Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Our mission is to reduce the societal burden of injury and violence through surveillance, research, intervention, evaluation, outreach, dissemination, and training.
Road Rage
Using data from a telephone survey in Arizona, we examined the relationship between road rage and gun carrying in motor vehicles. We found that self-reported hostile actions (e.g., obscene gestures, cursing or shouting, aggressively tailgating) were more common among men, young adults, and individuals who carried a firearm in their car.
Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David; Solop, Frederic I. Road rage in Arizona: Armed and dangerous? Accident Analysis and Prevention. 2002; 34:807-814.
Over 2,400 licensed drivers responded to questions about their own aggressive driving in a 2004 national random-digit-dial survey. We found that 17% of respondents admitted to making obscene or rude gestures in the past year, and another 9% admitted to aggressively following too closely. Males, young adults, binge drinkers, those ever arrested for a non-traffic violation, and motorists who had been in a vehicle in which there was a gun, were more likely to engage in such forms of road rage.
Hemenway, David; Vriniotis, Mary; Miller, Matthew. Is an armed society a polite society? Guns and road rage. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 2006; 38:687-95.