Driver’s education is a course required in most of the states in America in order for teenagers and new drivers to to obtain a driver’s license. Some things that are taught in driver’s education classes are safe driving, defensive driving, traffic laws, handling emergencies, and simply how to drive (DMV.org). However, when I took driver’s education, approximately five years ago, driving under the influence was a heavily talked about subject, with many pictures and videos to show how bad it can be. We were even given “drunk goggles” and allowed to drive a golf cart around to see how it affected our driving. But one thing that was barely talked about, if at all, was road rage. We were not told to not let our anger take over and to not tailgate, or honk the horn, not to cuss someone out, or give someone the middle finger because all of those actions can lead to careless driving and cause wrecks. We were not told that road rage is just as serious as drunk driving and that it can kill people the same way. Innocent lives get taken from road rage, and the only matter discussed in my driver’s education class was drunk driving. With not knowing what road rage is or how to prevent it then people will continue to have it and people will continue to get hurt or die from it. Driver’s education classes should teach what road rage looks and feels like and how to prevent it from happening. With that being said, every state should have a bill passed by the legislatures that makes driver’s education a requirement in order for a person to obtain a driver’s license. 

Road rage can be described in many different ways. One way in which it can be defined is “as aggressive or violent behavior stemming from a driver’s uncontrolled anger at the actions of another motorist” (DMV.org). Psychology Today describes road rage as “roaring up behind as if they might intentionally rear-end you; constant tailgating; horn honking” and many more examples. The journal Social and Psychiatric Epidemiology simply describes it as “drivers being ‘mad’”. Lastly, Dictionary.com describes it as “a fit of violent anger by the driver of an automobile, especially one directed toward and endangering other motorists or pedestrians”. When asking people what they think road rage is, most would agree with the above definitions in one-way or another. And in general, one can come to the conclusion that road rage is simply a situation in which a driver of a vehicle gets mad or angry at something that another driver or pedestrian is doing and they react in a violent manner, expressing anger. Even though most people agree with some part of the above definitions, they may not agree with it all. This leads people to deny the fact they have road rage because they simply do not think honking the horn at someone, who is stopped at a stoplight when it is green, is road rage. Some common reasons drivers experience road rage includes: fighting over a parking space, being cut off, not being allowed to pass a car, being stuck behind a slow driver and being tailgated by a driver who is already experiencing road rage (Geico.com). This behavior could lead to accidents and possible death to the driver, the other driver/pedestrian or both. Road rage is an extremely dangerous problem that does not need to be taken lightly. It has caused thousands of deaths over recent years and even more wrecks. 

Road rage can also be outside of a vehicle. An example of this is when the driver following someone who made them mad and the driver stops and confronts the other driver. Confrontations can be anything from an exchange of words, to fists fights, to even gun shots and stabbing with knives. This has happened many times, including an incident in Little Rock, Arkansas where a three-year-old boy was struck by gunfire from a man who had road rage with the boy’s grandmother. The police stated that “(the) homicide was a road rage incident” and this incident was one of the latest of various road rage incidents that happened around the same time. Further into the article it is stated that road rage killings are frustrating for police because most of the time the victims are innocent (wcvb.com). Over the years road rage has become more and more worse. People are letting their anger take over and it is costing people their lives for no reason at all. 

Generally, most people think road rage is a person to person situation that occurs at random times. Other people think it can be a psychological problem, and still others think it can be passed down through generations. Then there are those who think it is the way in which one is taught to drive. Everyone agrees that no matter what causes road rage, it is a serious problem that needs “answers” and a way to fix it. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that traffic deaths involve about two-thirds of crash deaths involve aggressive driving” which is more than half and it needs to decrease and stop (USNewsa.com). Too many people have died because of road rage and people need to stop getting so angry while driving because, according to a car insurance company Geico, “out of 10,000 road-rage incidents committed over a seven-year span, there were 218 deaths and 12,610 injuries recorded” and “aggressive driving plays a role in 66% of traffic fatalities”.  

The main thing everyone disagrees on, when it comes to road rage, is what the actual cause is and the type of people it affects. Some researchers even think men have it worse than women and vise-versa. Road rage is a severe problem that can be caused by many different things ranging from psychological problems, to the most obvious, how one person is taught how to drive. No matter the cause, it is a problem that needs to be fixed. US News stated that “nearly 9 in 10 drivers saw aggressive driving as ‘a serious threat to their personal safety’…and more than half of drivers perceived road rage as a bigger problem than in a survey three years earlier”. People are realizing how bad road rage can be, but they are not doing anything to stop it. People are starting to become worried and scared about driving because they think their personal safety will be threatened. 

The problem arises when you ask what causes road rage. Is it a psychological problem? Is it hereditary and passed down from generations? Does it just simply depend on the person? Or is it caused by not being taught to drive properly? There are various people who will agree with one of the above, but what is the real answer? DMV.org suggests that “younger male drivers and people with certain psychological disorders are most prone to engage in aggressive driving and road rage” and along the same lines, the journal Social and Psychiatric Epidemiology states that “previous literature has demonstrated a link between road traffic accidents and mental illness”, so in other words, both articles are suggesting that road rage is caused by a psychological problem. But what if that is not the cause? 

