While a large proportion of Canadians have witnessed some form of poor driving etiquette during the last thirty days, only one-in-five would go as far as to say that most of the drivers in their municipality are bad, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

 In the online survey of a representative national sample, Canadians were asked what sort of driving behaviours they have noticed over the last month, how they responded, and how they would rate the drivers in their city or town.

Across Canada, nine-in-ten respondents have seen drivers speeding (91%) or talking on their cell phone while at the wheel (91%).

Slightly less have been bystanders to drivers turning without having signalled first (86%) and tailgating other vehicles (81%).

Roughly two-thirds have witnessed drivers cutting into other lanes without notice (68%), multitasking while driving (67%) and running red lights (65%).

Fewer respondents—but still a majority—have seen people making illegal turns (51%) or slamming on the brakes while driving (51%). Littering on the part of drivers or passengers (48%) and invading the crosswalk while pedestrians were on it (37%) are at the bottom of the list of poor driving habits.

Looking at the way Canadians have chosen to respond to bad driving habits, the most noticeable reactions are honking their horn (53%) and cursing to show their displeasure (31%).

Significantly fewer Canadians say they have waved their fists, arms or hands (19%) or made obscene gestures at the drivers (16%). Calling the police to file a report (8%), following the driver (4%) and slamming their own car into another driver (0%) are considerably less common ways to react.

Remarkably, even though a large majority of Canadians have observed bad driving habits during the course of the past month, three quarters (76%) say they would only classify a few of the drivers in their municipality as “bad drivers.” In turn, only one-in-five (21%) would go as far as to say that most people driving cars in their city or town are “bad drivers.”

An interesting regional snippet shows that Quebecers are considerably less inclined than the residents of other Canadian provinces to have observed any of the aforementioned bad driving habits. They are also more likely to say that only a few of the drivers in their municipality are bad, and less likely to say that most of them are bad.

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