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Road rage: drivers' understandings and experiences

Deborah Lupton
Journal of Sociology 2002 38: 275
DOI: 10.1177/144078302128756660

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Road rage: drivers
understandings and
experiences
Deborah Lupton
Centre for Cultural Research into Risk, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst

Abstract
The phenomenon of road rage has attracted much media attention since the
mid-1990s, but little research has been conducted into how motorists have
incorporated the concept into their experiences and understandings of driving.
This article reports the findings from a qualitative study on road rage, which
used in-depth interviews with 77 people living in Sydney to investigate the
meanings given to road rage and aggressive driving. The research showed
that driving was a potent source of autonomy, pleasure and self-expression
among motorists, meanings that were often frustrated by the travails of nego-
tiating the road system. The concept of road rage had become integrated into
the interviewees accounts of driving, and they were uniformly condemning of
it. Road rage was represented as a response to the stresses of urban living,
not only driving in a crowded road system but also the pressures exerted by
such factors as a competitive work environment and lack of time. A strong
gender and social class difference was noted in the ways in which the inter-
viewees described their emotional responses to driving frustrations. The find-
ings revealed that the expression of anger in road rage is negatively
conceptualized because of the challenges it poses to the idea of the civilized
body/self, but also that such expression is seen as understandable in the con-
text of an urban environment replete with stress.
Key words: aggressive driving, anger, emotion, road rage

Introduction
The phenomenon known as road rage has attracted much media attention
in recent years. Road rage is a new term, used to describe a range of aggres-

Journal of Sociology 2002 The Australian Sociological Association, Volume 38(3): 275290
[00048690(200209)38:3;275290;029538]

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276 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

sive and dangerous driving behaviours directed at other motorists. The

phrase invokes images of uncontrolled temper, the open display of anger
and frustration. Whether it is referred to by this more colloquial term or
more formally as aggressive driving, such behaviour has been subject to a
heightened level of concern and policy-making since the mid 1990s, when
it first began receiving attention in the news media (Lupton, 2001).
Acts of violence on the roads have been an object of academic study for
over 30 years, mainly from within the discipline of psychology (Brewer,
2000: 49). Most of the relevant literature uses quantitative methods to
investigate the difference between drivers who are aggressive and those who
are not, focusing on psychosocial and individualistic factors (Lowenstein,
1997). There are very few studies in this area that adopt a sociocultural per-
spective or take an in-depth or qualitative interpretive approach. Indeed,
given the everyday nature of driving for many people in western societies,
and the important and dominant role played by the motor vehicle in these
societies, both as a form of transport and as a consumer commodity
(Stallabrass, 1996; Graves-Brown, 1997; Lupton, 1999), it is surprising
how little sociological research has been published on driving or car culture.
Even fewer sociological studies have sought to address the question of
aggressive driving or road rage.
In this article, I report on the findings from a qualitative interview-based
study exploring Sydneysiders experiences of road rage, focusing here on
three major aspects: the driving experience; the characterization of road
rage and road ragers; and anger and the self. First, however, I provide an
account of how perspectives from the sociology of emotions may provide
some insights for how to conceptualize and theorize road rage as a socio-
cultural phenomenon.

The sociology of the emotions and the road rage

phenomenon
From a sociological perspective, the emotions are not viewed unproblemat-
ically as embodied sensations that are solely physiological and thus univer-
sal across societies and cultures. Rather, the emotional experience is
regarded as being at least partly (and for some strong constructionist soci-
ologists, fully) a product of socialization and acculturation. For Lyon and
Barbalet (1994: 48), for example, emotion is described as embodied social-
ity, for it provides a clear link between the body and the social world, while
Finkelstein (1980: 112) sees emotions as the heart of social discourse.
Emotions are integral to our self-conception and are used to give meaning
and provide explanation for our lives (Lupton, 1998). Emotions locate the
individual within the world of social interactions because they are gener-
ated through interactions with others. As Denzin puts it: A person cannot

