Aggressive Drivers Towards Prius???

I have noticed this. Drive the same way in my '97 Passport as I do in my '90 Prius and the treatment is vastly different.

In one I get my nice person ridden, flashing high beams, angry honks, cut off, all sorts of stuff.
In the other, it's like I don't even exist.

 

'90 Prius?

 

Yes, but not that often. I had a BMW zoom in front of me just last week, and then brake-checked me to half-posted speed, then swayed side-to-side to prevent me from passing. I wish I had a dash cam, because I would have phoned it in to the police.

 

I live in Massachusetts where Prius is not an uncommon car and I still encounter aggression or general idiocy. I get cut off regularly and in the 152k miles I've put on the car I've been "coal rolled" maybe half a dozen times. My girlfriend drives a muscle car and whenever she borrows my Prius she remarks that she gets cut off probably 3x as often. I used to drive a Focus and Corolla, so it's not a small car thing and it's not my driving.

I commute 13 miles each way on a single lane road. I can usually be found going 5 MPH over unless there's a car in front of me going slower. Maybe once a week I will get a super aggressive tailgater. Like 2 feet off my bumper close (if it's a sedan, I can't even see their headlights in the lower window).

I will admit to messing with them sometimes. I never brake check but I will slow down to exactly the speed limit and set my cruise there. If they get the hint and back off I'll resume my normal 5 MPH over. I have "punished" a few people who had the gall to flash (or turn on and leave on) their high beams by setting my cruise at 5 MPH under the limit and not changing it until one of us turns off the road.

I do have a dash cam. I've been in an accident where the other party was 100% at fault and was nearly successful in lying to the officer that showed up and pinning all the blame on me. Luckily a witness looped back around and provided a statement. I realized that I may not be so lucky next time so I ordered the cam to protect myself.

 

Oops. '09

 

Let me guess, it was a BMW 328i or a similar low-end model. A favorite choice among insecure and inadequate "men" who think it will make them appear more successful to others.

There is a large overlap between this group and people who view driving on public roads as a competition. I do feel bad for them because their commute time is likely the only part of their day where they have any chance of feeling like a winner.

 

I wound up not selecting anything in the survey because I see people driving aggressively toward everyone else. I am surrounded by two kinds of idiots here. Half of them could not care less about anything going on on the other side of the glass. They're too busy with their phones. One of our people here at the office just got clobbered from behind by one of them last week and has a lot of physical therapy in front of her. The other half are in a blind rage because all the other cars are making them late for their own funeral. I've probably been targeted for driving a Prius, but mostly it's just that too many drivers don't see the other drivers as people, no matter what they drive.

 

While I'm thinking about it, some more comments about in-town driving. I have observed two vehicle makes that top my list of offensive and dangerous driving. The letters BMW or VW. We are all just supposed to see these people coming and get out of their way. Tucson is a college town, and as such there are quite a number of resident alumni. These people, as a class further identified by their special university license plates, are the most impatient and obnoxious drivers I've ever seen. Their sense of entitlement knows no bounds. It had to be said. One last item, remember 30 years ago when states would issue one type of license plate that was good maybe 10-20 years or forever? You could spot an out-of-towner right away. With the advent of personalized and a seemingly endless supply of specialty plates the process of identifying visitors is much more complicated. Something else from the old days (courteous drivers and familiar state license plates) that will be missed.

 

I see that some with the "Break My Wallet" brand. But I see it a LOT with the "People's Wagon." A lot of VW drivers here are nuts. And SUVs in general seek to spend as much money as they can trying to get to their destination.

 

The poll is a loaded question because it's a "Hybrid" forum. Everyone in every vehicle has to deal with "aggressive drivers". Just another pity party.

 

Seriously?

 

I vote no...

Yet I fully admit to getting pissed off at other Prius drivers because they are driving below the speed limit, or in the fast lane like it's their own personal road. That being said, it doesn't make it a "Prius" problem. It's just a stupid driver. I will say, that I do despise getting stuck behind a Prius driver at a stoplight. Because let's be honest, their friggin slow unless you hammer the accelerator, but most Prius drivers don't do that.

But if you experience "Prius Hate" - maybe it's because your doing what is highlighted in bold text below. Please don't though - slow drivers suck. Seriously they do - they just suck.

 

I would agree with those who say there are just many more aggressive drivers these days. I come from driving a 2008 Prius and now drive a similar small Plug in vehicle. We drive the speed limit and stay out of peoples way but you can't avoid aggressive drivers these days.

We may feel we are the victim in smaller vehicles but no matter what you drive or the speed you drive someone is going to be determined to get ahead of you or tailgate.

