Prius drivers in danger?

In my Previous Prius i used to drive at the speed limit in town all the time.. People would be talking to me at traffic lights, shaking a fist, yelling at my though my rear view mirror when coasting to a red light i had people race up and cut me off to get ahead of me. Cause you know it just kills people to have to wait behind a Prius! It was all a very strange situation. Now nobody seems to bother me at all.. If anything i get more stares now because a very limited amount of primes in my area. And people seem to wonder that that stylish car is i'm Driving!!

 

It is like a Prius transformer. They just can't figure it out. They think, "Should I be mad or not?"

 

Ever since I got the dark tint? I haven't had anyone try to yell at me, or shake a fist, or flip me the bird, etc. And even very rarely do I have a tailgater on me.

They can't see in the car, so maybe they don't want to take a chance that I might be a crazy dude in there, pointing a Glock in their direction.

 

I generally don't care if the person in front of me is leaving a big gap like that at a red light, unless it is causing an impediment to the traffic behind due to lane configuration or access to turn lanes. For example when a line of traffic can't get over into a turn lane because there's that ONE car in a through lane that refuses to move up just a couple feet.

 

Heard on Coast to Coast the other night, “ A very high percentage of people are high on aphetimines “ so just
back off or escape. If they really get physical, then get the 9mm out.
The # of people POd is incredible.

 

I drive a company Prius.
This not only means that I drive a Prius, but that I also drive a Prius with a very large 1-800-howzmydriving sticker on it.

I also have a tracking device (as I mentioned earlier) but we also have extensive driver training.
One aspect of this training deals with stopping in traffic and leaving enough distance between you and the car in front of you to (a) give you an out, which is also fundamental in counter-terror.....covered in driver training by my former employee.
Leaving a big air-gap also (b) gives you less of a chance of being injured if your small car (Priuses are only mid-sized on the inside) gets sandwiched between two normal sized cars at an intersection.
The rule of thumb when stopped behind another car is to be able to see pavement in front of the nose of your car or the white line if you're the lead vehicle.

SO....one might imagine that I get lots of honks and 1/2 peace signs - right?
Well.....not exactly.
Part of this is because I choose to live in a small town rather than one of the vast alabaster colored sloburbs in America...
(see....)Best "Big CITY?" | PriusChat

The other part, I believe, is that I don't go around looking for trouble which makes it a lot tougher to find it.

YMMV

Well if it's on George Noory then it HAS to be true - right?

I do not work evenings and I listen to audiobooks so my coast2coast AM days are faaaar behind me.
I understand Mr. Noory is on the short list for the radio hall of fame......

Good for him!!!
He's not my genre, but word on the street is that he's a really good guy!

 

Error I meant Opioids

 

On my way home yesterday from the flying field. No kidding..... 2 Prius' back to back. 50, then 45 then 40 in a 55mph zone. Rinse and repeat twice.

So pissed off when I got the chance to go around I floored it with my horn blowing the whole time. In fact, the people behind me I think did as well because I heard more than 1 horn. Wth people? I still don't believe in all the perceived "Prius Hate", but maybe it's true, and "maybe", i'm becoming a Prius hater as well. Drive the darn car like your supposed to in traffic. Do your gas saving BS for when it won't inhibit others. How frikin hard is that to do?

 

I think a lot of the time it’s distraction, I use brake a lot because of mountain driving, then when I’m on the freeway the cruise control won’t set, because I’m in brake. Here in Ca the permissible low speed on the freeway is 40, I’d never go that slow unless a problem with Prius. I think in a short period of time we will all be driving automated cars and then there will be no slow or fast drivers. Which is more dangerous? the driver doing 55 or the one doing 85?

 

The one that is less predictable, or is doing the combat driving.

