Stunning road rage: 2 out of 3 drivers keep guns in their car

LONDON — Speeding can be a deadly weapon in its own right, but a new survey finds that many Americans make sure they’re armed when they get behind the wheel.

A survey of 1,000 US residents commissioned by Circuit route planner, found that a staggering 65 percent of drivers keep a weapon in their vehicle in case they need to defend themselves during a road accident. The most common weapon they hide is a knife (50%), followed by pepper spray (45%). However, 40 percent admit to carrying a gun with them while on the road.

Other weapons that American drivers have on hand include tire spikes (39%), baseball bats (38%), hockey sticks (31%), Tasers (31%), and lacrosse sticks (14%).

As for which cars you might want to stay away from if things get heated on the road, the survey found that BMW, Hyundai and Mercedes drivers are the most likely to keep dangerous weapon in their car. Incidentally, researchers report that road rage shootings hit a record high in 2021.

The concern is that it doesn’t seem to matter where Americans drive, locals believe road rage is worst where they live. While 39 percent of urban drivers think road rage is worse where they live than anywhere else in the country, 53 percent still think urban drivers are just as prone to road rage. More than half of residents in villages (54%), small towns (58%) and suburban areas (67%) think road rage is just as bad where they live as anywhere else – including cities.

Who are the biggest culprits of road rage?

Whether it’s true or not, men have the worst reputation when it comes to this angry behavior on the road. Half of the poll thinks men are most susceptible to road rage accidents, with younger drivers following in second place (42%). People who own sports cars (35%), women (31%) and older drivers (28%) also get poor marks for being overly aggressive drivers.

Interestingly, women turn out to be the most critical of female drivers. In fact, respondents were 71% more likely than men to blame other women for succumbing to road rage.

So what do we mean when we talk about “road rage”? These actions include everything from speeding (which 40% of respondents admit to doing), honking their horns (28%), suddenly stopping or “checking the brakes” of another driver (26%), making angry hand gestures ( 24%) and shouting (23 %).

However, things can quickly get out of hand, causing some drivers to chase or race other cars (20%), cut vehicles on purpose (16%), tailgate (16%) and even point a gun at another driver (4%).

The road rage capital is in… Oregon?

While busy streets and bumper-to-bumper traffic seem to make big cities the perfect place for road rage, the study found that the road rage “capital” of America is actually Eugene, Oregon!

Using data from Twitter, the poll found that for every 100,000 people, 500 #roadrage tweets came from this Pacific Northwest city. That’s over 100 more than the next closest location, Atlanta, Georgia. Interestingly, famously congested areas like New York and Los Angeles didn’t even make the top 20 cities for road rage.

Because road rage can easily lead to accidents, injuries and even deaths, researchers say it’s critical that drivers learn to keep your cool. Here are some tips from AAA to deal with potential road rage incidents while driving:

• Keep a safe distance
• Horn only when necessary
• Do not make others change their speed or direction
• Be kind (imagine the person who just walked out in front of you lost their job today)
• Don’t deal with angry drivers

Methodology

Circuit Route Planner surveyed 1,000 Americans about their perceptions of road rage and their own driving behavior. This data was combined with Twitter exhaustion of #roadrage and analyzed according to the location of each tweet. All data are per 100,000 residents in the top 150 US cities by population