A new study by GasBuddy shows that consumers driving in certain cities across the U.S. are nearly 20% more aggressive than the average driver during the holidays, reducing fuel mileage as much as 40%.
GasBuddy examined millions of drives in the U.S. during the Thanksgiving holiday week, defined as Nov. 27 through Dec. 1, noting the frequency of aggressive events while driving: rapid acceleration, hard braking and speeding.
The top 10 cities with the most aggressive holiday drivers are:
- Atlanta
- Nashville
- Birmingham, Ala.
- Sacramento, Calif.
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- San Diego
- Orlando. Fla.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Hartford, Conn.
Complete city rankings can be found here.
The study found that drivers were most aggressive on the actual holiday, with the highest number of events happening during Thanksgiving day. Black Friday is when drivers are the least aggressive, followed by Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.
“Peace and good-will towards other drivers will go a long way this holiday season, ” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Not only is road rage dangerous, it guzzles any extra holiday savings by reducing fuel efficiency, which makes driving like a Scrooge wasteful and expensive.”
The most frequent aggressive driving habits during the holidays are hard-braking (1), speeding (2) and rapid acceleration (3).
GasBuddy recommends drivers stay calm on the road to stay safe and save money on their fuel costs. Motorists can use GasBuddy’s optional, opt-in ‘Drives’ feature today to evaluate their driving.
GasBuddy’s mission is to help consumers avoid paying full price for fuel. As the source for crowdsourced, real-time fuel prices at more than 150,000 gas station convenience stores in the U.S., Canada and Australia, millions of drivers use the GasBuddy app and website every day to find gas station convenience stores based on fuel prices, location and ratings/reviews. GasBuddy’s first-of-its-kind fuel savings program, Pay with GasBuddy, has saved Americans more than $10 million at the pumps since its launch in 2017.
