Congestion fuels road rage, adds to drivers’ woes

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: How often have you cursed another driver for cutting you off. If you feel that you have a short fuse, don’t feel sorry for yourself. You’re not the only one in the world hopping mad on the road. Rising traffic congestion coupled with tighter deadlines has only added to the stress and panic of drivers.

According to a recently-released survey conducted by LeasePlan, one of the world’s leading vehicle leasing and fleet management companies, a high 71% of drivers polled across 16 countries felt congestion levels in their country were serious. Just over two in every five (41%) felt congestion was at a critical level or very serious. Compare this to the last survey in 2002 which says road congestion has got slightly worse. Of the respondents in the earlier survey, 35% rated the situation as critical or very serious.

The survey was based on responses of 9,057 company car drivers across nations like Germany, the Netherlands , Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain , Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Not surprisingly, India comes second on the list for reported traffic congestion with 72% of the polled drivers rating it at critical/very serious level. However, the situation is worse in Greece where 97% of the drivers find congestion levels at critical levels or very serious.

The survey found that the average length of time congestion adds to driving each week is an hour and 42 minutes. This varies from country to country. From an extra three hours and 42 minutes in Greece (considered most congested globally) to one hour per week in Finland (least congested globally).

In India , congestion generally adds two hours and 18 minutes to driving time each week, which has gone up from two hours and 10 minutes in the last survey. Thus, the impact on driving time in the intervening years has been deteriorating.

Delving deeper into road rage and its causes, the survey finds that globally, the main causes for road rage are that some motorists drive too aggressively while some others drive too close. Almost six in ten drivers (57%) say the former annoys them the most when driving, with just over half (54%) blaming it on the latter.