(December 11, 2018) BOSTON — It's no surprise that the holiday season is the most stressful time of the year. With the extra errands and traveling the holidays call for, a lot of that jingle-bell stress is transferred to the roads by the way consumers drive. In fact, GasBuddy data shows that consumers driving habits are 175 percent more “aggressive” during the holidays compared to the rest of the year.

GasBuddy examined millions of Drives data in the U.S. during the Thanksgiving holiday week defined as Nov 21 - 25, 2018, noting the frequency of aggressive events while driving: quick accelerating, hard braking, and speeding.

The top 10 states with the most aggressive holiday drivers are:

    Georgia
    California
    Texas
    Louisiana
    South Carolina
    Florida
    Arizona
    Tennessee
    Mississippi
    Oklahoma

The data also revealed that aggressive driving habits occur most during the beginning of the season, with more instances happening during the drive to the holiday destination versus the return from. The actual holiday day — in this case, Thanksgiving — is when it is the calmest behind the wheel, followed by Black Friday.

“As we head into December, motorists shouldn’t let the stress of the season negatively impact the way they drive. Not only is aggressive driving dangerous but it is the quickest way to lower gas mileage by as much as 40 percent,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. “The holidays should be the most wonderful time of the year, not the most costly at the pump.”

Methodology

The findings were compiled using data from GasBuddy’s Drives feature that provides motorists with an assessment of their driving habits during their trip in an effort to improve fuel efficiency, mapping out when and where a poor driving habit occurred.