Summer road rage: Do you have a shorter fuse during this sizzling weather?

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Have you found yourself a bit more stressed on the roads during this hot weather? With perhaps the warmest day of the year ahead of us this weekend, we’re taking a closer look at summer road rage.

York university professor emeritus David Wiesenthal is a psychologist who has studied how people behave behind the wheel. He says the biggest risk factor for a bout of road rage is how stressed you are to begin with.

Under normal circumstances, someone cutting you off may not cause you to snap. But maybe you’re stuck in traffic due to construction or a crash, or perhaps the kids are fighting in the back seat during a road trip. Wiesenthal says perhaps driving around on a hot day in a car without air conditioning could push you beyond your limit.

“It depends upon the baseline level of stress that one carries around with them on an everyday basis — that, combined with situations on the road. There are a number of other stressers like heat, if you car isn’t air conditioned.”

He points out in the summer, there are tourists in town, making for more vehicles on the road. “People get frustrated that they can’t get where they want to.”

Wiesenthal adds roadwork and police incidents like the one that shut down the Lions Gate Bridge for over four hours two weeks ago adds to the stress.

“In our work, we haven’t found any differences between men and women in the level of aggression that they have. However, in terms of actual violence, men are much more likely than women to behave violently,” he notes.

Wiesenthal recommends you look for ways to ease your baseline stress level. He suggests avoiding rush hour traffic if possible, and perhaps putting on some relaxing music.

“Avoid eye contact with people who are being offensive, as opposed to returning shouts and obscenities and hand gestures and so on,” he suggests.

 – With files from Kayla Butler