Saw a road rage. People are crazy!

[NYlakesider]

Driving for different reasons is much different than it used to be.

Way too many people out there that realy do not know how to drive. They then react with aggression. Due to not wanting to get gigged I will let that be enough on that part of that subject.

 

[Grayfox]

Be glad it was angry voices, beeping horns and a light tap.
On the interstates around Memphis, road rage often ends with bullets flying.

 

[Piwo]

I think the defunding of police departments plays a part in this as well. I have never seen the absolute disregard for traffic laws and courtesies as I have in the last 3 years. There seems to be no traffic enforcement anywhere, except for occasional Highway Patrol presence on the interstate. I used to work in our Traffic Unit. I was more than aware of all the "sucker spots" frequented by the police, even in the suburbs. I rarely to never see police in these spots anymore.
I live in a nicer part of Cleveland (Yes, there are a few) yet every time I leave the house I witness people boldly driving through stop signs and traffic lights. Speeding and racing on the highway is the new norm. People are more aware of what they can get away with now, and not just driving. People seem to be acting more impulsively and have a more diminished executive function of the brain. Toss in the Covid lockdown and the other recent social tensions and it starts to add up.

I drive an old beater rusted pickup truck. I drive the speed limit and try to get out of everyone's way. I don't have much trouble with idiots messing with me in traffic, but then I don't look for it. I'm looking forward to the day when moving traffic enforcement becomes the norm again.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Note to self: Move "Light Traffic" from number 2 to number 1 on my list of reasons why I live here.

Ah, Vermont...

Last month my girlfriend and I took the Amtrak Vermonter train from Union Station in Washington, D.C., to St. Alban's, Vermont, and spent a long weekend there. Before we'd even been there a day, we were both fantasizing about how nice it would be to live there...and the light traffic was just one of the many reasons.

 

[LVSteve]

I'm not sure why I am even posting, except to witness part of reality. I live on Cape Cod and drive to Boston fairly often, in the morning rush hour, returning in less traffic. People around here drive 80 mph, sometimes in the left lane, and signal a desire to pass by getting closer than one car-length (at 80 mph).

I have witnessed no road rage, and very few accidents. Except for the tailgating, most folks seem pretty civilized. I drive on major commuter highways. I have no idea why everything is going so well, but there it is.

???

I'm sorry, but I find the highlighted statement rather disturbing. Tailgating is the original road rage. Yet it seems to be accepted as the norm. What does that say about our society?

It's got that bad that when I drive in full Euro mode on the freeway with a two second gap to the vehicle in front, American born passengers get attacks of asphalt agoraphobia. They start muttering about "keeping up with traffic" and nervously eyeing the empty road surface in front like they expect this to happen.

Yeah, whatever.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I'm sorry, but I find the highlighted statement rather disturbing. Tailgating is the original road rage. Yet it seems to be accepted as the norm. What does that say about our society?

I don't understand that either, Steve. It amazes me that when you drive with a decent following distance left between you and the vehicle in front of you, someone will inevitably pass you and plug himself into that space.

In Germany, the police use a measurement system tied to a camera to enforce rules against tailgating...part of me would love to see that here.

I find that the best way to reduce the likelihood of being tailgated is to stay in the right lane, keep up with the flow of traffic, and pass quickly and decisively when overtaking a slower vehicle.

Tailgating detection

 

[rockquarry]

Tailgating and other forms of rude and dangerous driving behavior lies with the immature, impatient, and self-absorbed "instant" folks we have behind the wheel nowadays. Their not-quite-right minds tell them they are more important than anyone else on the road and their destination is of equal importance, far greater than ours.

Regrettably, these same people infest the rest of our world as well, not just on the roadways.

 

[Alton]

San Antonio fits all the stories above. Before Covid they ran very lightly marked cars every day on the freeways and pulled over aggressive drivers. During Covid and even now not enough police driving the highways.

 

[Doug M.]

If staying home more and avoiding crowds resulted in this kind of problem, the root cause is far more pathological. Most of the complainers are just crybabies with no legit complaint. It was the same 105 years ago with the "Spanish" flu. I enjoyed it, because I am not very sociable. What I see is relatively simple: spoiled brats. Far too many people are wrapped up in their beliefs, about all sort of stupid things, and the simplest disagreement is responded to as if it is a crime against humanity.

I'll admit, I dislike wearing a mask, and HATE to see them on people in public. Everything I have ever known screams "violent criminal". Even so, I survived the various parts of the lockdown just fine. In fact, it was great. People did much better at staying away from me, and I rarely had to encourage them to keep their distance.

(I had to delete a paragraph because I ignorantly cross a line. Oh well, I don't get hit very often.)

