Dallas-Fort Worth Ranks Second in Road Rage According to Latest Survey
Each year, Auto Vantage publishes the results of the survey which lists out the top ten road rage cities in the United States. It never surprises me that New York City ranks as No. 1, but what might be surprising to some folks in the Metroplex is that Dallas-Fort Worth ranks as No. 2 on this year's survey. Are we such bad drivers here in the DFW area? I don't know if we're bad drivers, but some of our habits lead to road rage, that's for sure.
Here's my take on it. I think DFW ranks so high on the road rage survey because we have such long commute times. We have some of the longest commute times of anywhere in the nation. The more time we spend in the cars, the less time we have to accomplish all of the other things we need to do in everyday life. That forces us to multi-task while we're driving. I see some people put on make-up, lots of people eating in their cars, and almost everybody talking on their cell phone. It has become a way of life. The problem is all these distractions in the car make us bad drivers, and when we're bad drivers we irritate other drivers. That leads to road rage.
Another reason that the Dallas-Fort Worth area has such a high road rage incidence is the fact that our population has continued to grow, thanks to our local economy not being as bad as the rest of the nation. However, I don't think improvements to our roads have kept up with the rising population. That leads to more crowded highways. That leads to road rage. When you combine long commute times and crowded highways, it's just a recipe for problems. I don't know if that's going to be solved anytime in the future, but hopefully we can be nicer to each other when we're driving and limit the amount of road rage we experience.
Commentary provided by Board Certified Texas Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson who can be reached in Fort Worth at 817 294 1900 or in Dallas at 214 327 8000.
