Angry driving behaviors that lead to acts of road rage have become a major public health concern. Understanding the differences between people who drive with a high level of anger and those who do not provides insight into possible prevention approaches and can be useful to educators, policy makers, law enforcement, and counselors. This study applied Richard Lazarus’ Cognitive-Motivational-Relational (CMR) Model to discover (a) how individuals appraise driving situations and (b) how they cope with stressful driving situations. It also explored various social and environmental factors that influence angry driving. METHODS: The approximately 750 subjects, from a Northwestern University, ranged in ages from 16-63 with a mean of 21 years. Their responses were anonymous and their participation was voluntary. Analysis was done of the primary appraisals, secondary appraisals, and coping strategies of the participants while controlling for trait anger. RESULTS: Through multivariate analysis of covariance, the CMR Model variables of vehicle, physical, verbal, uncontrollable, and threat, were found to be the best discriminators between high and low angry male drivers. For females the best discriminators were vehicle, verbal, stressful, central, uncontrollable, physical, and threat. In addition, stepwise multiple regression also determined that the CMR Model variables vehicle, verbal, uncontrollable, and threat were the best predictors of being a high angry male driver. For female high angry drivers the best predictors were verbal, stressful, uncontrollable, vehicle, and physical. RESULTS: Many of the findings support previous research done on angry drivers while others have added new insights to the literature. It is hoped that these findings will be helpful in developing public health strategies and educational curricula in order to increase the use of constructive coping skills and decrease the occurrences of angry driving and road rage.