Have you heard of barrier aggression in dogs?

TLDR: Dogs use body language. smell etc to gauge wether another dog is friend or foe. When a barrier (like a fence etc) stops this assessment, they go straight to aggression as a defence/protection measure.

My guess is it a similar thing in humans.

We are stripped of our usual communication and threat assessment of the other person we would have in a normal encounter. We can't see their face, their body language etc etc. So if someone is prone to anxiety and/or aggression (two sides of the same coin), they jump straight to "That driver is a cunt who did that on purpose and to spite me".

Edit: This is also why I think online discussions so often turn into insult ridden shit fests.

BECAUSE YOU WON'T MOVE OVER TO THE RIGHT FUCKING LANE!!!!!

Because you perceive your car as your own private space. But in traffic, others constantly "invade" that privacy and force you to react to them.
Additionally, going at least the speed limit is perceived as the "normal" mode in a car. When someone in front of you forces you to stop, it feels like they're trapping you, cause you actually want to move, but can't.

Basically, our lizard brains aren't wired right for car traffic, and some people can't deal with that.

I think a big part of it is that driving is inherently dangerous (you're in a metal box going much faster than you're capabale of going yourself, your health and finances are at stake) and frustrating (waiting in traffic, people making mistakes).

All those things put people on edge and cause them to act out

You see, most people (myself included) subliminally think that their car is an extension of their personal space. You can see this by looking at your nearest neighboring car during a red light stop. The amount of people doing things usually reserved for their bedrooms are astronomical because our subconscious thought we're in a safe when we're inside our cars except for everybody can see that you're picking your nose in all of its glory.

So when you merge a little bit too late or you use your high beam several times, the person on the receiving end might interpret that as an encroachment of their personal space and react accordingly. During my experience as a road user, you can predict how ragey a person is based on the personalization that a person does to their car. The isolation wrought by the recent pandemic doesn't really help because it made some people forget how to empathize with another human being.

Because I can't see through these god damn LED headlights this F150/Silverado is using to blind the fuck out of my as it barrels down the road to hang out on my ass in the right lane because someone in the left lane is going to slow.

Because either the person they're raging at is a moron that doesn't know how to drive, or they're a moron that doesn't know how to drive and nothing is ever their fault.

Lots of good suggestions here, including the difficulty in communicating inherent to being in a car.

I think another important factor is that driving itself is stressful. Surveys of commuters consistently show that people who walk or cycle have the highest satisfaction with their commute, while motorists ranks somewhere from the middle to the bottom (i.e., either ahead of or behind people who use public transport), depending on the study.

When you put people in a stressful situation where it's difficult to communicate, inevitably some people lose their temper.

Back when I had this issue, it was because I had a stressful job, and all I want to do is go home but you get people on these winding ass country roads who don't know them so they go 20 under!!

Now I just get mad if someone is stupid and almost hits me.

Some people are just permanently about to lose it.

• seeing your car as an extension of yourself – it’s not “your car hit my car”, it’s “you hit me!”
• disassociation – not seeing the other drivers as humans, just seeing their cars
• willingness to conflate minor inconveniences with being the victim, being oppressed

This is an interesting discussion. I’ve had a few loonies rage at me. How do you handle when drivers follow you way too close, like if you have to brake they might rear-end your car? I’ve had this happen a few times and it’s never because I’m driving under the limit, I usually speed moderately at 20% over. My solution has been to ease my foot off the accelerator to slowly slow down to give them a hint. Some catch on and back off, others get aggressive.

Edit: I should note that speeding up isn’t always possible because in some cases I’m behind someone else at a safe distance.

For me its when I see a driver who is driving unexpectedly. Like speeding in areas with kids. Or driving at high speeds anywhere.

roadways are build for a certain speed so we can anticipate oncoming traffic. Like lights are programmed to allow a block of traffic to go then a break so cars turning can complete the turn between the break. if some asshole fucks it up by hammering the gas they will end up in between the blocks making it harder for all the cars to complete their turn since they now have to wait.

Someone said 'reading intention' which is a big part too. I can't read intention of drivers who are selfishly doing what they want.

it's the realization that traffic could be better and safer if it wasn't for certain drivers

Inattention, selfishness, and an inflated belief in driving ability both of self and of other drivers.

People don't pay attention to the vehicles around them or what they're doing. As a reault they often are caught off guard by the maneuvers of other vehicles and this in conjunction with the other two things I mentioned makes them angry because it adds stress to the situation.

People believe their driving is better than it is (especially seasoned drivers). They either expect that everyone should be as good as they are at driving. Or as good as they think they are at driving. And when it turns out that this is not the case (that they are not good at driving or that others are not good at driving) this adds stress to the situation. This is ego.

Selfishness is just that. And it happens with pretty much every driver on the road though they are loathe to admit it. The driving experience as a whole is all about them. Where they're going. What they want. How fast.
they want to go and in what lane. Whether they want to allow someone to merge. Whether they want to allow someone to pass. Whether they want to wait for a light or wait for someone to turn or wait in traffic etc. As a result they often do less than legal things because they feel confident in the fact that what they are doing and where they are going is important and therefore more important than other drivers on the road. They sincerely believe they are more important or that other drivers are less important and they act selfishly and with a sense of entitlement as a result. This also adds stress to the situation. However, of the three this is the main reason people become so unreasonable and angry.

A combination of selfishness, self righteousness/ego, and distracted driving (inattention) causes people to react to perceived, imagined, or actual slights of any kind on the road with malice and anger that is undue or unreasonable given most road situations. And considering that cars are heavy machinery and can do a lot of damage and be deadly to other drivers, people often jump to conclusions about the people they share the road with, especially when they do things like merge with no signal, cut others off, speed unnecessarily, or manuever in a way that seems erratic. Driving is a high stress activity. And that magnifies and exacerbates the problems the other three things I mentioned cause.

i mean a big part of it is just the fact that cars are so inherently bad as a form of transport that 5 of them meeting at an intersection results in people having to stop and wait, which obviously results in frustration because you're constantly blocked with no way of even turning around.

compare this to a bike where you're never really blocked unless you're in a pedestrian area, and even then you can just turn around and leave and pick a different route.

Entitlement and a lack of empathy.

Cars are brain poison and they turn people evil.

I try to keep my zen while driving, and mostly I just suffer from road depression instead of rage. I get road depression because driving forces you to interact with many people, and you begin to realize the high fraction of people with serious mental impairment.

I try to put myself in their shoes, but the most charitable explanations for some driving behaviors are i) distraction - usually from cell phones - and ii) not thinking about the consequences of a behavior on others.

One of my pet peeves is drivers who perpetually drive on the right edge (for right side driving countries) of the lane / in the bike lane. When someone in front of them turns right to leave the road, they do not know how to go around them because the left side of the lane is a no-go zone. That means the whole lane has to stop. When they stop at a red light, no cars can pass them on the right to make a legal turn. They might acknowledge this by pulling forward more, as if that helps. Then when they get to the next intersection, the same thing happens again! Like, HAVE YOU NEVER TURNED RIGHT ON A RED YOURSELF? DO YOU NOT KNOW YOU SHOULD GET AS FAR LEFT AS POSSIBLE IN THE RIGHT LANE WHEN COMING TO A RED LIGHT? HOW DO YOU FUNCTION IN THE WORLD WHILE SO BLISSFULLY UNAWARE?

Oops. Lost my zen.

Because none of you fuckers can drive a sharp stick up a duck's ass.