Intimidating Drivers

[daveshoot]

On the original topic... if you find yourself being tailgated and passed a lot, is it possible you are driving too slowly in the fast lane?

IMO there is no excuse for tailgating someone in the right lanes. There is no excuse for BEING tailgated in the left lane.

The Germans have it right: if you aren't passing someone, you shouldn't be in the left lane, except in extreme congestion. It is the "fast" lane and you are expected to yield it to someone who wants to go faster. The same general rules exist in most US states, but aren't enforced, or apparently even taught.

If the same things keep happening, you have to wonder if it's really the brand of car that's the cause. We seem to have extrapolated much about others from their choice of vehicle and tires. Just in case it is your speed and location that are the issue, rather than your smugmobile, note that the Tacoma behind you with standard tires is probably me, and I don't care what you are driving, I just want you to let me play through.

 

[houstonscott]

Can you be an atheist AND an environmentalist? So this helps explain why there is (or should be) internal tension for the atheist environmentalist. This does not mean an atheist cannot, in practical terms, be moral and/or an environmentalist; of course a person may be both. But it leads us to question where the grounding for such a combination could possibly come from. On one hand they (or you?) believe that the wanton destruction of our natural environment is wrong. And it is wrong. Not just wrong in the sense of “I don’t personally like it” but in the sense of being objectively wrong. But on the other hand, there’s no grounding for such a belief in objective right and wrong apart from belief in God. Greg Koukl continues: If I stood at an intersection and put my hand up, cars might stop voluntarily, but they’d have no duty to respond. They could ignore me with no fear of punishment because I have no authority to direct traffic. If, on the other hand, a policeman replaced me, traffic would come to a halt. What is the difference between the policeman and me? My authority is not grounded. It doesn’t rest on anything solid. The policeman, however, represents the government, so his authority is justified. Standing firmly in mid-air Without God claiming an objective moral rule loses its grounding because there is nothing (no one) to give it legitimate authority. You lose your grounding: It’s like trying to stand firmly in mid-air: A moral atheist is like a man sitting down to dinner who doesn’t believe in farmers, ranchers, fishermen, or cooks. He believes the food just appears, with no explanation and no sufficient cause. This is silly. Either his meal is an illusion, or someone provided it. In the same way, if morals really exist, as I have argued, then some cause adequate to explain the effect must account for them. God is the most reasonable solution. [3] Something to think about If you believe that destroying our Earth is wrong, really wrong, this necessitates belief in objective moral values, which in turn necessitates the existence of a God to provide the grounding for moral laws.

HS

 

[DS43812]

I driver both a large truck and a smaller car and definitely notice a difference in the way other drivers act towards each type of vehicle. When I'm in the smaller car they tend to be much more aggressive but they generally keep their distance when I'm driving the truck. They probably know the truck could easily squash them like a bug, which happens to be one of my own concerns when I'm driving the truck because it outweighs most vehicles I encounter by several times and I don't want anyone's death on my hands.

 

[CobyRupert]

There's seems to be a rivalry. In my town there's a big pick-up, with dual smoke stacks poking up through the bed behind the cab with a "Prius Repellant" label pointing at them like this: (what's the point? To make less cargo space or set things in the bed on fire?) Then there's the cars with this bumper sticker:

:laughing:

 

[troutsqueezer]

I driver both a large truck and a smaller car and definitely notice a difference in the way other drivers act towards each type of vehicle. When I'm in the smaller car they tend to be much more aggressive but they generally keep their distance when I'm driving the truck. They probably know the truck could easily squash them like a bug, which happens to be one of my own concerns when I'm driving the truck because it outweighs most vehicles I encounter by several times and I don't want anyone's death on my hands.

This was my original point, exactly. I did mention that I drive a truck plus I have several other cars as well. I'm seeing now that I should not have mentioned the brand/model of the small car nor my lack of religious beliefs in order to steer the thread. Just like politics, talk about Prius' and God bring out the crazy in people. Good thing I didn't bring up guns. :confused2:

 

[TripleR]

This was my original point, exactly. I did mention that I drive a truck plus I have several other cars as well. I'm seeing now that I should not have mentioned the brand/model of the small car nor my lack of religious beliefs in order to steer the thread. Just like politics, talk about Prius' and God bring out the crazy in people. Good thing I didn't bring up guns. :confused2:

I didn't even think you were allowed to own guns if you drove a Prius...:laughing:

Joking, I really don't care what a person drives or believes.