 

People may have variety of reasons to be driving at lower speed than the flow of traffic. You happened to have noticed two Prius. I notice many slower driving vehicles, often big rigs and sometimes any ICE passenger cars. Most of us shrug shoulders and pass them up when we can. Why are we buying into selectively perceiving ill of some Prius drivers who happened to be driving slower than you wanted? Besides, gas saving is not BS, IMHO. We run everywhere in such hurry. Do we really need to be? Of course, I confess that I used to feel the same way towards slower drivers in my 20s. And if someone told me to slow down, I would have told him/her to F'off.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Hush!! Those are the ones I follow.

Bob Wilson

 

You too?

In California semi’s and vehicles towing have a speed limit of 55. If I’m driving my EV, I’m sitting behind them my whole trip. I don’t care if it’s 5 or 50 miles. Besides the slower speed the slipstream created usually helps with battery usage.


iPad ?

 

Your right, people may have a variety of reasons. That being said, when you have 8-10 vehicles behind you, then you need to pull over and let the traffic go by.

As for selectively perceiving ill of Prius Drivers. I think my reaction is a perfect example of why people here think they get "Prius Hate". Could have been in a diesel truck and I'd have still been ticked off. So just because a person in a Prius and gets yelled at, flipped off - it's not necessarily because they are driving a Prius.

As for the gas saving BS. I drive a Prius, and it was more than obvious what these guys were doing. I have no problem with it, and do it myself from time/time (though admittingly have tired of striving for the holy mpg) but it's not done when it will affect someone else on the road.

 

I'm 65 yrs old. Been driving for 50 years. But even when I was young, I never drove crazy fast or like a maniac. I still don't understand why everyone is in such a big damn hurry!?? Are they that anxious to get to work?

Driving the California freeways is just too dangerous. Nothing but stress. People are absolutely nuts! No other way to describe it. It's the Indy 500, with all the drunks & pot smokers... or you're stuck in gridlock crawling along at 8 MPH.
I avoid the freeways as much as possible.

 

The driver doing 85 is more dangerous. Look at it this way: If you're the only car on the road, and something unexpected happens (tire blowout, moose in road, malfunctioning truck doing 20 up a hill, etc.), you'll find that energy = speed squared, and 85 has more than twice as much energy to dissipate as 55. That means more than twice the stopping distance, making you more likely to hit something and hit it very hard if you're doing 85 vs 55.

 

That would be 85 mph and plus.

If we all want to be totally honest, we can say, “ Been there, Done that”.

 

I’m 83, you should try this mountain highway I take every day. Double yellow lines. Two cars passed several cars yesterday and when we all got to the bottom, they were there at the stop sign. One of those passers bypassed the three before him by driving on the left side and then taking a left turn, back up the next hill.
I can only assume they are on something or every day they don’t allot sufficient time to get to work. Incidently, that highway is Rt. 49S from Auburn, Ca. A treacherous Rd with curves, blind spots, lumber trucks. Yesterday I followed a very slow driver that did not know the Rd. I didn’t mind as I save more gasoline that way. This guy was crossing the double yellow line at Blind Curves! So I backed off a little bit more. The freeways are no problem, I just get behind a big truck and let him lead. They are good drivers. If they want to switch lanes, I’ll
signal and then block for them. Yes driving is a lot more dangerous!

 

Mountain roads (with other idiot drivers). I couldn't do that everyday. 83? Take care out there Andy!

 

You are assuming cars driven at those speeds are doing so on the same roads. The majority of people approaching 85mph are doing so on freeways where the majority of the traffic is also doing similar speeds. These roads have wide lanes, shoulders, and medians. They may even have barriers to help keep wildlife and pedestrians out.

Yes, it can get bad if something goes wrong, but the same can happen on surface streets where the density of things to collide with is higher closer to the road, and a head on collision with opposing traffic is more likely. A car doing 55 hits something with less force than one doing 85, but that assumes the something isn't a truck incoming at 40.

There will be idiots that do 85 on a surface street, but they will likely be the idiots tailgating, weaving to see ahead, illegally passing over a double line or on the shoulder, etc. when limited to just 55.

For the individual's safety, slower speeds are better. For everybody's safety, it is better to keep with the flow of traffic, don't be aggressive, signal your intentions, and give people space.