Which of the following is always true about road rage?
- There is nothing a driver can do to prevent road rage
- You must hold your position in your travel lane
- Only violent people experience road rage
- You should remain polite to aggressive drivers ✓
Answer: D. You should remain polite to aggressive drivers
You should stay polite with aggressive drivers: remain calm, skip the eye contact, and don't answer their gestures or shouting.
Why this is the answer
The manual's advice for handling an aggressive driver is to stay calm and relaxed, avoid eye contact because the other driver may read it as a challenge, move away safely, and ignore gestures and shouts rather than returning them. Holding your temper and not firing back is what staying polite means here. The manual also notes that road rage can grow out of aggressive driving, so the point of this behavior is to keep the confrontation from escalating.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. There is nothing a driver can do to prevent road rage — The manual gives concrete steps you can take, like avoiding eye contact and moving away safely, so it is not true that nothing can be done.
- B. You must hold your position in your travel lane — The manual says the opposite: do not challenge an aggressive driver with more speed or try to hold your position in your travel lane.
- C. Only violent people experience road rage — The manual says road rage could happen to anyone when irritation or anger leads to threatening behavior, so it is not limited to violent people.
Remember it
Deal with an aggressive driver the way you'd deal with a fire: don't feed it. Stay calm, look away, and let the other person's gestures and shouting go unanswered.