When encountering an aggressive driver, you should:
- Avoid eye contact, slow down, and let them pass. ✓
- Cut them off to slow them down.
- Retaliate by tailgating them.
- Make sure they know you disapprove of their behavior.
Answer: A. Avoid eye contact, slow down, and let them pass.
When an aggressive driver is threatening you, stay calm, avoid eye contact, slow down, and let them pass.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's list of aggressive driving behaviors includes following too closely, cutting off other drivers, horn honking, gestures, and confrontation. Its advice for when another driver threatens you or drives dangerously around you is to remain calm and create distance. It specifically says to slow down, let them pass, and not make eye contact or obscene gestures. Avoiding eye contact and giving them room to go by removes the provocation and separates your car from theirs.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Cut them off to slow them down. — Cutting them off is itself listed as aggressive driving, so it adds danger instead of creating the distance the handbook recommends.
- C. Retaliate by tailgating them. — Tailgating in return is also on the handbook's list of aggressive behaviors and keeps you close to the dangerous driver.
- D. Make sure they know you disapprove of their behavior. — The handbook says not to make eye contact or obscene gestures, so signaling disapproval goes against the advice to stay calm and let them pass.
Remember it
Think of it as giving the aggressive driver the road and taking your calm with you: no eye contact, back off, let them go.