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 277

experience an emotion without the implicit or imagined presence of others

(Denzin, 1984: 3).
One project for sociologies of emotion has been to explore the ways in
which ideas about the ideal body/self have historically been associated with
notions of the emotions. As Elias (1939/1994) has shown, concepts of emo-
tional regulation have changed dramatically in western societies since pre-
modern times, in concert with the emergence of notions of the civilized
body/self. The civilized body/self, as against the grotesque body/self
(Bakhtin, 1984) is autonomous, contained, controlled, its borders strictly
policed. Free expression of emotions, particularly those regarded as nega-
tive, such as anger or sadness, is undesirable, because it detracts from the
ideals of containment and self-control. Such loss of control has historically
been associated with women, young people, people of other than northern
European ancestry and members of disadvantaged social classes, who have
been culturally positioned as emotionally labile and expressive. In contrast
stands the figure of the middle-aged bourgeois man of northern European
ancestry, who is typically portrayed as emotionally contained, even to the
point of stultification (Stearns and Stearns, 1986; Gerhards, 1989; de
Swaan, 1990; Wouters, 1992; Lupton, 1998).
Contemporary discourses on emotion in western societies suggest that it
has the power to overcome self-control, releasing elements of the
grotesque body/self that individuals try to keep contained. There are cer-
tain emotions that are considered especially problematic and needful of
tight control. Discourses of anger, in particular, represent this emotion as
socially destructive and chaotic, requiring a high degree of self-management
to keep in check (Lupton, 1998). Anger is often portrayed metaphorically
as akin to insanity and as animalistic in its sheer force and ability to break
through the civilized veneer (Lakoff, 1987).
In its focus on the public expression of anger, frustration and rage, the
road rage phenomenon raises interesting questions about contemporary
ideas in Australian society concerning these emotions. Popular representa-
tions of road rage, for example, demonstrate intriguing perspectives on the
ways in which anger, frustration and rage are viewed. A study I conducted
of accounts of road rage published in the Sydney press between 1995 and
2000 (Lupton, 2001) found that people who engaged in road rage were
described in highly negative terms as almost subhuman and dangerous to
others in their inability to control their anger or divert it non-aggressively.
They were characterized using such words and terms as exploding with
anger, monsters, frenzied, in a blind rage, evil, uncivilized and bad
to the bone. Importantly, however, many reports also emphasized that all
drivers were incipient road ragers. While young men were portrayed in
some newspaper accounts as the most likely perpetrators of road rage, it
was suggested that any driver could potentially lose control. Road rage
was depicted as a response to the stresses of modern urban living and

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278 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

competing pressures of home and work, as well as to the more immediate

factors of driving, such as road congestion. While, therefore, loss of control
of ones emotions was by no means sanctioned in press accounts, it was
often justified by social structural factors.
The questions remain of how motorists in contemporary western soci-
eties such as Australia conceptualize and experience road rage/aggressive
driving, what meanings they give it and how they have responded to the
often sensationalist news media publicity around road rage. To investigate
these issues further, a study was conducted using the qualitative research
technique of in-depth interviewing to examine the conceptualizations and
experiences of road rage on the part of drivers living in Sydney.

The study
The study did not set out to investigate the frequency of experiences (as vic-
tim or perpetrator) of aggressive driving behaviours in a defined popula-
tion. The aim was rather to provide detailed insights into the ways in which
the concept and meanings of road rage have been incorporated into ideas
and experiences of driving. Interviewees were encouraged to tell narratives
about their driving experiences which allowed for the exploration of how
they related to their cars and viewed themselves as drivers and in relation
to other drivers. They were asked, for example, to describe what they liked
and disliked about driving, how they characterized a good and bad driver,
whether they considered themselves a good driver, and to recount stories of
bad driving experiences. As the interview progressed, the focus was nar-
rowed to the topic of aggressive driving and road rage, and interviewees
were invited to recount their experiences of feeling angry or aggressive
while driving and of road rage (if any).
An important feature of the study was the focus given to comparing
responses to and experiences of road rage by members of different social
groups, with a particular emphasis on age, gender and socioeconomic status
(SES). The participants were recruited using the following procedure,
designed to achieve a degree of randomization in the selection of participants
but also allowing for some stratification by SES, gender and age. Using the
latest edition of Sydney: A Social Atlas (Australian Bureau of Statistics,
1998), those Sydney suburbs of extreme high SES disadvantage and high SES
advantage (based on such indicators as average income, education level, car
ownership, home ownership and unemployment rates) were identified. From
these, eight suburbs (four of high SES advantage and four of high SES disad-
vantage) were randomly selected. Research assistants travelled to these sub-
urbs and recruited participants by door-knocking, with the goal of obtaining
10 interviewees from each suburb. Interviews took place in participants own
homes, at their convenience. All interviewees were regular drivers (for the
purpose of this study, defined as driving at least once a fortnight).

