For those of you who live here (even if its only for part of the year) and drive regularly, would you say that the you experience more incidences of road rage (other drivers beeping at you, or flashing their lights, or even shouting at you) than in the UK ?

This is a different question to YOU getting annoyed with other bad drivers - we can discuss that separately. This is just to see how often you feel you have been driving within legal speed limit, you have changed lanes with signalling etc - in other words, you feel you have done everything right, yet someone has beeped at you and overtaken aggressively/maybe shouted at from an open window because they felt they have somehow been obstructed, or slowed down because if you.

As an aside I'll add that in my observations so far, there is very little driver courtesy in Portugal. Drivers rarely say thank you if you let them in, or if you let them pass because of a narrow road. People seem to take the opportunity - and run without waving a quick thank you. In the UK, you are much more to get a smile, or a thank you wave.

Well, living mostly in London, I would say that we experience road rage on an hourly basis. There is no patience for any other road users at any time. In Portugal it seems that drivers can stop on the street (clearly not a busy main road) and chat for a little while with someone walking down the road and everyone else patiently waits. In London if you are 1 second late in driving away from a green traffic light then you are beeped at by everyone. Mind you, saying that, people who dawdle at traffic lights is actually one of my pet hates.

I dont think we have ever been beeped in Portugal.

Saz1

As regards saying thank you - the Portuguese think the Brits are bit weird, always saying please and thank you (a view shared by several continental countries).

However, I must say that, when crossing the road, I always wave to the drivers to thank them for stopping and they usually wave back.

Another thing, I have lived in several countries outside the UK and the one common denominator is that the Brits always think the local drivers are lunatics

Never experienced road rage here although i do live in a rural area if that makes a difference but i do get your point about indifference to courtesy, hardly ever a wave of thanks or a flash of lights in recognition of a thoughtful deed.
You say....... just to see how often you feel you have been driving within legal speed limit, you have changed lanes with signalling etc - in other words, you feel you have done everything right,
I say.....if observed by the GNR doing "everything right" you will get stopped and accused of being drunk!...

Hi All

I have to agree with Squidlydidly, i live out in the country and i have not had the problems that i had previously in my home town of Liverpool. It really is peaceful here in Portugal.

Peter " Dreams can come true "

I'm with Saz on this, compared to London, there is practically no road rage here in the Algarve, although I have seen things get a little fractious approaching the bridge in Lisbon.

Excuse me if I am slightly off topic, but for the last two days I have been driving along the N125 without the usual idiot glued to my back bumper. In fact all I have witnessed is good driving.

I was going to start a thread asking what has happened, did the Portuguese get driving lessons for Christmas?

Some day's I just do not have enough middle fingers!

Perhaps more likely is that nobody can afford any petrol!

I wonder if the fact that the Police last friday night "busted" a Driving Licence Test Center in the Vila Verde area ,6 Examiners where arrested & it seems more will be.
They where tipped off that people who had a spare 1.000€'s where getting a easy ride thru the test.
In one Examiners house they found 60.000€'s in envelopes hidden all over the house !
You would be very unpleasantly surprised as to how many Drivers here have bought there DL
Under trained & Under tested

I have found that the Portuguese will honk their horn at you if you do anything outside the rules; turning left where you shouldn't and so on.
Other than that, they do like to tailgate if you keep to less than 1.5X the speed limit. The idea of hanging back until it's safe to overtake doesn't seem to be part of the culture.
My policy is the closer someone gets to the back of my car, the slower I drive. It's a safety thing.

You must have lived in a different UK to me, the Portuguese may be rotten drivers, but I have never seen any of the aggression that is a daily part of British motoring.

Been interesting reading everyone's views. Particularly alarmed at what I'm reading about experiences in the UK though! I lived in Cambridgeshire from 1994 to 2007 - and on the whole, found drivers to be polite, courteous and law-abiding. But I guess in the larger cities this may not be the case.

I must also add that commuting in Lisbon, as I do, I use two of the worst/most congested roadways, plus the busiest bridge in the city: The secunda circular (which round south of the airport) and the Eixo-N/S which joins the 25 Abril bridge. Its not pleasant. To avoid getting trapped in heavy traffic, I leave home at 07:00AM an and arrive at work at 07:30. On most days, I can leave work at 4 PM, thus avoiding the evening rush. It works most of the time - but I witness unpleasantness almost every journey. Tail-gating at speed is the most common, followed by aggressive over taking. Lane hopping is also common - sometimes people only signal as an afterthought - after they have actually made the manoeuvre. My pet hate is when they are still in the inside (overtaking) lane, driving at excess speed and leave it 'til the last moment (with meters to spare) before forcing themselves into an almost non-existent gap (at speed!), crossing two lanes, in order to take their exit. All this without indicating. Why not get into correct lane much earlier ? Its because that would mean slowing down. There is a tendency (maybe a habit formed over years ?) to stick to rally speed for as long as possible - and only slow down or brake when you arrive at traffic lights.

Lisbon is different...
I suppose most forum members live in rural areas [as I do].
I've been to Lisbon a quite few times. Like most cities, the pace is more intense.
Particularly that southern bridge! Also the road to Cascais is totally nuts.

You are talking about aggressive typical Portuguese driving, but your original question was about "road Rage" which I understand to be drivers beating the shit out of each other because one did something the other didn't like. A common occurrence in the UK (witnessed many times in the UK at petrol stations during a strike) but something I have never witnessed here