By Town Crier Staff Report

Commuters passing through Mountain View on Highway 101 are among the rudest drivers in the greater Bay Area, according to a AAA survey released last week.

Survey results show that the stretch of Highway 101 between San Francisco and San Jose was rated the second-rudest-driving route in the Sacramento-San Francisco area. Three out of four people surveyed said aggressive driving is a moderate to big problem in this region.

Drivers identified the Nimitz Freeway as the rudest route, followed by Highway 101 and I-80 from Oakland to Vallejo, which tied for second. The section of I-680 from Concord to San Jose was ranked third.

Weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating and cutting in were considered the most common aggressive driving behaviors. Survey respondents were split on which gender drives more aggressively, with 45 percent identifying men as the most likely culprits and 48 percent saying both genders are equally to blame.

When it comes to what constitutes an appropriate apology for bad driving, the response was overwhelming. A hand wave is the right move, said 73 percent of those surveyed. Words of apology or smiling are also considered appropriate.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that between 1990 and 1996 at least 218 people were killed and more than 12,600 were injured during aggressive driving incidents.