New Prius 2010 gets no respect on roads

I agree with your position on the mentality that some people think the carpool lane is for speeding. It is in fact for High Occupancy Vehicles. Sometimes I drive in the slow lanes during rush hour just because of the fact that some people will ride your tail to speed up to what they think is right for that lane. My wife stays out of the HOV lane sometimes for that reason alone. Then there are the crazy folks that turn into an HOV lane because they cannot stand crawling in traffic while some vehicles cruise on by. I know a man who is a Sheriff Motor Officer. He was issuing a ticket to a violator in the HOV lane, when a girl that should not have been driving in it, noticed him and swerved to get out of the lane before she passed him. She wiped out and caused him to nearly die on the freeway from his injuries. Her excuses were lame to say the least.

 

Yeah, I get it. You don't like wreckless drivers.

Nobody does.

There already are laws on the books that deal with tailgating, and aggressive driving---in addition to speeding.
The real problem with life in America, is that people think that the solution to ineffective laws, lies in making...(wait for it!.......) more laws.
As long as there are crowded roads, there are going to be tailgaters lane-changers, and other miscreants out there.

My solution has always been to turn the other cheek (bumper?) when I can, and just ignore the goofy people when politeness fails.
Even in the diminutive Prius, you're still surrounded by 3,000 pounds of plastic, and even a little sheet metal in some places. You aught to try riding a motorcycle sometimes! My life has been threatened MANY more times by inattentive drivers, than some scofflaw who is in a hurry to get to Wal*Mart. Getting pissed off at people with the temerity to actually drive a few miles and hour above the speed limit, is just going to leave you pissed off about something that you have a 0-percent chance of changing. European countries have draconian traffic fines, nearly $10 a gallon fuel prices, almost zero drivers under the age of 18, and guess what?
They have tailgaters, speeders, and "aggressive" drivers.
This tells me that yer just gonna have to deal with it...one way or other.

Sorry...

 

That's a new one for me.

Up here in Vancouver we have some carpool lane zones on our main freeway, and imho they've degraded into a witches brew of legitimate carpoolers and reckless lead foots.

 

This is factually incorrect. Speeding is not the cause of anything. Inattentive and reckless driving causes accidents. Reckless driving can and does include inhibiting the flow of traffic. It can also include excessive speeds under certain conditions, but speeding itself is not the issue at hand anymore than gravity is the cause of people falling down. Driving respectfully means paying attention to what is going on around you and exhibiting courtesy. This means that if you are in the passing lane and have a clusterfark of cars piling up behind you, you yield the lane.

 

its something you have to get used to. non prius drivers treat us very badly..the very
thought of a car getting over 2x their suv mpg pisses them off so they feel the need to annoy us..its ridiculous.

 

I hope this makes some of you feel better. My wife was driving our Prius yesterday.......this guy was right on her bumper....she was already doing 10 mph over the posted speed limit. She was approaching a 45 mph zone...where the NYS Trooper is sitting most of the time. As luck would have it...he was sitting in his normal spot..being awake he could see this idiot riding on my wife's tail..he jumps out of his car and waves this tailgater over. My only hope is that he gave him a ticket and not a warning. Sometimes we do win !!!!

 

Nope your wrong.
The faster a car is going the harder/longer it takes to stop(your more likely to hit things.

The higher your speed the greater the chance you will kill someone when you hit them.

And people who speed have to go from lane to lane to get around people who are doing the speed limit, this is the bigger risk from wanting to go fast. But the fact it your going 10 over the speed limit when you hit something your going to do alot more damage.

Less people die on 25mph roads than 55mph roads. It's very simple if you think about it.
Let a news story say a man was going 55 in a 25mpg school zone and killed a student, but the police has said speeding was not a cause of the accident so the driver is not at fault.

Really speeding= reckless driving

Also i do the speed limit to maybe 2-3mph over in the right most lane, I go out of my way to allow others to break the law, but i will not put up with people not going around me, and following me way to close to intimidate me. That will result in me applying the brakes and slowly slowing doen untill the person passes, and if they don't i will pull over and get out of my car and defend my life if the person still wants to threaten me.

