Atlanta drivers among nation’s road rage leaders

Don’t take it personally when some driver cuts you off on I-85 and throws up a one-fingered salute as a parting gesture.

It’s just Atlanta drivers being part of a national trend.

A survey ranks Atlanta among the five worst cities in the U.S. when it comes to road rage incidents and aggressive driving habits.

That means motorists in the metro region, home to four expressways and Ga. 400 and some of the nation’s most congested traffic conditions, are more prone to tailgate, give you the finger, weave in and out of traffic lanes, bad-mouth you and act otherwise rude behind the wheel than in other cities.

Elaine Hicks of Lithonia recalled Tuesday how the father of her daughter was a target of a driver’s misplaced rage.

“He tried to defuse it by getting off the exit, but the guy just kept following him. It got to the point where he felt in fear of his life,” Hicks said of the incident that happened about three years ago.

“I told my daughter that those things happen, but the best thing to do is to try to defuse it, ignore it, don’t respond,” said Hicks, who said she wrote a song about the experience. “The best bet is to avoid it altogether, because it could escalate into something bad.”

“In any populated city in this country, you’ll find a lot of road incidents, arguments, whatever you’ll call it,” said Lt. Paul Cosper of the Georgia State Patrol. “And more the roads are congested, the more aggravated people will get.”

“When they get aggravated, they’ll yell or start blowing their horn. “The next thing, hand gestures get involved and it escalates from there,” Cosper said.

Cobb County Police receives periodic calls from citizens reporting road rage and aggressive driving incidents, mostly along the interstates.

“It is a matter of being in the right place at the right time for us to catch someone either aggressively driving or in a road rage incident,” spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

The way to defuse most road rage situations is easy, Cosper said: “You become a courteous driver.”

“AutoVantage, a national auto club, has commissioned the In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey for the past four years.

More than 2,500 people were questioned about why some drivers are prone to road rage than others.

According to the survey, Big Apple drivers are the worst when it comes to road rage. New York leapfrogged from No. 3 last year to surpass Miami as the metro area with the least courteous drivers.

Dallas-Fort Worth is second among road rage offenders, followed by Detroit.

Then there’s Minneapolis-St. Paul, in fifth place among the least courteous drivers.

In 2006, the survey said the region had the most courteous drivers.

Look to the Northwest for highway niceness this time around.

Portland, Ore., took the top spot in the survey, moving up from No. 2 last year. It was followed by Cleveland, Baltimore, Sacramento, Calif., and Pittsburgh.

The survey of people living in 25 major metropolitan areas was done between Jan. 8 and March 24.