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 279

A total of 77 interviewees participated in the study: 40 from the socioe-

conomically disadvantaged suburbs and 37 from the advantaged suburbs
(40 interviews were completed there but three were found to be unusable
because of tape malfunction). Somewhat more men (42) than women (35)
were interviewed. The age range of the interviewees was from 18 to 87,
with 32 aged under 40 and 45 aged over 40. The disadvantaged group was
less educated than the advantaged group: only 10 of the former had any
university education compared with 21 of the latter, and 19 of the disad-
vantaged group had not completed the final year of high school compared
with only four of the advantaged group. There were also more people in the
disadvantaged group who described themselves as having an ethnic back-
ground that was not Anglo-Celtic: 22 as compared with only five of the
advantaged group. These differences in demographic characteristics are not
unexpected, given that the general population in the disadvantaged suburbs
has less education and is more ethnically diverse than those living in the
advantaged suburbs (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1998).
All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. The analy-
sis involved reading and re-reading the transcripts with the following
research questions in mind:
How is road rage conceptualized and represented among the general
public?
How have people incorporated the concept of road rage into their expe-
riences as drivers interacting with other road users?
To what extent is road rage considered an appropriate response to road
conditions or other motorists driving?
What implications does the road rage phenomenon have for under-
standing how we think about the emotional expression and control of
anger, frustration and aggression?
What is the relationship between gender, age and socioeconomic status
and aggressive driving?
In considering these questions, attention was paid to key words and
phrases used to describe phenomena and to recurring themes and discourses
across the interview transcripts.

Findings
The driving experience
Most interviewees said that they enjoyed driving. The dominant explana-
tions for their enjoyment were those of convenience, independence and free-
dom. A car was portrayed as allowing people to move around freely and to
do so whenever they wanted. This representation of driving was most
evocatively recounted by a 19-year-old male university student (Greek eth-
nicity, from a disadvantaged suburb). This man, at the time of interview,

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280 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

had just bought the car of his dreams. He said that he loved driving
because:
Driving first of all is like a sense of freedom. I mean, youre in your house all day
long, trapped, whatever. You know that youve got your car in the driveway, its
yours, youve got the keys to it, you own it. So I mean, as soon as you jump in
it you know its there. I love driving because I can feel the car. You know, I can
control it, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. I can do whatever speeds
I want. I can break the law if I want, you know. I just, I really enjoy driving, yeah.
Specially when youve got a decent car.

The emphasis on the pleasure of control of a motor vehicle, the oppor-

tunity it allows for personal expression and autonomy, is particularly strong
in this account. Several others (typically men with expensive, powerful cars)
talked about the opportunity to enjoy the technical aspects of driving and
the capabilities of their vehicles, while yet others (both men and women)
referred to driving as a time in which they could relax, wind down and
enjoy some solitude or time away from the rest of the world. According to
a 21-year-old male car detailer and professional driver (Maltese, advan-
taged suburb), for example:
Its a release sometimes. Just to be able to get onto the road and put some music
on and just chill out and be in between doing things in your life. It just gives you
a bit of time to prepare your thinking or your thoughts for whats about to hap-
pen next.

The worst aspects of driving, according to the interviewees, related

mostly to the travails and frustrations involved with moving around the city
on crowded roads. Many people referred to peak hour in Sydney as a diffi-
cult and frustrating time for driving, which they would rather avoid if pos-
sible. In contrast, interviewees talked about the pleasures of driving on the
open road, taking trips in the countryside and enjoying the scenery and the
experience of driving for its own sake. Here, the major disjunction between
the discourses of freedom and convenience and those of stress and hardship
in talking about driving was evident. While motorists appreciated and val-
ued their cars for the freedom they offered, in reality the experience of driv-
ing in the city was constraining, frustrating and often far from convenient
if stuck in peak-hour traffic or a traffic jam. It is interesting, however, that
very few people mentioned the dangerous aspects of driving (that is, the
risks of having a serious accident and being injured or killed) as a negative
feature, even though several people had experienced major accidents and
most had experienced near accidents that could have been serious.
Most interviewees identified the qualities of a good driver as the follow-
ing: cautious, polite and considerate of other drivers, sensible, patient,
obeys the road rules, knows how to handle their car and observant of oth-
ers driving and road conditions. Bad drivers were described as: taking
risks, not being considerate of others, driving fast, tailgating, behaving