 

Actually, Priuses get about three times the fuel economy of the average SUV, bit I will respectfully disagree with you on the second point.
The only time non-Prius drivers even think about Priuses is when they encounter one misbehaving on the road, or some self-satisfied Prius cheerleader is lecturing to them about the evils of hydrocarbon gluttony.
Most SUV drivers are just trying to get from point "A" to point "B", with kids, soccer equipment, groceries, Belk's sales fliers etc...
They mostly could care less about what kind of crazy good fuel efficiency you're getting---or they themselves would not be motoring along in a vehicle that swills a gallon of petrol every 18 miles or so. All little cars look pretty much alike to them from their lofty perches.
Sports car drivers really don't give much of a crap about fuel efficiency either, for equally obvious reasons.
Most Prius hate out there is directed at the driver---not the car. While you yourself may not be rolling road block, a self-appointed velocity enforcement Nazi, eco nut, pulse and glider, or any of the other things that we've been branded with, you have to remember that every Prius looks pretty much like every other Prius to an SUV driver. Every driver in America (especially in America... ) is an idiot behind the wheel at some point in their driving career or other, and yet we all feel that we're "above average" behind the wheel...
(we're not!)

 

I understand your view, but i will not let people threaten my life because their trying to save 3mins of their time and not do anything about it. I don't get mad and road rage. but I will use my hands to defend my life and others if someone is posing a risk to me. Also calling the cops may work sometimes.

 

The most reckless driving I see on the freeway is the really unsafe, abrupt, multiple lane changes.

Several months ago, I was on 101 heading North through San Mateo. There were 2 guys on motorcycles just weaving like crazy through traffic. One of them must have pulled off the freeway, then back on, cause past the SF airport, the 2nd dude, then alone, passed me up 2 lanes over on my right. Shortly after, he went into a 'tankslapper' which is where the bars go violently from side to side.

Ever see a guy sliding on his back feet first on the freeway? One of the freakiest things I've ever seen. Even worse when you've ridden for 12 years. He didn't get run over but easily could have.

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Here is Bay Area, Prius is just another car as there are soo many.

 

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Prius. This has happend to me more times than I can recall. It seldom happened before with other cars we have owned, including VW Beetles. The only time I am not sorry I bought a Prius is when I fill up at the pumps.
My advice: just get used to it and drive more defensively. (and buy a "real car" next time). And I also look forward to buying a huge new battery in 7 years. What was I thinking?

 

that's a pretty negative post. Where did you come up with the 7yr mark for a new battery? As for a real car, I'll leave that one alone as out sounds rather juvenile. LOL

 

Hi All,

Speeding , taken alone, is not neccassarily a safety issue. What has happened in the last 20 years or so, is that the general public now speeds, and the great majority of them are just not sufficiently competent drivers to do so safely. This was not the case in the 70s and 80s. The people who sped then were few, and knew when to get off the pedal, in general - as general as any generality can be. People saw this and said " They can get away with it, so can I". When in reality they just do not have the car or car handling skills, or 1000% attention to the road, or sufficient training in identifying hazards from 1000 yards back or discipline to make the conservative decsion every time. Anybody who speeds in a SUV, other than perhaps a BMW or Porshe, is just plain incompetent in my opinion.

Speeding in the right lane is just as incompetent as obstructing flow in the left lane (on a non-HOV highway).

Do we need two-tiered licenses? A speeder license and a normal license? Guy all alone in the fast lane, doing 80 - no problem. Guy weaving through traffic at 75 - big problem. Tailgater in the right lane - accident waiting to happen.

I know we definately need a seperate license class for any kinda of heavy high-profile vehicle (read that SUV). It was the incompetence of a driver not familiar with the handling braking differences of a SUV that totalled my 2006 Prius.

 

This is one of the reasons I was glad to sell my '06, but I'm sorry to learn it's still an issue four years later. What we're discussing is actually one of the few things which concern me about purchasing another Prius.

My experience driving the car I own currently is completely different. I rarely if ever get cut off and I have to be careful not to slowly encroach on the car in front of me or they'll almost always feel like they have to get out of the way. I try my best not to take advantage of that, but it sure is nice, and makes driving much more relaxing. With great power comes great responsibility.

Good news is, this is the second year I've ridden my bike more miles than I've driven, so I don't feel too badly driving a poorly packaged foreign luxury car with a V8 and rear wheel drive.

For those of you who drive your Prii at the speed limit in the fast lane, IMHO it might be better to move to the right a lane or two. Let the Police enforce the laws; when you do it tends to anger people. And I'm sure you'll agree that more anger in the world is the last thing we need right now.