 

[troutsqueezer]

Can you be an atheist AND an environmentalist? So this helps explain why there is (or should be) internal tension for the atheist environmentalist. This does not mean an atheist cannot, in practical terms, be moral and/or an environmentalist; of course a person may be both. But it leads us to question where the grounding for such a combination could possibly come from. On one hand they (or you?) believe that the wanton destruction of our natural environment is wrong. And it is wrong. Not just wrong in the sense of 的 don稚 personally like it but in the sense of being objectively wrong. But on the other hand, there痴 no grounding for such a belief in objective right and wrong apart from belief in God. Greg Koukl continues: If I stood at an intersection and put my hand up, cars might stop voluntarily, but they壇 have no duty to respond. They could ignore me with no fear of punishment because I have no authority to direct traffic. If, on the other hand, a policeman replaced me, traffic would come to a halt. What is the difference between the policeman and me? My authority is not grounded. It doesn稚 rest on anything solid. The policeman, however, represents the government, so his authority is justified. Standing firmly in mid-air Without God claiming an objective moral rule loses its grounding because there is nothing (no one) to give it legitimate authority. You lose your grounding: It痴 like trying to stand firmly in mid-air: A moral atheist is like a man sitting down to dinner who doesn稚 believe in farmers, ranchers, fishermen, or cooks. He believes the food just appears, with no explanation and no sufficient cause. This is silly. Either his meal is an illusion, or someone provided it. In the same way, if morals really exist, as I have argued, then some cause adequate to explain the effect must account for them. God is the most reasonable solution. [3] Something to think about If you believe that destroying our Earth is wrong, really wrong, this necessitates belief in objective moral values, which in turn necessitates the existence of a God to provide the grounding for moral laws.

HS

It's far too easy to shoot down this type of rhetoric with simple logic and deduction but I'm not going to go into that in this thread. Plus, it's hard to read because of the punctuation, probably caused by copying and pasting from another app. If you like to discuss this type of thinking, submit your ideas to a forum like Straight Dope where folks will be glad to take you on. Straight Dope Message Board - Powered by vBulletin

 

[Gator6x4]

It's interesting, when I drive the wife's Prius, I noticed that some folks who are driving in much larger vehicles, usually with over-sized tires, tend to tailgate me, pass unsafely and generally try to intimidate, using the size of their vehicle as a weapon. I don't get this behavior much when I drive my truck. Now, I'm going to generalize here, I'm aware: Sometimes, after something like this happens, the other driver and I will happen be headed to the same destination and when we each get out of our vehicles I can't help but notice that the other driver tends to be on the small side, physically. Rarely does this happen with big people in big trucks. I think perhaps they don't have self-image problems nearly as much, or at least don't use their vehicles to make up for their small size. I'm guessing they buy those big trucks to actually haul something big. I'm 6'2" at 220 lbs. and I sense that the other driver is sometimes a little surprised that the person they just tried to intimidate is not the person they envisioned driving a smaller car so they avoid eye contact at all costs. I'm not the type of person who intimidates others, the opposite in fact, but sometimes I would like to pick them up by the collar and say, "Hey, do you feel like intimidating me now, Punk?" :laughing:

Given the number of road rage incidents recently involving serious injury or death, I just don't think I would be engaging in intimidation on the highways.

That said I agree, I have them riding my bumper at seventy plus miles per hour and I don't drive a Prius. I really love it when I am speeding, look in the rear view mirror and see some female right on my bumper with a cell phone stuck in her ear.

 

[Gator6x4]

Matthew 7:6 might read it and save a lot of your effort.