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 281

aggressively, not adhering to the road rules and being impatient. These
characterizations were universal among the interviewee group, regardless of
gender, ethnicity or SES. Most people described themselves as good, or at
least fairly good or average drivers. They often made reference to their
caution, propensity to obey the road rules and their courtesy to others when
describing themselves as a good driver. As these responses suggest, good
driving was seen to involve not only skill, patience and caution, but also
courtesy to others, an awareness that one is sharing the road with others.
Notions of the driving experience set the scene for how road rage may
be conceptualized and experienced. Beliefs that driving is, or should be,
pleasurable, and that this pleasure is derived from feelings of freedom and
mobility, influence how drivers might conceptualize and respond to other
road users, particularly those they perceive as limiting their freedom and
mobility in some way. This emphasis on freedom and autonomy is under-
lined by ideas about the negative aspects of driving, which focus not on the
risks of accidents and injury or death, but rather on frustrations caused by
the impediment of free movement of ones car. Notions of the good and
bad driver emphasize the expectations that drivers have of other drivers to
be courteous as well as cautious, patient as well as law-abiding. It is when
such expectations and assumptions are violated, one might suggest, that the
space for frustration and anger and potentially for behaviours associated
with road rage may open up.

Characterizing road rage and road ragers

The interviewees were asked how they would define road rage and what
they thought of those who engaged in it. Most people remembered first
hearing the term in the mid-1990s in the news media, often in relation to a
violent incident occurring in the United States. Road rage was uniformly
described in the interviewees accounts as involving aggressive acts and loss
of temper. Some people acknowledged that such actions as shouting at
other motorists and beeping their horn aggressively were often referred to
as road rage in such forums as the media or popular discourse. But many
went on to emphasize that these were minor incidents, and that the term
road rage really referred to more aggressive or violent actions such as get-
ting out of ones car and approaching the other motorists car and harass-
ing or assaulting them. As a 21-year-old male administrative officer
(Chinese, disadvantaged suburb) put it: Beeping your horn, I dont really
see that as road rage. But getting out and swearing at a person or something
yeah, thatd be road rage.
As these responses suggest, the term road rage is subject to a broad range
of definitions, and lacks preciseness in lay explanations. What is common
to all understandings as they were articulated by the interviewees was the
notion that road rage is the product of frustration or anger, or both, and is
the outward display of these emotions to other road users.

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282 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

Road ragers were characterized by nearly all interviewees as individuals

who had lost control of their emotions. A 66-year-old housewife (Anglo-
Celtic, disadvantaged suburb), for example, defined road ragers as: People
who virtually lose control of themselves, and thats when they lose control
of the situation. Who want to attack anyone who frustrates them in any
way. For some, the notion of irrationality was incorporated into their
definition of road rage. A 60-year-old male engineering manager (Anglo-
Celtic, advantaged suburb) defined road rage as a situation when people
act irrationally to situations to the point where they become violent about
it.
The belief that aggressive behaviour on the roads was inherent, part of
an aggressive personality type, was also frequently expressed in the inter-
views. As a 46-year-old male printer (Anglo-Celtic, disadvantaged suburb)
asserted:
I think if its your nature to be aggressive, whether at home or whether its drink-
ing alcohol that makes you aggressive, or say its just your nature, well, thats the
way you are. Youre going to get aggressive if something happens to you while
driving. And, if thats your nature, then its going to come out. Whether youre
driving, riding a bicycle or driving up the road.