Personally, I think lots of non-Prius drivers know we—erm, I mean you—are a sensitive, compassionate, thoughtful bunch, and in their infinite wisdom choose to hassle you for it. The car I have now screams "I'm all about me and I don't give a darn about you, so deal with it." And, although sometimes I'm not totally comfortable with that message, it's also serves as an invisible shield. And I'll be honest, I like that. A lot.

Another observation: My GII Prius simply didn't drive that well, and people know that too. It is one of the slower cars on the road, unless flogged. The performance numbers don't lie, there are very few new or nearly new cars on the road today that won't reach 60mph in under 10 seconds; the GII is one of them. They probably had the same feeling I used to have when behind a VW Bug with 'automatic stickshift' on the back. Also, the steering was numb and there was a bunch of lag between the time I'd ring down to the engine room for more power and when it was finally delivered, which made driving in any sort of remotely spirited manner an exercise in futility. Even the TRD suspension and other suspension bits didn't help that much. And 110 hp only went so far.

In my '06 I tended to feel a bit outgunned on the road; I wish the roads—and the world—weren't like this, but they are. It's sad but true.

 

I'm not really sure what that has to do with anything. The GenII has more than enough power to drive it safely at freeway speeds. I've owned all sorts of sports cars and I do not feel like the GenII is lacking such that it is a danger or even a let down when driving on the freeway.

I find it sad that people have to choose a big V8 powered gas guzzler just to feel "secure".

 

I suspect the reason for your satisfaction with Gen II performance is that you realize that the rectangular shaped pedal under your right foot will go all the way to the floor, or any place in between full up and full down, without doing any damage to the car.

 

That may be true in California - I don't know. In NY state, signs that have a white background are MAXIMUM limits (with the rare exception of ones that are minimums.) Speed limit signs with a yellow background are advisory safe limits. FWIW.

 

Oh, believe me, I was quite familiar with pressing the GII's throttle pedal to the floor. @xs650, you're being a bit condescending. BTW, any time you force the reciprocating engine in a production automobile to the limits of its RPM range, you ARE shortening its life. So, while your assertion that "it's not bad for the car" is true in the short run (i.e., it won't throw a rod at that moment), it's not true over the longer term. Winding that 1.5 to the redline and holding it there does decrease its longevity.

"Let me down on the freeway" is an interesting way to put it—there are degrees to that statement, it's not black and white. Anyone who has owned faster, more capable cars should know what I'm talking about; I'm surprised F8L doesn't see what I'm getting at.

The question is lots bigger than just, "what do I drive?" I've moved close to work and the services I need, bicycle commute daily in a very bicycle friendly city, and use the car hardly at all. I believe our responsibility as Americans is simply to NOT ask for it all now. To make certain sacrifices. I wanted a car that's powerful and quiet and handles well, and riding my bike in the rain is the sacrifice I make for it. Some other people drive 75 miles a day, five days weekly, in their Prius, so they can live in big, luxurious and energy inefficient single family dwellings far from other people.

Sometimes there's a certain defensiveness here, and I can't quite figure it out.

I've owned the car, I think I did my best to embrace it. I'm just calling it as I see it. For me—and this is only my personal opinion, think what you will—it was underpowered, the CG was a bit high and that traction control which cut off all engine power until the throttle was feathered was actually scary (note: it was dialed back after the '06 year). All that combined with road bullying made for a not super confidence inspiring drive.

For a while I was like, "to heck with you, I'll just ignore you" but after more time passed I got tired of that stance and just wanted to be left alone. And now I am. I think I'm less often hassled on my bike than in my Prius!

And if you're looking for eco-arrogant, nothing beats a bicycle, especially if it's purchased used.

 

My other car weighs about the same as a Prius and has 400 hp. It is sluggish compared to the vehicle I rode before I had it, I've had both on road race courses. I don't have a lack of power problem with my Prius.

 

These posts complaining about lack of power or lack of respect are hillarious. It has nothing to do with the car - it's how you drive it!

You can gun the Prius and it's acceleration and speed is plenty powerful for U.S. roads. Now if some teenage punk wants to race me on the freeway I may have a problem. But in normal traffic conditions, you can 'take' any car if you wanted to.