(December 13, 2019) BOSTON — The holidays are filled with travel that involves busy schedules, last-minute shopping, and even holiday jeers instead of cheers on the road.  In fact, GasBuddy reveals that consumers driving in certain cities across the United States are nearly 20% more aggressive than the average driver during the holidays, reducing fuel mileage as much as 40% and wasting money on gas.

GasBuddy examined millions of Drives in the U.S. during the Thanksgiving holiday week defined as Nov. 27 - 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.

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 how ‘scroogy’ (and fuel-wasteful) they are on the road.