Victims of Road Rage: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Motorists and Vulnerable Road Users

Objective: To gain an in-depth understanding of road rage incidents from the victims’ perspectives. Methods: The data consisted of 30- to 60-min in-depth semistructured phone interviews with 29 self-identified victims of road rage. Twenty of the participants were in a motor vehicle, whereas 9 were pedestrians/cyclists. A qualitative Grounded Theory approach was used to inductively code and analyze the transcripts. Results: Victims reported a correlation between their vulnerability and the perceived intensity/severity of the road rage incidents. The most vulnerable victims (pedestrians and cyclists) were the least likely to view road rage incidents as a random event and the most likely to feel that they were specifically targeted. Road rage incidents tended to evolve more rapidly when there was a greater real or perceived power imbalance between the victims and perpetrators. The most vulnerable victims were the most likely to have long-term physical and mental health consequences from the incident, and to significantly modify their behavior after the incident. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that issues of victim vulnerability play a major role in determining the intensity, severity, and psychological consequences of road rage incidents. This seems particularly true for the most vulnerable of road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists.