Driving in city as stressful as skydiving

The stress level from driving in the city and skydiving is same, a study has claimed.

While the study conducted by the MIT together with Audi doesn't examine the cause of road rage, it does quantify the frustration, said Professor Carlo Ratti, who runs the MIT SENSEable City Laboratory in Cambridge.

Researchers used real-time data from an array of face/body tracking technologies, including: GPS to track the subject's location and speed; cameras to monitor both the subject's facial response and external driving environment; a modified Microsoft Xbox Kinect sensor to track the subject's body movements; and skin conductance sensors to monitor the subject's stress responses, the New York Daily News reported.

To determine the baseline data, they looked at stress levels created during other activities, including having breakfast, and attending an economics lecture at MIT.

Kael Greco, project leader for the SENSEableCity Laboratory said that they found that certain driving situations could be one of the most stressful activities in our lives.

A video created indicated that stress created when a person's car was side-swiped by another caused a discernible spike in aggravation and BP.