Driving anxiety: THIS is the most stressed region
- Meghan Blumsum
- Jul 13, 2023
- 5 min read
With more cars on the road than ever before, it’s no surprise that driving is becoming increasingly more stressful. In fact, a recent survey showed that 49% of people experience road rage whilst behind the wheel, with the most common non-driving factors being work stress (63%), bad traffic (52%) and personal stress (49%).
Keen to find out more, ICE Headshop wanted to uncover which UK regions are home to the most stressed drivers. By analysing the number of road rage related crimes as well as accident data*, ICE Headshop were able to conclude the UK cities with the most, and least, stressed drivers.
We really hope you find this release useful. If you do end up using it, we would very much appreciate a link to https://www.iceheadshop.co.uk/ who commissioned the data. A link credit allows us to keep supplying you with future content that you may find useful.
The UK’s most stressed drivers
ICE HeadShop can reveal that the most stressed drivers are from Luton. With a stressed driver score of 91.6/100, the city ranks highly with a total of 916 accidents reported. With a major airport, a high population, and a 42% pass rate for driving tests, it’s no surprise that Luton tops the list of stressed out drivers.
Ranking second is Birmingham, with a stressed driver score of 89.7/100. Birmingham’s local police force, West Midlands Police, saw the second highest number of road rage related crimes in the UK - second only to Kent. Birmingham also has the highest number of accident hotspots in the UK with 245 reported over the period analysed.
In third place is Cambridge, with a stressed driver score of 88.8/100. Cambridge has a high number of accidents per 100,000 drivers (1081), but is home to the highest number of accidents at a roundabout. Following the opening of the UK’s first Dutch roundabout in 2020 in Cambridge, residents have called the area an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
James Roy, Technical Director at Brainworks Neurotherapy commented on the impact of our emotions whilst driving:
“When we're driving after a long day and we're concentrating on the road, our brain's default mode network (DMN) becomes active, the emotional control of our frontal lobes begin to relax and our underlying feelings come closer to the surface. If those feelings include anger, we will let it loose with the least bit of justification.
Feeling an emotion is different than acting on it, and being aware of your emotions as they arise helps more control over them. A short drive is a perfect time for breathing exercises, a sure emotional smoother but driving while stressed can be outright dangerous. Our decision making, forward planning and awareness are all compromised, our focus suffers and our speed increases.”
Anger triggers the body’s stress response, often known as ‘fight or flight’, when triggered hormones are released that increase heart rate, muscle tensing and faster breathing which could be deemed as unsafe. But how can we manage stress effectively whilst driving?
Anti-Road Rage Techniques:
1. Set yourself up for the day
Before leaving for your location, make sure you have your directions memorised; doing so will cut down time setting up a navigation system and will reduce the likelihood of being tempted to use a phone. Always check the estimated travel time and factor in extra time for traffic and detours because being late raises the stress hormone. Building confidence to drive and familiarise yourself with different and potential scenarios can help to reduce road rage, according to Zoe Clews, Founder & Hypnotherapist of Zoe Clews & Associate.
2. Identify triggers
Understanding your stress and road rage triggers is essential to avoiding such negative emotions. Once the problem has been resolved, you may prevent stressful circumstances from occurring. 59% of participants reported that they are more likely to experience road rage in the morning, which is frequently caused by rush hour traffic in order to arrive at work on time. The likelihood of road rage may be decreased by leaving earlier or planning a better route.
3. Destress while driving
Deep breathing is one of many stress-relieving strategies that can be used while driving to control your temper. To relax and calm the body, inhale for three counts, hold the breath for three counts, then exhale for three counts. Distractions when driving are typically undesirable, but when it comes to rage, they might be beneficial, whether it be through music, an audiobook, or a podcast.A playlist is also the best part of a trip, therefore making a selection of calming songs that you can listen to while driving can help you stay focused and relaxed.
To ensure a safer driving journey, Zoe Clews, Founder & Hypnotherapist of Zoe Clews & Associate commented: “Don’t drive while experiencing intense emotion or feeling highly triggered, if you’re already feeling stressed, upset or angry, avoid non-essential travel altogether. Wait until you have calmed down and back in your 'window of tolerance' (the psychological space in which we feel cool, calm, collected, easy and connected) or at least 'closer to it'! before setting off.”
4. Address anger issues
It is critical to address the root cause of rage, not only for other drivers but also for yourself and any other passengers. Utilising a therapist may be beneficial to get rid of the sense of anger and frustration. Letting go of some personal difficulties may reduce the possibility of tension, making driving safer and more enjoyable. Try yoga, meditation, exercise, walking, counselling, or just overly relaxing to deal with these sensations.
Please find a full breakdown of the data available with all 71 cities analysed here.
Methodology:
ICE Headshop conducted the following research to identify cities with the most stressed drivers through the analysis of road accident statistics and road rage related crimes. The study utilises data from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and the Department of Transport.
Firstly, over 300,000 road accidents between 2019-2021 published by the department for transport were collected from data.gov.uk. Spatial joins with police force areas, major towns and cities, and LSOA administrative boundaries were performed for subsequent aggregations.••
To identify accident hostposts a spatial clustering algorithm (Density-Based Spatial Clustering locations with Noise) was applied. The model was tuned to label an accident hotspot as a cluster of at least 5 accidents within 50 metres apart.
The accidents dataset was subsequently aggregated by town/city and police force to calculate the total number of accidents, accidents at roundabouts, and number of accident hotspots. The summary statistics were supplemented with the number of road rage related crimes in each police force area collected from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.•
The total number of licensed drivers in each police force and town/city was used to present the number of accidents and accidents at roundabouts per 100,000 licenced drivers.
A normalised score was then calculated to rank each police force and town/city and sorted in descending order from most to least stressed.
*The spatial range of this research is limited to England and Wales
** City/town level breakdowns use road rage related crime statistics of the broader police force in the area which may include other cities.
*** The temporal analysis period was limited to 2019-2021 in order to maintain consistency between the FOI, and road accidents data.
**** The city of London police force has been omitted from the police force aggregations due to the high rates of per capita accidents as a result of low population density, but high traffic flow.
Published by:
Comments