Several people also referred to road ragers as having a selfish or arrogant

attitude. For example, a 48-year-old male health inspector (Anglo-Celtic,
disadvantaged suburb) said: they think its their road and no one elses, so
what they want to do, everyone else has to do too. Perjorative terms such
as stupid, crazy, mentally unstable, just silly people and idiot were
also commonly used to described road ragers. No one, even those who
admitted to perpetrating aggression themselves, said that they thought
aggressive behaviour was appropriate on the roads.
The interviewees were asked to comment on whether they thought cer-
tain types of people were more likely to be aggressive drivers. Most people
did not think that this was the case. As a 45-year-old female community
support worker (Anglo-Celtic, disadvantaged suburb) put it: I think were
all capable of being angry on the road if someone does something really
stupid to us. And a 32-year-old female secretary (Anglo-Celtic, disadvan-
taged suburb), who described herself as a courteous and sensible driver,
said: People are unpredictable sometimes arent they? Like I say Im a good
driver but one day I could snap too! According to a 54-year-old female
dental nurse (Italian, disadvantaged suburb): I think it happens to every-
one. Because Ive seen housewives with kids in the back who are aggressive.
And sometimes the young ones are really patient, sometimes theyre good,
sometimes old men with hats are aggressive.
Some interviewees, however, nominated young people both young men
and young women as being more likely to take risks and be aggressive in
their driving. This was explained both by their lack of experience in driving

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 283

and by the inherent nature of youth. As a 60-year-old male storeman

(Egyptian, disadvantaged suburb) put it:
Younger drivers, like kids of 17, 18 or whatever, they just they got no head to
think. They dont want to think. They just want to show off, I suppose. They get
a good car with them, powerful cars they drive. They didnt know how to con-
trol themselves, or the car.
A small number of interviewees sought to distinguish people of a certain
ethnicity as being more prone to aggressive driving. Four Anglo-Australian
middle-aged men (equally divided between the disadvantaged and advan-
taged suburbs) described people of Asian ethnicity as being both worse
drivers and more aggressive drivers than other ethnicities. Further, an
Anglo-Celtic elderly woman and middle-aged man, both from disadvan-
taged suburbs, commented unfavourably on Middle Eastern drivers
aggression on the roads.
Of the ten people who drew a distinction between men and women, six
(including both men and women and from varied SES backgrounds) argued
that men were more likely than women to be involved in road rage as
aggressors. However, another four people (all middle-aged Anglo-
Australian men) put forward their belief that young women were becoming
more aggressive in their driving behaviour. According to a 60-year-old engi-
neering manager (Anglo-Celtic, advantaged suburb):
I think that young females have become more aggressive in recent times notice-
ably so. I think they probably think theyre more equal! No, definitely young
women are more assertive than they used to be. Young women in traffic would
be polite and hesitant. You know, you go back 10 years. Today they dont,
theyre actually worse than the young males.

None of the female drivers argued that young women were more aggres-
sive than young men. However, an 18-year-old female university student
(Anglo-Celtic, advantaged suburb) noted that: I know that theres a general
perception that young female drivers have become more aggressive. This
interviewee claimed that she herself was not aggressive, although she admit-
ted to speeding sometimes: [if provoked] I generally raise my hands in dis-
belief and sometimes will say something out loud. But thats about the
extent of it. I dont toot my horn or anything like that. Indeed, none of the
women at any stage of the life course interviewed for the study admitted to
engaging in aggressive driving, apart from such actions as tooting other
drivers with her horn to denote displeasure or a warning.
The interviewees were asked whether they thought that road rage was
increasing in incidence. Most thought that it was becoming more of a prob-
lem on Sydneys roads. Various reasons for this were put forward. One that
was commonly used was the notion that, in a large metropolis like Sydney,
people were becoming more self-centred and less tolerant and considerate
of others. A 60-year-old male engineering manager (Anglo-Celtic, advan-

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284 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

