road rage

Sudden, unruly, and often violently aggressive behavior exhibited while one drives an automobile. You've got a serious problem with road rage, Tom. It's not normal to scream and shout like that just because the person ahead of you is driving a little bit too slow.

road rage

Extreme anger at another automobile driver, resulting in dangerous maneuvers. The term has been applied to such extreme situations as one driver shooting another because he or she has not allowed him to pass. Indeed, it originated at a Los Angeles news station in 1987–88, describing a number of shootings on nearby freeways. A Denver Post headline read: “Road-rage Killer Unrepentant” as he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms (April 17, 2007). In Michael Genelin’s The Magician’s Accomplice (2010), a driver deliberately tried to run a woman over, even though “What had happened did not suggest she had done something on her bike which had propelled a driver into an episode of road rage.”