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Drivers in Los Angeles are no strangers to road rage—whether we're witnesses, victims or perpetrators—and now a new study ranks us as the top city in the country for fury behind the wheel.The new report, published by the insurance comparison site AutoInsuranceCenter.com, analyzed more than 65,000 posts on Instagram hashtagged #RoadRage and found that L.A. took first place for the most incidents. The company analyzed posts from June 2013 through April 2016 to determine the times of day, week and year when 'grammers behind the wheel are seething the most and ranked cities and states by using the 5,183 posts that were geotagged. Given that we just took top spot for having the worst traffic in the country, it should probably come as little surprise that people are fuming through their commute.
"This unique approach breaks down where, when and why American drivers are feeling most aggravated — and L.A. takes the top spot," a spokeswoman for the company told L.A. Weekly.
The study also found that several other California cities took top spots on the list, including San Diego in fifth, San Francisco in sixth, Anaheim in seventh and Santa Monica in eleventh place. New York took second place followed by Mount Pleasant, NC, despite what its name might suggest. Hawaii actually beat out California in the states ranking, despite its generally chill reputation.
According to the report, the worst time for road rage is 6 p.m. as the slog home for commuters hits a peak, while Friday is the worst day. August turned out to be the worst month, while other summer months—with school out and vacation travel increased—are also pretty bad.
And while the study likely reinforces what most of us have thought to be true while stuck in L.A. traffic, it's also good to keep in mind that the study is far from being broadly comprehensive. After all, it relies only on people who use Instagram, so chances are it skews younger and to those who feel compelled to share their frustrations on the road with the world at large. We're just hoping that it was passengers that were hashtagging the posts instead of drivers in traffic, but something tells us that's not always the case.