taged suburb) said, for example: I think the citys just getting bigger and
bigger and I think peoples general regard for other people is declining.
People are becoming more selfish these days and this is sort of an extreme
example of that. Others made reference to more cars on the roads and the
road system being unable to handle the volume, and several people referred
to the problems and tensions caused by having to engage regularly with
peak-hour traffic.
Another common reason put forward for an increase in road rage drew
upon the notion that people had become more aggressive in their attitude
towards other road users because the pace of life has speeded up. As a 24-
year-old female childcare assistant (Maltese, disadvantaged suburb) put it:
Everybody, not even just drivers, everybodys become more impatient I think,
with everything. Everythings given to you, like handed to you, like convenience.
Microwaves, dishwashers, everything. You dont have to take the slow lane any
more. You dont have to do anything slowly or that requires work.
Interviewees also noted that people had become subject to greater
stresses in their lives: Well, I believe that people are more stressed than
what we used to be, yeah. And that can affect the way we drive, the way
we deal with situations (25-year-old female social worker, East Timorese,
disadvantaged suburb). Several interviewees also made specific mentions of
the work environment, and how it was becoming more competitive and
stressful. They argued that people felt pushed for time in travelling to work,
which led, in turn, to them behaving aggressively and competitively on the
roads. As a 32-year-old male company manager (Anglo-Celtic, advantaged
suburb) contended:
Most of the driving by most of the people is to and from work, and I think
because work has become a lot more of a stressful environment, and a lot more
competitive, I think that people take their competitiveness from the office and use
that on the roads.
Such rationales for increasing incivility on the roads are supported by
underlying discourses concerning the pressures of modern urban life. In
such accounts, city dwellers are represented as under continual stress in
other areas of their lives. This stress is then transferred to the driving envi-
ronment, which also itself may exacerbate the situation, particularly in
demanding or frustrating traffic situations such as peak-hour traffic.
To summarize, ideas about road rage and those who perpetrate it incor-
porated several different notions and discourses. These include the notion
that road rage involves the overt expression of the emotions of anger and
frustration as the result of a loss of control over oneself which is often irra-
tional. Road rage was viewed as the product of an aggressive personality
type, but it was also characterized by some as influenced by age, gender and
ethnicity. As in media accounts (Lupton, 2001), those who perpetrate road
rage were described in perjorative terms, but it was also commonly

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 285

acknowledged that almost any driver could give way to aggression because
of the stressful conditions experienced by those living in crowded cities such
as Sydney, in combination with stressors experienced in such contexts as the
workplace.

Anger and the self

Nearly all the interviewees said that they had experienced feelings of anger
or aggression while driving. These emotions were evoked in response to
incidents in which people had felt their freedom of movement to be inap-
propriately constrained by another driver (for example, by a driver taking
too long to park), where they felt that the other driver was behaving incon-
siderately or rudely (for example, by honking their horn or attempting to
merge lanes when it was not their turn) or their safety was threatened in
some way (such as another driver tailgating them or pulling out in front of
them).
Two dominant modes of the experience of such anger were described.
The first mode incorporated the overt expression of anger in some way,
including verbally abusing other drivers, tooting ones horn aggressively or
stopping ones car and confronting the other driver. The second mode
involved the repression of this anger, keeping it to oneself, perhaps express-
ing it through swearing or muttering to oneself but not externally through
overt action involving the other person.
It was in providing these accounts that a strong difference was evident
both along gender and SES lines. Very few women or people of either sex
from the advantaged suburbs described participating in external manifesta-
tions of anger. A 38-year-old female nurse (Anglo-Celtic, advantaged sub-
urb) noted, for example, that when she felt angry:
Itd be usually if I was in a hurry and, you know, someone was, I dont know,
doing something silly or taking too long to park or you know, that sort of thing.
So its usually when youve got like a time constraint on you.

She said that she reacted in the following way: You wait. Theres noth-
ing you can do. You just wait, but you might sort of be stewing to yourself.
Similarly, a 60-year-old male engineering manager (Anglo-Celtic, advan-
taged suburb) said that he responded angrily when somebody does some-
thing thats obviously very selfish to you. I mean, like somebody that cuts
in or pushes in when they had no right to push in. If anything makes me get
angry, that does! He added, however, that his anger is not made overt to
the other driver: Oh sometimes Ive sworn at people. You know, you dont
swear out the window, but you swear to yourself sort of thing, like within
the confines of the car.
In contrast to these accounts of repressed anger are the vivid accounts
from several men from disadvantaged suburbs of their own manifestations
of anger. These men, typically younger than 40 at the time of the incidents,

