Mad when caught in the tail end of the traffic, rage (7)
I believe the answer is:
frantic
'mad' is the definition.
(I know that mad can be written as frantic)
'in the tail end of the traffic rage' is the wordplay.
'the tail' indicates one should take the final letters.
'end of' means to remove the middle letters (I've seen 'ends of' mean this).
'rage' indicates an anagram.
'traffic' with its centre taken out is 'trafic'.
The last letter of 'in' is 'n'.
'n'+'trafic'='ntrafic'
'ntrafic' with letters rearranged gives 'FRANTIC'.
'when caught' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frantic that I've seen before include "At the end of one's tether" , "Berserk" , "Wild - frenzied" , "having kittens" , "Wildly agitated" .)