Frequency and consequences
More often happy than angry
The two most common emotions in traffic are anger and happiness, with happiness being more common than anger. Happiness occurs about twice per journey and anger about once per five journeys. The other emotions are rare.
Angry motorists take more risks
Research into the effects of emotions on driving behaviour has hardly begun. However, generally speaking,we already know that positive emotions are good for road safety, whereas the negative ones are harmful. For example, anger often goes together with risky behaviour: angry motorists exceed speed limits more often than those who are not angry. Fear is an exception. This is regarded as a negative emotion, but it sometimes has a positive road safety effect. This may be the case in situations where a quick response is needed.