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286 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

and from a range of ethnic backgrounds, were self-confessed road ragers,

even though they simultaneously condemned other drivers for displays of
aggression. They were also much more likely than other interviewees to
describe incidents where they were the victims of road rage. These accounts
were typically made with nonchalance and even an air of bravado. Two
examples of these accounts are given below.
A cab, like, nearly took me out off a roundabout coming home from work, so I
caught up to him, pulled in front of him, pulled him over, tapped on his window,
asked him to wind it down. I tried to explain to him what he did, and all he kept
saying was, Oh, Im sorry Im sorry, Im not from this place, you know. I said
that wasnt the point, I said, you know, We were on a roundabout and you cut
me off. Thats the whole thing. It doesnt matter if youre not from here or what-
ever. And he ended up just driving back off again. So yeah, Im guilty of road
rage. (24-year-old hotel manager, Anglo-Celtic)

Another car, like, they were driving and threw a bottle out on the front of the
road. And it was glass and shattered and I had to swerve just so I wouldnt get
it on my tyres. And when they did that, I went really close to them and wound
my window down and said, If yous [sic] are smart you know, I was by myself
and there was four of them I said, If yous are smart, you know, yous funny
clowns pull over and Ill break all your heads! You know? And I grabbed a steer-
ing lock like I was trying to hit their car for nuts and I went really crazy. I was
telling them to pull out and, you know, they were driving along as well. And they
were just going like that, but they wouldnt pull over. And, you know, I pulled
over a couple of times and then I catch [sic] up to them cos I wanted them to
pull over, I really wanted them to pull over. I would have just run up and started
trying to hit the driver, and then take his friends on. I probably would have got
myself hurt or, you know, bashed or in trouble, but some people dont think, you
know, of the consequences and you just want to attack. Because, I mean, its
stupid what they did and I mean, why throw the bottle out in front of me, you
know? They know its going to piss me off and drive me psycho. (19-year-old
university student, Greek)

As was typical of such accounts, the men in the above narratives

explained their aggressive driving as a result of being initially wronged by
another party. Both men read the situation as being dangerous and caused
by another road users negligence (in the first account), or downright
aggression (in the second account). Both men therefore felt themselves jus-
tified in their aggressive response, feeling it important to assert themselves
rather than simply accept or tolerate the situation and let it go. There is a
sense in both accounts that the other motorists needed to be taught a les-
son for their behaviour, and a confidence in the rightness of their own
position and behaviour. As the 19-year-old man went on to assert: I havent
started road rage. Its someone thats done something cut me off, some-
thing like that, to have created road rage.
In contrast to these combative approaches to other motorists, some
people talked about managing their emotional responses in such a way as

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 287

to avoid antagonizing other motorists, suggesting a fear of being a victim of

violence. Middle-aged and older women were particularly likely to describe
this response. One example was a 54-year-old dental nurse (Anglo-Celtic,
disadvantaged suburb), who said:
Oh I think Im pretty calm, and I always think theres a reason why people may
do stupid things. You know, maybe somethings happened to them or theyve
seen something ahead on the road. You know, I always give them the benefit of
the doubt. And because I always think too, if you get too uptight nowadays
theyll stop you and, you know, punch your window in and things like that. So
I just try to pretend sometimes I dont see what theyre doing to me.

Such responses involve a great deal of emotional management. Not only

are angry or frustrated feelings repressed or dealt with by attempts to give
others the benefit of the doubt in an effort to conform to an accepted
notion of appropriate emotional containment, but they are also actively
controlled so as to avoid inciting anger or violent action or both on the part
of other motorists. These accounts suggest that, for some people, particu-
larly those who feel vulnerable when driving, the publicity around road
rage has enhanced their feelings of vulnerability.

Discussion
The findings from the interviews revealed a number of important aspects
concerning how aggressive driving behaviours and road rage are conceptu-
alized on the part of drivers. What is immediately apparent is the extent to
which the concept of road rage, from its origin in the news media in the
mid-1990s, has entered the general vernacular and is routinely used to refer
to aggressive driving or violence perpetrated between drivers. It is notable,
however, that, while nearly all the interviewees in the study confessed to
experiencing feelings of anger and aggression while driving, very few admit-
ted to actually behaving aggressively while driving, beyond the common
and relatively benign actions of tooting horns or flashing headlights.1 This
is despite the insistence in some news media that road rage is a common and
increasing phenomenon (Lupton, 2001).
Underlying interviewees accounts was a general condemnation of anger
that is expressed aggressively. Road rage and aggressive driving were repre-
sented as deviant actions, the result of uncontrolled emotion. Much of the
negative representation of aggressive motorists or road ragers appears to
be underpinned by the notion that they have done the wrong thing: they
have been ill mannered and lacked consideration for other drivers. Drivers
are expected to maintain a rational demeanour and an even temper, to con-
trol themselves despite the manifold frustrations and fits of pique that driv-
ing may inspire. Even those (few) men who admitted to participating in
aggressive behaviour without much evidence of shame were reluctant to

