Don’t let road rage ruin the season of goodwill

Road rage is alive and well on the UK's highways and byways, as results of a survey of over 500 drivers conducted by online car insurance company swiftcover.com show 88 per cent of us are angered by other road users whilst driving. Close to a quarter (22 per cent) of all respondents lose their cool every time they get in the car.

The biggest irritant for road users is drivers who don't indicate, with just under a quarter marking this as the top action for making their blood boil. This was closely followed by "middle lane drivers", who avoid the slow lane on the motorway, with just under a fifth of respondents putting this as their top irritant. This was followed by tailgaters at 14 per cent, aggressive drivers at 10 per cent and reckless drivers at eight per cent.

How do British drivers respond to poor driving? The most common way to respond is to flash your lights, followed by rude gestures (63 per cent), swearing at other drivers (54 per cent), sounding your horn and threatening other drivers verbally (31 per cent). Some drivers even intentionally cause a collision to get their point across.

The survey also asked which vehicles and their drivers were most likely to cause road rage. Lorry drivers are the most hated on the road, with 39 per cent of the vote. Second in the list with close to a fifth of top answers were buses, followed by white van drivers. Other irritants marked were learner drivers and boy/girl racers.

When it came to speeding, respondents were more likely to get angry with drivers going under the speed limit, rather than over. 88 per cent of those surveyed got annoyed with cars driving too slowly, whereas 61 per cent got angry about drivers behind them exceeding the speed limit.

If you're planning to drive home this Christmas, set off at lunchtime - the least stressful part of the day to drive, rather than at morning rush hour, which nearly one third of drivers believe is the worst time to drive.

Commenting on the results, Tina Shortle, marketing director at swiftcover.com said: "It was interesting to see what makes the UK's drivers hot under the collar. It was clear that certain driving habits were far more likely to make people irate than others, so I hope drivers take note to make their driving as safe and considerate to other road users as possible this Christmas. swiftcover.com supports safe driving to ensure its customers premiums continue to stay some of the lowest in the insurance market today."