What to Know
- Among US cities, New York has consistently led the pack when it comes to road rage, according to a study of #roadrage Instagram posts
- Brooklyn, if it were its own city, came in at number two this year and last year
- Surprisingly, Nebraska is the most road-ragey state in 2017, with New York falling to number two
Traffic is bad in New York, so bad in fact that Mayor de Blasio unveiled a plan this week to try to control the raging masses packing the city's streets.
The congestion has led New Yorkers to take a Darwinian approach to driving — and that's landed the city at the very top of U.S. cities when it comes to road rage, according to a new study that looked at thousands of Instagram posts.
Not only did New York beat out every other city over the past three years, road rage here is so prevalent that researchers actually separated Brooklyn into its own “city” and it claimed the second spot.
The results are from the Auto Insurance Center, which scoured 100,000 Instagram posts tagged with #RoadRage since 2011.
New York beat out every other city in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in number of #roadrage posts per capita. In 2016 and 2017, Brooklyn (if it were a separate city) made the number two spot. Not surprisingly New York and Brooklyn also accumulated the most #roadrage hashtags since 2013, respectively.
NYC Has the Most Rage-Filled Drivers in America, and Among the Worst in the World: Study
Local
When it comes to U.S. states, New York once against ascended the throne for the boiling rage of its drivers. It had the most #roadrage posts since 2013, followed by New Jersey at number five and Connecticut at number six.
New York State had the most #roadrage posts in 2016, and the second most in 2015 and 2017. Connecticut and New Jersey also made the top ten list, with Connecticut coming in at number four and New Jersey coming in at number six so far in 2017.
Surprisingly, Nebraska has been leading the pack at number one. (One driver had their RV blocked by a herd of bison.)
The study also found that road rage was most abundant in the month of August — when many people are traveling. Friday was the most common day for road rage, followed closely by Thursday. Surprisingly, the most road rage posts appeared between 9 and 10 p.m., not during the morning or evening rush.
