Preventing aggressive driving — Rhode Island Permit Test

One key to preventing aggressive driving and road rage is to avoid doing them yourself and not giving other road users cause to become aggressive; show courtesy even when others are not courteous.

If you are rude back, the fight grows; if you stay polite, it usually stops.

Show courtesy and consideration to other road users, even when they are not courteous to you.

Keep enough distance from the vehicle ahead; following too closely can easily frustrate the driver being followed.

Headlights filling the mirror make the driver ahead tense and angry, and they may brake to teach you a lesson.

Following too closely can easily cause the driver being followed to become frustrated.

Use your horn sparingly; a couple of short taps may be seen as less aggressive than one long blast.

A long blast reads as an insult and can start the very fight you meant to avoid.

A couple of short taps may be perceived as less aggressive than one long blast.

Switch from high beams to low beams as soon as you detect an oncoming vehicle, and do not drive behind another vehicle with high beams on.

High beams in another driver's mirror blind them and make them angry at the car behind.

When using high-beam headlights, return to using low-beam headlights as soon as you detect an oncoming vehicle.

If it is safe, move out of the right-hand lane so vehicles entering the road can merge with little difficulty.

A driver squeezed at the end of an on-ramp gets angry at the car that would not make room.

If safe to do so, move out of the right-hand lane to allow vehicles entering the roadway to merge with minimal difficulty.

What does the manual say about courtesy toward a driver who is not courteous to you?

Show courtesy to them anyway. If you are rude back, the fight grows; if you stay polite, it usually stops. Rhode Island Driver’s Manual, p.24: “Show courtesy and consideration to other road users, even when they are not courteous to you.”