Matthew 7.6-16 Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

 

[hawkeye08]

Interesting how the discussion wanders around.. We drove our pickup on a recent trip rather than the car since it is more comfortable on long trips. It was interesting how the Prius seemed to be the car (actually driver not car) that constantly cut back in way too soon (dangerously soon) and my wife and I discussed it. This was on the freeway and regardless of whether traffic was heavy or light. Sometimes someone has to cut in close or miss their exit, no problem, it happens, but when there are no cars or exits and they cut back in too close, that is just plain wrong. It also seemed to be the car that was going 2-3mph under speed limit in the left lane at times holding up many cars. Don't get me wrong, it was not exclusive to the Prius, but the vast majority on this last trip (over 800 miles). BTW, I noticed they get irate when someone cuts in close in front of them. Hand gestures and sign language abound....

 

[Dr_Zinj]

I bought a Prius hybrid for the wife 2 weeks ago. Traded in her POS Dog, err Dodge Caravan.
Didn't cost any more than other domestic cars of the same size (and that's without factoring in personal tax deductions); so the claim of spending thousands more doesn't hold water.
Has better cargo space than other vehicles of that size (she hauls musical instruments around for her job, and a full sized keyboard fits with the backseat down.)
Fuel savings over the Caravan alone will pay for the car.
As for environmental impact; try Google Maps of Sudbury, Ontario. It's a little place out in the middle of nowhere. And the environmental damage is miniscule. And Tanzania? No reason to disrupt the "annual critter migration". Just don't fence the thing in and the beasties will cross with no problem.
I get 50 to 60 in it average. Wife gets about 5 to 10 mpg worst because she has a lead foot coming from a stop. Now Prius's seem slow but that's because they accelerate slower - a fuel conservation method that the experts have been recommending for all drivers since the mid-1970s. But once up to speed, I set the cruise control at 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit and I'm happy there. Everyone else who wants to drive faster is just an impatient idiot in my professional opinion (22 years in the transportation field.)
My current vehicle is a Nissan Sentra and I average 35 mpg with it, the same mpg as I got back in 1982 with my Ford Escort.

 

[AGRIMAN]

What I really hate about the Prius is when they get wrapped around the driveshaft on my F450. At least it's not hard to cut them out with my pocket knife.

 

[hawkeye08]

Given the number of road rage incidents recently involving serious injury or death, I just don't think I would be engaging in intimidation on the highways.

That said I agree, I have them riding my bumper at seventy plus miles per hour and I don't drive a Prius. I really love it when I am speeding, look in the rear view mirror and see some female right on my bumper with a cell phone stuck in her ear.

When I had a daily commute, I saw lots of stupid behavior, eating a bowl of cereal (fun to tap brakes and see if they spill the milk), putting makeup on (fun to tap brakes and see if they mess up the mascara), reading newspaper, etc. I often thought it would be nice to have a button (easy to add) that would turn on brake lights without me actually applying brakes.. I really like my cruise cancel button that allows me to disengage cruise control without tapping brakes so I can slow down for upcoming stop, etc.

 

[aczlan]

When I had a daily commute, I saw lots of stupid behavior, eating a bowl of cereal (fun to tap brakes and see if they spill the milk), putting makeup on (fun to tap brakes and see if they mess up the mascara), reading newspaper, etc. I often thought it would be nice to have a button (easy to add) that would turn on brake lights without me actually applying brakes.. I really like my cruise cancel button that allows me to disengage cruise control without tapping brakes so I can slow down for upcoming stop, etc.

Get a Volvo . They have a "Fog taillight" that looks like one brake light and is switched on the dash.

Aaron Z

 

[turnkey4099]

It's far too easy to shoot down this type of rhetoric with simple logic and deduction but I'm not going to go into that in this thread. Plus, it's hard to read because of the punctuation, probably caused by copying and pasting from another app. If you like to discuss this type of thinking, submit your ideas to a forum like Straight Dope where folks will be glad to take you on. Straight Dope Message Board - Powered by vBulletin

Thank you. I played with responses to that sermon but decided I couldn't keep it PC enough

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

<snip>

I get 50 to 60 in it average. Wife gets about 5 to 10 mpg worst because she has a lead foot coming from a stop. Now Prius's seem slow but that's because they accelerate slower - a fuel conservation method that the experts have been recommending for all drivers since the mid-1970s. But once up to speed, I set the cruise control at 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit and I'm happy there. Everyone else who wants to drive faster is just an impatient idiot in my professional opinion (22 years in the transportation field.)
My current vehicle is a Nissan Sentra and I average 35 mpg with it, the same mpg as I got back in 1982 with my Ford Escort.

