A view of Oneida Street in Ashwaubenon, looking south from the Cormier Road intersection, June 1, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — A busy suburban road in Northeast Wisconsin has been named one of the most passive-aggressive in the United States.
California-based American River Wellness said it surveyed 3,011 drivers to find “the routes most associated with passive-aggressive behavior behind the wheel, the places where commuting becomes a daily test of patience, where small acts of discourtesy stack up and where drivers are left feeling more tense, irritated and worn down long before they reach their destination.”
Oneida Street in Green Bay and Ashwaubenon was ranked second in Wisconsin and 118th overall.
Pollsters wrote:
Oneida Street turns normal Green Bay errands into a series of tiny contests over space. Shopping centers, restaurants, school traffic, commuters, side streets and drivers heading toward or away from the stadium area all feed into a corridor where patience can vanish quickly. Someone waits to pull out, and the cars keep rolling. A signal flashes, and the nearest driver suddenly speeds up. It is not full-blown road rage. It is a colder, calmer kind of pettiness — the kind that says, “You can go, just not before me.”
Tops in Wisconsin was a main road leading to the state Capitol: E. Washington Avenue in Madison.
East Washington Avenue has the restless Madison mix of commuters, students, cyclists, buses, restaurants, apartments, side streets and drivers who are already irritated before the next red light. The passive-aggression is steady rather than spectacular. Cars drift into intersections, hover beside vehicles trying to merge, block side streets or close the gap the moment a turn signal appears. Nobody needs to lay on the horn for the road to feel tense. East Washington does it with timing, tight spaces and the quiet belief that everyone else should have planned better.
It was back to the suburbs for number three in Wisconsin: Bluemound Road in Brookfield and Wauwatosa.
Bluemound Road has the suburban shopping-corridor formula down to a science: malls, restaurants, office parks, school traffic, side streets and drivers trying to beat the next light without surrendering position. A car waits to leave a plaza, and the lane rolls forward like helping would break local custom. A signal goes on, and the gap disappears with impressive efficiency. It is not especially loud or chaotic. It is the quieter version of bad manners — polished, practical and deeply committed to making sure nobody sneaks in ahead.
“Passive-aggressive driving tends to fly under the radar because it does not always look dramatic, but over time, it can create enormous stress for drivers,” Graham Sargent of American River Wellness said in a news release. “A lot of these behaviors are small acts of impatience or territorial driving that people almost normalize, yet they contribute to tension, anxiety and emotional fatigue behind the wheel every single day.”
According to the survey, 23% of Wisconsin drivers associated drivers cutting across lanes at the last second with passive-aggressive behavior. Also mentioned were drivers refusing to let others pull out from side roads of parking lots (16%) and tailgating without passing (11%).
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