Who are the worst drivers

A national Newspoll survey of 1101 drivers has found an astonishing 99 per cent have experienced unsafe driving behaviour.  The poll, commissioned by The Buzz Car Insurance, says 50 per cent of drivers feel stressed.

The Buzz CEO Jacki Johnson says road rage, offensive gestures and general impatience are making motorists' lives miserable.  "The study shows there's a lot of bad behaviour on our roads. Whether it's dangerous or impatient behaviour, it's putting the safety of Australians in jeopardy," she said.

Impatience is also rife on our roads. Of those surveyed, 88 per cent had seen drivers queue jumping, 87 per cent had spotted motorists running a red light, and the majority (91 per cent) had witnessed pedestrians crossing the road in a dangerous manner.

"There's a lot of inexperienced drivers, families and elderly people on our roads and we need to modify our driving behaviour to ensure we are not placing any undue stress on drivers," Ms Johnson says.

The study shows younger drivers suffer stress more often that older drivers with 60 per cent of respondents aged 18-34 feeling tense compared with 38 per cent aged 50-64.  Capital city dwellers are more likely to get nervous on the roads compared with regional drivers (58 and 41 per cent respectively).

Road manners have gone out the window with 78 per cent of drivers, mainly women and older drivers, being sworn at or getting rude gestures from other drivers.  Nine out of 10 say they're sometimes not acknowledged when they do something nice like letting others into their lane or have not received an apology for driving errors.

Ms Johnson says to combat stress drivers should calm down before getting behind the wheel, leave five minutes early to avoid feeling rushed, checking directions before leaving and turning the mobile phone to silent to avoid distractions.