That is about my approach to travel. "The safest speed on any road is whatever the 'flow' is" That is where my CC will be set which in this areas is 5-6 over the posted. I never have seen where people who want to drive mch faster than the flow come off expecting people to "get out of my way". As long as I am passing at a reasonable rate, you will wait until I get clearance to pull back in. I don't speed up to "ticket range" for anyone except emergency vehicles if I'm caught in the left lane.

Harry k

 

[MossRoad]

I'm not sure I should dignify the caliber of this response with one of my own but hey, what are forums for?

I did a lot of research on the Prius before buying one. I studied everything from the planetary gear system it uses to the radical redesign of the way an automobile air conditioning system works to the four 32 bit microprocessors that run the thing. There is a whole lot of innovation in between those features that I won't go into here. Suffice it to say, I looked into it from an engineer's point of view and was very impressed with the white papers that were written. Politics and bias never even entered the picture in early 2005. I was dismayed to see how attitudes began to play a role in people's perception of the car when there is so much to admire about it. I do believe it was Motor Trend's car of the year at one point.

According to the Internet news today, the bad folks drive blue BMW's: Yahoo! :laughing:

Well what are you doing? I mean, really looking at it without bias and actual factual stuff??? That's crazy talk! :laughing:
:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Hey, my mother-in-law is dyed in the wool UAW retiree and she drives a Toyota mini-van. The year it came out it was more American built than an F150 (still right up there as one of the most American built cars).

All my Prius jokes aside, they are technological marvels, great on fuel, etc.... but I just get no fun out of driving one. If I had to buy one car, it would not be a Prius. Maybe a second car, or daily driver if I could afford a fun car, but when you can buy a TDI diesel or now GDI gas car that gets comparable milleage and a whole lot of a heck of more fun, I would go that route...... except I can't fit comfortably into any high-mileage cars that I've tried so far.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Interesting how the discussion wanders around.. We drove our pickup on a recent trip rather than the car since it is more comfortable on long trips. It was interesting how the Prius seemed to be the car (actually driver not car) that constantly cut back in way too soon (dangerously soon) and my wife and I discussed it. This was on the freeway and regardless of whether traffic was heavy or light. Sometimes someone has to cut in close or miss their exit, no problem, it happens, but when there are no cars or exits and they cut back in too close, that is just plain wrong. It also seemed to be the car that was going 2-3mph under speed limit in the left lane at times holding up many cars. Don't get me wrong, it was not exclusive to the Prius, but the vast majority on this last trip (over 800 miles). BTW, I noticed they get irate when someone cuts in close in front of them. Hand gestures and sign language abound....

My experience too..

 

[DeereMann]

Gimmee a 4.5L diesel half ton pickup truck, please. Wait - it will never happen with oil lobby preventing consumption of less fuel (gasoline).

*sigh* :thumbdown:

 

[RobertN]

Ok, so I grew up and have spent all my almost 50 years here(I grew up 20 miles from Troutsqueezer, live about 10 miles apart now although we have never met).

I have found locally, that small cars in general will sit in the fast lanes. And, other cars will get on their tails. Now, I notice Prius's because of the Jeff Dunham video's. After riding in one, it was not too bad.

I notice the slow compacts, even when I drove a PT Cruiser. For some reason, there are a lot of folks that just dont get the idea to use the slower lanes if you are going slower than the flow of slower traffic. I can't explain it, but there just seems to be a disappropriate number of compact cars going slow... In the fast lanes.

I dont think it has to do with Prius, although things like Jeff Dunhams video has not helped them.

I've also notice a disapproiate number of folks who will push people in the fast lanes although a number of those are in bigger cars/trucks.

This was my original point, exactly. I did mention that I drive a truck plus I have several other cars as well. I'm seeing now that I should not have mentioned the brand/model of the small car nor my lack of religious beliefs in order to steer the thread. Just like politics, talk about Prius' and God bring out the crazy in people. Good thing I didn't bring up guns. :confused2: