Getting Flipped Off Is A Badge of Honor

I remember getting seriously tailgated, wondering who the heck is it, the antiChrist or someone. I reverse-passed them by moving to the left lane, and we ended up side-by-side at the next red light: it was a somewhat flustered looking middle aged lady, suspect she was late for work. I don't think she even realized what she was doing.

This doesn't excuse dangerous behavior on the road, but I think at least sometimes what we take "personally", is just someone with an irrational facet to their personality.

I've got one family member in particular, who regularly blows every rule in the list I posted above; I've pretty much given up trying to get through to them, have the wisdom to know it's pointless.

Getting Flipped Off Is A Badge of Honor | Page 9 | PriusChat

 

I see everyone is still bragging about how they think their "ruler" is longer than the other guys.

 

I am the best and most courteous driver of all!

And also the most modest.

That is all.

 

That makes two of us!

 

We've been in Toronto, walking with our daughter and grandkids down to the lake, along the the side of the road (small residential streets) and I was always impressed how drivers slowed and gave you lots of room. Good mindset prevails.

 

I'm always amazed by how highly some people think of themselves. Just chilling in their own little piece of reality......everybody else is the problem child...if we spent more time looking in the mirror and having a bit of honest self reflection, the world would probably improve significantly..

 

edited because i messed up inserting quote

 

We live in another country hundreds maybe even a 1000 miles from you and your list would apply also to the drivers in our neck of the woods. Wonder if this is a sign of the times and culture we now live in.

Small towns in our area being the exception to this behavior.

 

I'll confess to that too.

 

Wow this thread has gotten a lot of mileage!

 

Because egos love talking about how long their "rulers" are.

 

If I see a car close behind me and there is no where to pass, I suspect they would like to go faster, so I put the pedal down, show them what a light weight, low drag Prius can do and we both enjoy a faster drive, but I get to do it at 50-55 mpg!
(trying to change the stereotype of Prius drivers one day at a time)

 

I question how much of this thread is actually real and how much is "troll"ing....

 

Let's see if we can get it to 100 pages. It is only at 10 right now. We got ways to go yet.

I'll do my part.

When I drive and see someone behind me is impatient I will either let them pass or speed up myself and out-drive them, whichever is more appropriate for the situation at hand. I find most people do not really know how to drive with any kid of finesse. They just press the gas pedal hard or brake pedal hard. So up/down and left/right is problematic for them since they really have no idea how to handle their vehicle. I usually get a big distance away from them at a curve or down hill or downhill curve, is my favorite. After that I can slow down to my chosen speed and they no longer tailgate usually. I find that my Prius handles really well, brakes really well. Acceleration is so-so, but not as bad as many think, especially from NOT standing still. It actually does have some pick and go and I do use that sometimes. I too try to break that Prius stereotype, especially with coal rolling big truck (small dick) crowd. I figure if they have one Prius wrinkle their ego a bit, they may not try to intimidate another fellow Prius driver who may be more like the original poster of this thread.

And I am also the most modes Prius owner, too, so there is that.

 

I'll do my part to extend the thread. We had a men's meeting Wed night and people were talking about drivers and their habits and how dangerous it is driving in the larger city near our area. It bought to mind Mendel's comments in post 162 and I mentioned how it is not just in the large city near us but seems to be widespread throughout our society and culture.

One fellow bought up an interesting point that others and I had thought of but never put a finger on. It struck a nerve with all of us when he mentioned it. He mentioned it is a symptom of how desperate people are in our society and they express it through their driving habits. This hit home with me. We drive from a small rural area to a large city each day, twice a day. Once in the city there are many red lights and side by side driving. I gives you a chance to look at people as they are stopped and drive by, and looking at some of the individuals who tailgate and run red lights etc they certainly do have the look of being desperate people.

Maybe this also explains road rage how some people are just barely holding on and the slightest perceived thing during driving sends them into rage! Now being retired and only driving to bring our youngest kid to school I am relaxed when I drive and have time to observe others habits without participating or getting in the way. We leave early enough that she can get to school usually 30 minutes early so we don't participate in the morning or evening rush hour rat race we just concentrate on keeping up with the traffic flow.

People are constantly cutting in and out of traffic to gain one spot in the line of traffic before stopping at the next red light. When you hit the bypass through a section of the city that has three lanes of traffic going each direction it almost becomes a gladiator sport to get in the right lane and merge properly. Some of it is due to just plain ignorance of good driving habits but I do believe a larger part is due to just sheer desperation of a lot of people and their inability to control themselves.

Each day you also run into kind souls who slow down and do allow others to merge with the traffic flow. For myself we always give these good people a smile in the rear view mirror a and wave. I also try to mirror their good behavior and driving habits.

(edited to correct grammar)

 

I've been on all sides of this at various points in my life. I was very road ragey and driving over 100mph regularly when I was a teenager. A big improvement to my road rage came when I started driving stick shifts in my early 20's, as I had to look ahead more and plan more carefully and it just plain gave me something to do in traffic. The biggest improvement came four years ago when I switched from a stick shift to an automatic with dynamic cruise control. I just drive 5mph over (measured by GPS) always on DRCC and let everyone else deal with it now. I think one of the problems is Prii read the speed so low, and a lot of Prius drivers choose their speed based on that speedometer and it pisses people off, but that's none of my business really.

The insight I want to add is that it's all about expectations. When expectations aren't met, people get angry. I find the best driving was driving in congested city centers surrounded by city natives. Everyone seems to expect the drive to be slow and doesn't give eachother too much of a hard time. Driving on more rural highways or cities that are smaller, whenever traffic slows down just a little, or whenever someone's not going 20mph over the limit, these people seem to lose their ish and drive really aggressively. I don't mind being tailgated in a city at 10mph, but it bugs me when I'm tailgated at 70mph on a rural highway when there's traffic slowdowns from time to time. In lapses of temperament (I still have to keep myself in check, I don't have the longest ruler) I've tried decreasing my speed 5mph in those situations every 4 or 5 minutes, and they still keep tailgating even though we're now going 40 instead of 70, lol.

I've also heard a similar sentiment from people that drive in other countries, though I've not verified this myself. It goes something like, in America, people expect other people to follow the traffic laws and get angry and righteous when others don't. In countries like India, no one *expects* anyone to follow the traffic laws, so everyone drives in a common sense way and there's less anger.