at 2 percent.<\/p>\n

Also on the subject of rudeness, an overwhelming number of drivers\u201448 percent of respondents\u2014still report receiving the middle finger while on the road. About 35 percent of our survey respondents said they have been the subjects of yelling or cursing, while 13 percent said they have been accosted by a driver who exited his or her vehicle to do so.<\/p>\n

An alarming 9 percent of survey respondents said have gotten into a physical altercation with another driver. People! Calm the heck down! As one of my fellow Expedia Viewfinders likes to say: We are all Earthlings!<\/p>\n

Viewfinder Tip: Treat others on the road as you would like them to treat you. (It isn’t rocket science!)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additional findings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because we\u2019re awesome, our 2016 Road Rage Report even took a look at the most offensive behaviors AMONG PASSENGERS IN OUR OWN CARS. On this point, more than 61 percent of survey respondents cited backseat driving as the \u201cmost offensive\u201d behavior their co-passengers exhibit, followed by the passengers who won\u2019t help navigate, or \u201creluctant co-pilots\u201d (11 percent) and \u201cthe radio hog\u201d (9 percent). \u201cThe snoozer\u201d was cited by 6 percent of survey respondents as an offensive co-passenger, and 5 percent called out \u201cThe shoeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some other interesting data points:<\/p>\n