Road rage (also road violence) is the informal name for deliberately dangerous and/or violent behaviour under the influence of heightened, violent emotion such as anger and frustration, with regard to the use of automobiles.
This can involve deliberately hitting another person, vehicle or object with his/her own vehicle and/or firing a weapon from it. Other forms of road rage include: hitting the person or vehicle with an item which is not his vehicle (e.g. using a golf club), but which ultimately hits another person or vehicle; grabbing objects, animals, or people inside the other person's vehicle and deliberately throwing them into moving traffic; and knocking on the other driver's windows and yelling insults. Serious cases may involve the continued chasing of an automobile, and inflicting road rage once it has come to a halt or slowed down significantly.
Generally, the term is applied to emotional behavior motivated by personal outrage at a sudden and unplanned event while driving (e.g., car accidents), but not premeditated and deliberate assaults (e.g., carjackings).
To avoid road rage, drivers are encouraged to lock all doors when driving in thick traffic at slow speeds. Road rage incidents often occur in such traffic situations. To avoid being locked in on expressways, however, doors should be unlocked on expressways.
Road rage is a relatively serious act; it may be seen as a violation of property rights and an endangerment of personal security.
