Driver behavior trends
Even with decades of advancements in automotive safety, driving is probably the most dangerous thing you do each day.
While drivers have significant control over their own behavior—choosing how cautiously to drive, how fast to go, and what risks to take—there’s always an element of unpredictability. That unpredictability often comes in the form of other drivers.
Along with distracted driving and intoxicated driving, aggressive driving and road rage represent a major danger on the road. Aggressive driving and road rage alone contribute to 66% of traffic fatalities in the U.S. This can include behaviors like tailgating or weaving in and out of traffic to more directly antagonistic behaviors like shouting obscenities, rude gestures or even violence.
The Zebra periodically surveys drivers to learn what behaviors they’re experiencing (or committing) while on the road and their perception on how road rage is changing. Here’s what we learned:
What aggressive behaviors are people seeing and experiencing in 2025?
When people think of road rage, they often think of the more targeted cases like yelling curses or rude gestures. Or they think of the more extreme violent cases that make the news with weapons being used or a vehicle being forced off the road.
However, aggressive driving behaviors like weaving in and out of traffic and tailgating are much more common and nevertheless destructive to traffic patterns and safety.
In our study, when asked what aggressive driving behaviors they had witnessed in the past 6 months, weaving in and out of traffic was the number one answer with 63% of respondents reporting witnessing it. Tailgating and running a red light, which was the top witnessed behavior when we ran this survey in 2024, came in second and third.
Overall, of our respondents 97% had witnessed at least one behavior on our list.
So, who is doing all this tailgating, light running, and cutting off of other drivers? Apparently, not the survey respondents.
When asked what behaviors they themselves had committed in the past 6 months, 44% said absolutely none, which was the number one answer. That's actually even higher than when we ran the survey last year. 22% admitted to honking at another driver out of anger. Interestingly, this was only fifth on the list of witnessed behaviors and fourth on the list of experienced behaviors.
This draws into question the reliability of people to monitor and reflect on their own behavior. People are naturally much better at witnessing and reporting bad behaviors in others than in admitting to it themselves, even anonymously.
Which cars are the worst on the road?
We asked respondents if there was a make of car that they thought was the most associated with the road rage behaviors they were witnessing. A little less than half of the respondents didn't think there was a correlation between a particular make and driving behavior.
Of those who saw worse behavior from some vehicles more than others, the worst offenders were reported to be those driving Fords. Nearly 12% of respondents cited Ford drivers as most associated with aggressive driving. The make of car that was the second most associated with road rage was BMW, with 7% of respondents choosing it.
There were some clear differences across generations for this question. Boomers were the least likely to connect road rage to a specific model of car. Meanwhile, Gen Z thought Ford drivers were the worst by the widest margin.
Is road rage getting worse?
We asked respondents if they thought road rage had gotten worse since the previous year and the overwhelming majority said yes. In fact, 76% of people believe that road rage has increased, and that number held reasonably steady across all generations and genders.
So, has road rage actually gotten worse?
When we did this survey in 2024, as in 2025, the top behavior people had experienced was tailgating. In 2024, around 45% of people had experienced it. And in our recent survey, around 52% of people had, so that did go up slightly.
However, the reverse was true for some of the most aggressive behaviors. In 2024, over 13% of people said they had been forced off the road by another driver, compared to 8% in 2025. Similarly, in 2024, 10% of people said another driver got out of their vehicle to confront them, compared to 6% in 2025.
While the most dangerous road rage situations seem to be happening less, the more common behaviors that are witnessed every day may be happening more. This could be why people's perception is that road rage is getting worse.
How to avoid road rage
If this study shows us anything, it is that people are driving aggressively on the road, even if they aren’t aware they’re doing it.
Pay attention to your own behavior when you’re driving. Are you following too closely? Acting in an aggressive manner? Breezing through that light as it turned? On your cell phone while waiting at a light?
If another driver is behaving erratically or aggressively, do not engage. Try to stay well clear of them and— if the situation warrants it — report to law enforcement when it is safe to do so.
You can get more tips for avoiding road rage situations here.
Methodology
This survey was conducted by Survey Monkey in June 2025 and received responses from 825 American drivers.