I pissed off an SUV driver today, unintentionally...

You're a brave man. Call me a wimp but if I were to do that driving through Oakland, CA. I don't think my chances are high that would make it home to post about it.

BTW, I do fund SUV drivers are the most unforgiving of all drivers to slow speeds. I wonder if it has anything to do with, "I'm bigger than you are so get out of my way."

 

I actually tend to piss other drivers off by beating them off the stop line without even really trying.
The Prius has the advantage of having 100% of torque available off the electric motor immediately off idle, instead of having to wait for the engine to reach higher rpms.
So I use that advantage to get a few car-lengths ahead early so I can pick my lane.
Drivers behind you also tend to appreciate when the driver ahead of them isn't holding up the whole free world by playing fuel-economy games with their car.
When nobody is behind me I let the Prius just cruise and gain maximum advantage of its fuel-efficient features.
When others are around and especially behind on the road, I am considerate and match or exceed typical travel speeds.

 

Those SUV drivers always thinks he/she is the king of the road. So everybody better get off thier way to let them occupy the road. Stupid act. You know, at local, no matter how fast you drive,how madly you drive end up everybody will meet at next light. Just a wast of gas and polute more to the Earth. Those guys.... sigh.

 

Good for you! Prius drivers change the world just by being there... And if you drive slow enough on a two lane freeway, yet not too slow, you can find a natural separation between groups of traffic. It's a much more calm safe place to drive and had I not been driving too slow to get good MPG, I'd never of known...

 

I love it when they let out their aggression by flooring it. Even saw that in heart of downtown Seattle last week with hundreds of pedestrians everywhere... Sometimes people just get pissed and the only way they feel better is to put the pedal to the metal... probably cost that giant shiny truck more than a dollar to accelerate up to 30mph before it had to slam on the brakes for the next red light a block away. But boy oh boy all us drivers and pedestrians sure were impressed!

 

I had one honking at me today on Olympic for not approaching the line of stopped cars at the red light fast enough.

 

Yeah, anyone who honks their horn, flashes their lights, and rolls down the window to verbally abuse you has a screw loose.

Drivers are usually pretty sane out here in Nebraska, and the roads have sufficient capacity that the slower drivers and more aggressive drivers don't have to compete too much. I learned to drive outside Boston, so I tend to drive a bit quicker.

I don't stomp on the accelerator, but I do use both the engine and the motor to get off the line.
And it tickles me pink when I leave the typical aggressive Dodge Ram driver in rear-view mirror. We typically get along just fine once he sees I'm not going to slow him down one bit.

We have plenty of those macho big truck drivers around here.

 

I usually view male SUV and big truck divers, I'm talking trucks that look like they never have or never will haul anything, ie bought it just because it's big and badass, and drive aggressively, as over compensating for a lack of genitalia size.

For the women of such type vehicles and demeanor I view them as having an unsatisfied sex life.

 

One of the Wayne Gerdes (?) videos in Yakima when he's instructing drivers how to get 86mpg... at one point a large penis-surrogate accelerates suddenly and overtakes loudly.
Seconds later Wayne observes, 'See? He's turning in to that gas station. He didn't get far.' </paraphrase>

I sense that many 4WD drivers in Canberra actually use the vehicle for its intended purpose. There's farms, dirt roads and snow in winter not far from the nation's capital. So when they are on a road with others and not a deserted fire trail, they tend to be a bit more considerate. Maybe.

 

I live on what is supposed to be a gravel road, but with the reduced maintenance from leaner times it's essentially a dirt and mud road.

My Prius never stays clean for more than two days, yet most of these "tough trucks" haven't got a spot of dirt on them. With the winter snow and freeze/thaw cycles I haven't been able to use the backup-camera for three months.

I very much doubt if they ever get off-pavement, nor are they hauling anything. So the purpose for their purchase is something beyond the practical.

I did talk my Silverado-driving dad halfway to a Camry hybrid though (at first he laughed for days), and got him to realize how his driving habits affected his fuel economy. He was complaining that there must be something wrong with his truck because he was getting such poor gas mileage. So the next time I rode with him in his truck I gently pointed out how much he was on the accelerator.

He gets it now, so when we go together to his medical appointments he prefers to carpool with me in the Prius.

 

I piss them off too, but slightly in a different way. Nothing pisses off other car drivers more than to get smoked by a Prius on the road.

 

That's how I drive the Prius. I think we are just following the of common courtesy rules of the road.

 

I don't have a problem with that. When I lived in Georgia lots of them redneck trucks have gun rack in the back window, and of course with guns on them. So without feeling left out this is what I had strapped in the back seat of my 911. You should see them redneck's faces when they peep through my window and saw this.

So, you think you have a gun? LOL!

 

I always figure that if he's pissed off, it's HIS problem, not mine. Most of these guys you describe are such pathetic losers that the only real power they have in life involves driving a powerful vehicle, so they try to exploit it as much as they can on the road.

 

I agree wholeheartedly.

Babying the accelerator in order to play the fuel-economy game in traffic creates a hazardous condition.

It causes traffic to back up behind you, it is contrary to the standard flow of traffic which can cause a hazard, and it frequently angers other drivers, which whether you blame them or not also increases the hazard.

One time I was behind a Prius executing a protected left turn.

The guy babied the accelerator so much that even though the green arrow was lit when we both proceeded into the intersection, it cycled way through yellow and turned RED when we were both barely over halfway through the turn.

That is insanely inconsiderate and hazardous, and could have landed me in traffic court explaining how the idiot in the Prius was fooling around with EV mode instead of DRIVING and thus put me in that situation.

Playing games like this in traffic also makes one a very poor ambassador for the Prius, if that matters at all, and it does nothing to counter the widespread falsehood that the Prius is an under-powered vehicle.

Most people even think that it is an EV!

Even driven fairly aggressively (brisk acceleration at lights, 5-10 over the limit on highways and arterials) my Prius averaged a respectable 50.4 mpg until winter set in.

 

+1

This is exactly how every prius should be driving.

Sorry, but "accelerating" in EV is nothing but asking for trouble, getting bad mpg, and wearing battery. I'm not even talking about being inconsiderate to fellow drivers.

The OP has no sympathy from me.

 

Couldn't agree more with what you said.

Which just gave me an idea, since I've been professionally trained in performance driving on a road course race track so I should be qualified.

We need to start a Prius driving school! LOL!

My other mission now after buying the Prius - Change people's perception of a Prius one driver at a time.