Hamilton among worst Ontario cities for hostile driving, says insurance shopping app

Few things in life are more frustrating than other people's driving.

According to Canadian insurance shopping app My Choice, Hamilton is a particularly hostile place for zooming around in an automobile.

The folks behind My Choice analyzed internal data behind many thousands of insurance quotes to find the 10 worst Ontario cities for aggressive driving. They noted 48,537 instances of road rage" in Ontario in 2022. These infractions include speeding, improper passing, tailgating and more.

Topping their road rage incidents" list is North York, with 5.95 per cent of all infractions. Hamilton is not far behind, with 5.12 per cent, or roughly 2,485 of those incidents. Making up the remainder of the worst five are Brampton, Mississauga and Scarborough.

Hamilton faced a rash of incidents where pedestrians and cyclists were struck, injured and some killed in 2022, leading to major changes on the city's arterial roadways. Among those changes, bus lanes were painted on King Street and no-right-on-red signs were installed on Main.

But in spite of these calming measures, road users can still expect to find themselves in rude or aggressive situations.

Ontario's official driving handbook gives some sage advise: if you drive responsibly and courteously, you are less likely to spark a road rage situation."

Among the ways to avoid road rage, the Ministry of Transportation says, is to leave your issues behind, don't take others' mistakes personally, and if there is an aggressive driver nearby, leave traffic enforcement to the police."

Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com