The driving in town is completely insane. I treat every traffic light and sign as if it a suggestion to my fellow drivers; I'll end up getting hit if I rely on those. I ran across I90 to Moses Lake a couple times a month, and sometimes Spokane. The speed limit is barely a suggestion; I try to stay below what I call the "threshold of trooper" using my cruise, and I am almost always in the way.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

I am slightly surprised at the reaction to my comment about tailgating. Those who regard it as extremely antisocial are, of course, correct, but it is very common around here, and simply does not fit a dictionary definition of unusual. I find it hard to believe that every person I see following at one car-length at 80 mph is in a state of rage. Terminal stupidity? Of course. But rage, no.

These M*******s are more skilled at unsafe driving than you might suspect.

 

[fiasconva]

Caj, that wasn't the demographic of any of the drivers of those three vehicles.

 

[venomballistics]

The post covid era motorist has plummeted in quality.
It's so bad out there, that I have become highly appreciative of the competent drivers remaining.

 

[Kiwi cop]

Not sure that covid is to blame.

October 2018: Austin TX. Four lane road running north-south. Two northbound lanes approaching a Y intersection. Right lane stationary as traffic waits for a light just beyond the Y. Drivers in the left lane coming to a stop adjacent to the Y, waiting for traffic on the right to move then pushing their way in.

Four years later, on the I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, exit coming up on the right. Cars in the far left lane crossing across three lanes, dodging between cars, to make the exit. Happened at almost every exit. Don't drivers plan ahead when they know their exit is coming?

Three days later, leaving Waco for Austin. In second of four lanes 10 mph under the speed limit. Look over my left shoulder, next two lanes are clear. Indicate lane change , look over my shoulder a second time and begin to change lanes. A car in the far left lane, again well over the speed limit, moves into the space I am about to occupy causing me to move back into my lane so fast I think the car might roll, then moves between me and the car in front, across the right lane to take an exit.

For the rest of that trip once in a lane on a metropolitan expressway I stayed there, regardless of being under the speed limit.

 

[LVSteve]

Not sure that covid is to blame.

October 2018: Austin TX. Four lane road running north-south. Two northbound lanes approaching a Y intersection. Right lane stationary as traffic waits for a light just beyond the Y. Drivers in the left lane coming to a stop adjacent to the Y, waiting for traffic on the right to move then pushing their way in.

Four years later, on the I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, exit coming up on the right. Cars in the far left lane crossing across three lanes, dodging between cars, to make the exit. Happened at almost every exit. Don't drivers plan ahead when they know their exit is coming?

Three days later, leaving Waco for Austin. In second of four lanes 10 mph under the speed limit. Look over my left shoulder, next two lanes are clear. Indicate lane change , look over my shoulder a second time and begin to change lanes. A car in the far left lane, again well over the speed limit, moves into the space I am about to occupy causing me to move back into my lane so fast I think the car might roll, then moves between me and the car in front, across the right lane to take an exit.

For the rest of that trip once in a lane on a metropolitan expressway I stayed there, regardless of being under the speed limit.

The lack of planning ahead has been my major gripe since moving to the US. I thought a lot of British drivers had the goldfish attention span, but it took moving here to see a real lack of bandwidth. I was warned before coming here that all road signs, especially on the freeways, will be "late" compared to what I was used to and there would be few, if any, advance warning signs, probably because of cost. They weren't wrong.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[Inusuit]

Picture probably taken in Wyoming.

 

[venomballistics]

Not sure that covid is to blame.

October 2018: Austin TX. Four lane road running north-south. Two northbound lanes approaching a Y intersection. Right lane stationary as traffic waits for a light just beyond the Y. Drivers in the left lane coming to a stop adjacent to the Y, waiting for traffic on the right to move then pushing their way in.

Four years later, on the I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, exit coming up on the right. Cars in the far left lane crossing across three lanes, dodging between cars, to make the exit. Happened at almost every exit. Don't drivers plan ahead when they know their exit is coming?

Three days later, leaving Waco for Austin. In second of four lanes 10 mph under the speed limit. Look over my left shoulder, next two lanes are clear. Indicate lane change , look over my shoulder a second time and begin to change lanes. A car in the far left lane, again well over the speed limit, moves into the space I am about to occupy causing me to move back into my lane so fast I think the car might roll, then moves between me and the car in front, across the right lane to take an exit.

For the rest of that trip once in a lane on a metropolitan expressway I stayed there, regardless of being under the speed limit.

I wouldn't directly blame it. It just marks a starting point to a marked decline.
Perhaps the mentality of the maskhole plays a part here

 

[rockquarry]

I wouldn't directly blame it. It just marks a starting point to a marked decline.
Perhaps the mentality of the maskhole plays a part here

The Covid plague had nothing to so with any of this. The "marked decline" started well before anyone had heard of Covid.

What is a "maskhole"?

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

What is a "maskhole"?

Don't know for sure, but probably a clean version of M*******, which is a certain type of personality from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

 

[rockquarry]

Don't know for sure, but probably a clean version of M*******, which is a certain type of personality from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Thank you for the response, but I'm not up on the deteriorated English language so commonly used in this country nowadays. I'll just let my imagination run wild with this one...