Another journal, Am J Prev Med, suggests road rage can stem from teenagers’ parents driving habits. Simons-Morton, Ouimet and Catalano suggest that “parents provide substantial influence on adolescent behavior in general and have particularly important roles to play with respect to novice teenage driving” which can go hand-in-hand with driver’s education and how a teenager is taught to drive and if they are fully taught the dangers of the road. If a parent does not tell their teenage driver the importance of road safety, then there is a possibility they could lose their son or daughter and no one wants to bury their own child. Therefore, parents should make sure to teach their child the importance of driving safely and not getting mad while behind the wheel.

 In the United States, before a teenager, or new driver, is allowed to get their driver’s license, they must first have a driver’s permit. This means the person with the permit is not allowed to legally drive by themselves. In the state of South Carolina, one must have someone over the age of 21 and who has had a license for more than one year in the passenger seat of the vehicle to legally drive. The rules of driver’s (also called learner’s) permits vary from state to state, but they all are enforced for a good reason (DMV.org). Having someone of age in the car with a new driver helps teach the new driver the rights and wrongs of driving. This is a perfect time for the experienced driver to tell the new driver about how dangerous road rage is and ways to prevent it while driving. Parents should also make sure to enroll their child in driver’s education classes to help aid in teaching the child safe driving strategies. The only time this becomes a problem is if the child lives in Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, Oregon, and Tennessee because these five states do not require driver’s education in order to obtain a driver’s license (DMV.org).  This leads to many other problems besides just road rage because the child is not being properly taught by a legal professional on how to drive legally and the right way.

Driver’s education is a class that most states require new drivers take in order to get their driver’s license. In the state of South Carolina, the Department of Motor Vehicles require driver’s education course for teenagers that are under 17 years of age. In a driver’s education class, new drivers are given a combination of classroom instruction and behind the wheel training. With these two, drivers are supposed to be taught the basics of operating vehicles, techniques for safe driving, how to be a responsible driver and how alcohol and drugs can affect your driving. However, most driver’s education classes focus on the effects of alcohol and drugs on driving and not the dangerous distractions and hazards, such as road rage. 

The dangers of road rage should be taught in every driver’s education class. Many teenagers do not even know what road rage is when they start driving. They do not know that driving extremely close to another car because they are not going fast enough for them is tremendously dangerous and could possibly kill them and the person in front of them. Teenagers, and even older-new drivers, need to be taught to not “risk escalating a frustrating situation, because you never know what the other driver might do” (USNews.org). They also should be taught to not get angry at other drivers on the road. Getting angry behind the wheel does nothing but make matter worse. It never fixes the problem; it only causes more to arise. 

There are numerous ways in which one can prevent feeling and getting road rage. Some of these include deep breathing, putting on soothing music, knowing that you share the road with others, stop making obscene gestures at other drivers (such as giving someone the middle finger), not letting the way others drive affect your driving and keeping space between you and other drivers (DMV.org). Another thing one can do includes leaving in time to get to your destination without having to hurry and worry about being late. When someone is typically running late, and are driving instead of taking other means of transportation, the person tends to speed in an attempt to get there faster. This often leads to a number of problems, including getting frustrated with stop lights and other people in cars who that are actually going the correct speed limit. There is also the increased chance of getting pulled over by a cop, which we all know only makes us angrier. Geico suggests seven ways to avoid road rage including some of the following: move over if someone is tailgating you, use your horn sparingly, listen to music you enjoy and avoid eye contact with angry drivers. 

If all of the above strategies, or even just some of them, are taught in driver’s education classes, then the number of road rage accidents would likely decrease drastically. On the same note, driver’s education classes should be taught and required in every state, in every city and at a reasonable price so people more willing to enroll in the class. An even further step would be to have driver’s education classes be a requirement in order to get your driver’s license for every state, just like having a permit is required before getting a license. State legislatures should get a bill passed that a driver cannot obtain a driver’s license until they have successfully completed a driver’s education course that includes ways to prevent road rage, along with rules and safety for driving. 

A good way to make sure every child gets the driver’s education that they need in order to get a driver’s license is to make it a class in high schools. The high schools can work it into the curriculum that every student has to take and pass driver’s education in order to obtain a high school diploma. The high school I attended and graduated from use to do this. I know this because it is how my sister, who graduated five years before me, took driver’s education. It is a good way to make sure that the teenagers are taught how to properly drive without the families worrying about how they are going to pay for it since most driver’s education classes cost two-hundred dollars or more. 

The roadways can become a safer place if the above things are done. With teenagers and new drivers learning how to properly drive through driver’s education then there will be less wrecks and less deaths from wrecks that are caused by road rage. If it is possible, getting driver’s education taught in every high school will drastically change the way teenagers drive. On top of having driver’s education, parents also can help will getting road rage off the roads. If parents make sure that they do not experience road rage while driving, and especially have their children with them, then the children will not pick up on the gestures. Parents can also help by pushing state legislatures to pass a bill or law to have driver’s education become mandatory and they can push even further to make it a mandatory class students have to take in order to obtain a high school diploma. By doing these things people can save lives and money. Our roads should be a safe place, a simple place to get us from point A to point B without having to worry about getting in a wreck and/or dying due to someone not liking the way in which we drive. Road rage is a simple problem that everyone can fix and stop, if we just take the time to do so. 