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288 Journal of Sociology 38(3)

overtly condone it as a general behaviour. They represented themselves as

justified in behaving aggressively because they were reacting against what
they perceived to be others wrong or inappropriate behaviour.
As this suggests, notions of decorum and civilized behaviour are inte-
gral to ideas about driving, just as they are to any social interaction
(Dannefer, 1977; Lupton, 1999). The term road rage has proved resonant
enough to incite similar usages for other social contexts that are seen to be
particularly trying: the aeroplane (air rage), the supermarket (checkout
rage), waiting in queues (queue rage) or on hold on the telephone (phone
rage). All these contexts demand patience and forbearance, and most
involve close proximity to other people. Road rage, therefore, can be posi-
tioned as a specific example of the tensions that appear to exist where peo-
ple must wait and expect to receive as well as give courtesy, often struggling
to control negative emotions such as frustration and anger.
In contemporary western societies such as Australia, anger is a problem-
atic emotion because of the evils such as aggression, violence, damage to
relationships and general loss of self-control it is seen to potentially
unleash. Although individuals are encouraged to display rather than repress
their emotions in the interests of good physical and psychological health
(Lupton, 1998), there is much ambivalence about how anger should best be
dealt with. This is particularly the case for women, who are acculturated
not to display anger or aggression, and for members of the middle class in
general who, as noted above, are taught to regulate their emotions so as to
conform to the ideal of the civilized body/self. The greater tendency of
men of lower social class backgrounds to externalize their anger via aggres-
sive actions on the road, while others sought to internalize, and thereby
control, their anger demonstrates these sociocultural differences in express-
ing problematic emotions.
The emergence of road rage as a social problem in the 1990s also gives
some insights into how Australians conceptualize everyday life in major
cities. Like press accounts of road rage, interviewees accounts portrayed
modern urban life as replete with stress, alienation and pressures, such that
ordinary individuals may buckle under and lose control of their anger. The
Sydney road system, particularly in peak hour, was represented as a site of
frustration, constraint and impatience, fraught with tension that must be
dealt with by drivers, and a place where other frustrations might be played
out via ones vehicle. It was acknowledged by the interviewees that, in the
context of a stressful urban environment in which individuals have to cope
with many pressures, any driver has the potential to give way to anger and
aggression while driving.
Thus, unlike many of the moral panics portrayed in the news media, the
road rage phenomenon features villains who are not necessarily portrayed
as the deviant Other, but rather as the potentially deviant Self, the Self who
may be goaded into incivility because of an overload of stress and frustra-

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 Lupton: Road rage: drivers understandings and experiences 289

tion. The interviewees recognized their own struggles with managing anger
and aggression while driving as those universal to other drivers sharing the
road. They saw themselves as operating within a context in which anger
was more likely to be generated, because of the stressful conditions, thus
requiring a high level of control, in order that the civilized Self might be
preserved. Thus their acknowledgment, on the one hand, that anyone could
succumb to road rage and their condemning of such behaviour, on the
other.
It may be concluded, therefore, that the road rage phenomenon has
enjoyed so great a resonance in Australia because of a number of inter-
twining aspects. These include: its deviant nature as an act of aggression or
violence in a society in which hegemonic understandings of social conduct
privilege self-control and condemn aggression and violence; its relationship
to anger, one of the most problematic emotions in contemporary society; its
link to the travails and stresses of modern urban living, features of life
which many people find worrying and debilitating and see as provoking
problematic emotions; its association with an act driving which many
people find essential to the conduct of everyday life, which is profoundly
social and is also profoundly related to notions of subjectivity; and its rela-
tionship to that dominant cultural icon of the West, the motor vehicle.

Notes
This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Large Grant awarded
to the author.

1 Market research has similarly failed to find road rage to be a major problem for
Australian drivers: see, for example, Roy Morgan Research Centre (1998).

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