Unfortunately this is a common complaint no matter where you live or drive these days We have encountered tailgaters driving on a country road in the middle of nowhere while driving 55 mph on this dangerous road. The only thing I could do was pull over in a gravel side and let them pass me to speed on their way. Being what some would consider and older driver I am far removed from trying to get in a contest with anyone. One thread in our Prius Chat Forum suggested it is part of the times we are now living in.


Personally I don't think it is a function of the cars involved so much as the people who are behind the wheels that may be a problem!

 

Going on 3 years of ownership; compared to my other cars and similar driving habits. I've faced more aggressive drivers and tailgaters. In town, the speed limit is 35 where I live and its strictly enforced and cops are more than happy to hand out tickets. So I stay with in the limit in town while other drivers ride my bumper, pass me like and gun their engine like "they showed me". Whats funny the cops are never around when this happens, but whenever I'm driving from home to work or back, I always end up with a cop at afar distance behind me.Then again, I work til midnight on most days so the cops I encounter are usually heading back to the station for shift change.

Back to the point. on highways, I stay at least 5-10 mph in the slow lane and even then, with 1-2 other lanes open; I'll still get drivers riding my bumper. Mostly VW's, BMW's, and Trucks. I'll even speed up sometimes, merge to the next lane to let them pass and then move back and even doing that, I'll notice they'll stay the same speed without passing me. So I don't get the point of them riding my bumper. Like someone else has encounter, I've encountered the same where someone will tailgate me, pass me, then brake check me or they'll pass me and go the same speed I was going. What point are they proving, I don't know.

Just a couple days ago, a school bus had its lights flashing in the other lane facing me; I'm not sure about laws in other states, but you can't legally start moving forward until the school bus's lights stop flashing and the bus is in motion. And this jerk in a pick up truck behind, just kept inching forward while I was waiting for the bus to start moving forward and then he beeped at me. It legit angered me and out of frustration, I gave the guy the finger. What is even more messed up is the guy ended up pulling off into a lumber yard not even 50 yards from the bus stop. What was the frigging point?

At the end of the day, I just try to accept it and be happy when I'm filling up at the pump when other people who drive massive land barges complain about how much it costs them to fill all while just carting their 2-3 kids around and doing the occasional grocery store run. All that wasted fuel to go the same distance makes no sense to me.

 

There doesn't have to be a reason.
You can't fix stupid.

 

I'm a recent Prius driver. My first Prius, purchased early December 2019, is 2008 base model in grandmotherly-green with, as of this writing, about 204,000 miles on the odo. Second, because my wife loved the '08 so much, is a 2016 Three with ATP - she wanted safety upgrades. For the past 25 years, I've been driving Volvos and the new-to-us Toyotas replace an '04 (my former daily driver) and an '06 (wife's daily driver) Volvo XC70. Great, high mileage, go-almost-anywhere cars with AWD and plenty of ground clearance.

What I've noticed in driving my green '08 low-status symbol vehicle almost exactly the same way I drove my Volvo (speed and general I've-got-somewhere-to-go approach) has been increased tailgating, other driver's cutting in on me. I have a 60 mile round trip daily commute to work, on a four-lane Southern Middle Tennessee highway, so I'm accumulating a fair amount of driving experience in the Prius. Last night, after dark taking my son to basketball practice on a 12-15 mile one-way route on another local four-lane, had some jack-genius get behind me in town and stay on my tail almost the entire drive. This individual could have passed numerous times. When I finally turned off at our destination, fully expecting the other driver to follow me to his detriment, the other car kept on. I noted it was some variety of Dodge or Plymouth - Charger, Dart, etc. - later model. My only real concern was that my son was in the car with me.

That sort of thing rarely if ever happened when I was driving my metallic red 2004 XC70 with cross-bars and bike rack.

Before owning and driving a Prius, I had always supposed they were driven by people who were "not like me" and I recall a couple of times feeling surprised that a Prius driver had the temerity to try to beat me off the line at a traffic light or pass and stay ahead of me on the road. I find that I drive my Prius about five to ten miles over the posted limit, work traffic to get past whatever hazard to navigation is impeding my progress - if I can do that safely and without inconveniencing other drivers. I drive my Prius like I would drive any car except that I have to be much more careful not to bottom out on driveway dips, and so forth.

In my second paragraph I describe my '08 Prius as a low-status symbol car because it is older, a really odd and somewhat unattractive color, has a few minor dents and scratches on the finish. I'm not certain what I've experienced on the road is d/t the vehicle's low-status vibe or whether it's something more Prius specific.

 

When replying with a quote, you type your additional comments BELOW the quoted text......not within it.

 

I find I'm able to piss off other drivers with my inherent slowness no matter what I'm driving! After 10 years of driving a Prius (now a Prime), I now drive my wife's '14 Forester like it's a Prius.

Here in New England, I'd have to give the aggressive-driving award to F-150 drivers.