Swansea named as UK’s road rage capital

Published 16 November 2018

Swansea has been named as the UK’s road rage capital.

A study into driver behaviour claims that 69 per cent of motorists in the Welsh city have experienced some form of aggression on the road, closely followed by Southampton (64 per cent) and Bristol (61 per cent).

>>> Dash cameras: Everything you need to know

The figures were revealed by a survey of 2000 drivers by the insurance comparison website MoneySuperMarket. 

Aberystwyth was the area with the fewest instances of road rage – with nearly a third (29 per cent) of drivers in the Welsh market town saying they had experienced it. 

The poll suggests that that over half (53 per cent) of drivers in the UK have been a victim of road rage, with a third (34 per cent) saying they had been followed and intimidated by another driver, while 15 per cent claimed to have even been threatened with physical violence.

A separate study of 2000 drivers by dash cam manufacturer Nextbase claims that women are most likely to experience road rage, with 49 per cent of female drivers saying they had experienced it compared to 37 per cent of men.

Furthermore, 31 per cent of women said they were affected for days after the event and acknowledged the emotional affect can sometimes last years. A quarter (25 per cent) of women said they were worried about falling victim to abusive behaviour on the road again, while 21 per cent were more nervous drivers as a result.

While men were generally less likely to feel long-term effects they were also impacted negatively: twice as many men (22 per cent) admit they’re more likely to shout at people after an incident in the future, compared to women (11 per cent). 

Nextbase recently launched a dash cam safety portal, which links motorists in England and Wales directly with their local police force so they can report cases of suspected dangerous driving.

 

*Dash camera footage provided by Nextbase

Comments

jimboLL    on 16 November 2018

Given the ludicrous number of traffic lights in Swansea, coupled with the council's insistence on digging the entire city up every 2 years when they come up with yet another hare-brained traffic management / busway / road closure scheme, this news does not surprise me in the slightest.

gavsmit    on 16 November 2018

Almost every journey I make has some incompetent and aggressive idiot putting other's lives in danger, then wants to fight you when you, or someone else, points that out to them.

It's amazing how many of these people are charging about as if they are in a serious hurry, but then quite happy to stop and waste time having a fight when flashed or the horn is sounded.

Only earlier did someone start sounding their horn at me after almost crashing into me when they were completely at fault for not being in the correct lane for where they wanted to go (and it was clearly signed as such too).

I blame an over reliance on automated cameras for things like speeding and bus lanes - someone in power somewhere is kidding themselves that the cameras reduce the need for proper road policing.....or can't be bothered to consider that to be actually true as the cameras are bringing in so much cash, most of it from people who are driving more sensibly than the nutters causing road rage and accidents.

jchinuk    on 19 November 2018

The article does not actually define "road rage", which can range from beeping someone to stopping and assaulting the driver.

The survey is a bit meaningless, unless the degree of "rage" is specified.

I might beep some if I'm not sure they are aware of my vehicle's proximity, but I'm not annoyed just being careful, yet they might interpret that as a case of "road rage".

Theophilus    on 19 November 2018

I note that the top (or should be bottom?) three are all sea-ports ... the invigorating influence of the sea breezes / or polluting fumes from docked ships burning heavy fuel oil while in port???

jimboLL    on 19 November 2018

Swansea is more of a port-in-name-only. The docks have become the "SA1" development. no fumes.

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