My favorite is when someone has some minor road dispute that cost them maybe a couple of seconds in drive time, and they follow you to catch up with you and scream at you about it…almost as if they weren’t actually on their way to go fucking do anything.
They were already late to whatever they’re supposed to be doing, and you’ve just become the excuse they needed.
Reminder that a pattern of behavior is not an accident, it is born from intentional choices. Running late isn’t something that just happens to people, it is a choice. They choose not to leave on time, they choose not to manage their time, and at a subconscious level they enjoy speeding so leaving late is often an exercise of rationalization. It justifies their speeding and absolves them of guilt when they end up hurting or killing someone. ‘Sure, they were speeding and they know speeding causes accidents… but they didn’t have a choice, they had to speed or they might of lost their job!’ 😮💨
I hate driving, it feels like it got way worse after covid, like people forgot how to drive properly
I think people all just hate each other more now. Generally stress makes little aggressions feel more extreme and the world is in fact falling apart at the seams.
Plus scientific studies have shown people with more bumper stickers were more violent and more likely to commit road rage seeing the car as an extension of themselves and interactions with the car as attacks on personal self and people are much more aware of “personal space” than before covid probably upping the sense of the car being an extension for more people.
I wouldn’t say people hate each other. I think it is more that car dependency is deeply dehumanizing and stressful in a way that leads to violent outbursts that further erode our sense of community and collectiveness. It doesn’t help that capitalism is a cut throat system that primes people to see others as being competition rather than comrades. Together we have become a people of hyper individualist, anti-social consumers… A spiritual sort of rot that is incompatible with the ideals that civilization itself is built on.
It’s the same phenomenon of de-socialization that was radically accelerated during peak Covid that has led to everything from a 1000% increase in unruly passengers on airlines, to a drastic decrease in relationships and dating, to a whole host of people just checking out from the social contract and embracing ludicrous conspiracy theories and retreating to online safe-spaces where any crazy thought will be validated and praised.
As a species we were not meant to have constant exposure to millions of people’s innermost thoughts and feelings and unrestrained impulsive ideas. It fucks with your head. Combine that with the economic incentive of keeping people in one spot, scrolling their attention-span to sawdust, and you are training an entire generation of people to turn off their inner monologues and to stop thinking entirely, just seeking validation and things to click on.
I feel strongly that AI ruining the internet will be a net-positive, as it’s going to drive more people to human spaces to connect with each other. Sure there will be a whole segment of people raised in the AI slop of the next decade, but there will also be a subset of people who want more and create their own spaces with other real humans.
In all seriousness, what the hell is up with the psychology of drivers? So much road rage, nastiness, and utter contempt for everything around their metal box of death on wheels.
In the US at least, Trump has validated half the country to express naked contempt for anyone they deem “other.” This includes: any person of color, any woman, anyone younger than them, anyone that “looks” educated, anyone walking, anyone on a bicycle, and anyone in an electric car, among others.
I love that you worked a Trump reference into this but I’ve seen this sort of terrible behaviour from drivers since I was a kid (I’m 40). It’s also not unique to North America, nor even the West (seen the same thing in China).
No, it’s something about cars that creates a disconnect between us and other people. It’s like people outside the car’s windows are TV characters, not real people.
It’s been an issue for a long time, but Trump, as well as COVID, severely exacerbated the issue
Its a mech suit that the more you consider it a freeing source of maneuvering the world the more attached to it you become and safer you feel from the rest of the world. No matter it makes people have all kinds of emotional responses that are unpleasant for the rest of us.
Sorry for triggering you, bro. But the cartoonist is trans, lives in New York, the comics where she is depicted are regularly set in NYC, the comic specifically references “in the last two years,” she regularly makes comics about Trump, I specified in the United States, bicycle deaths from cars rapidly increased in the US starting in 2016 and reached their highest ever in 2022 (the last year with comprehensive data), and pedestrian deaths from cars increased 83% since 2009 with a larger increase occurring in the second half in the 2010s.
The comic isn’t directly about the fact that people in cars behave poorly around bikes and pedestrians in the last four decades. It clearly addresses the recent spike in aggressive behavior from motorists, especially towards pedestrians and, by extension, cyclists.
Do you have some statistics to back up that claim? Wikipedia shows much higher cyclist fatalities per 100k population in the 1990s and prior decades. The only recent trend I can see there is an abnormally low fatality rate in 2010 followed by a return to 2000 levels.
Anyway, the point of my inquiry is to try to make sense of car drivers. This is a community about the impacts of cars on society, not the other way around.
K
Not excusing the behaviour but I’d bet it’s the amount of traffic people often sit through everyday along with the overall pace of life feeling faster.
I’m lucky to work weird hours where traffic is almost zero, but personally, sitting in hours of traffic everyday to and from work would make me want to pull my hair out.
Not excusing the behaviour but I’d bet it’s the amount of traffic people
often sit throughdirectly contribute toYou’re not stuck in traffic… You are the traffic
Just one more lane bro it’ll fix traffic
Either they’re forced or they believe they’re forced to drive cars. I’d become insane too.
I’m sure that’s part of it but it can’t be the whole story. Some of the worst asshole drivers I’ve seen were driving not what I’d call “A-B cars.”
“unholy merging of flesh and metal” got me. Oh that’s good.
I guess the holy merging would be human and bicycle.
You’ve never had a cyclist on the sidewalk yell that you’re walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk as they blast past you at road speeds?
Assholes are assholes, regardless of what flavor unholy chimera they’ve merged into. They’re just less deadly when they’re non-charmeras.
That’s true, I have had cyclists yell at me as a pedestrian and driver (no I didn’t do anything wrong as the driver).
This is barely hyperbole lmao I love it
I have a friend who is super car focused. Where she lives, there is a bridge where people often cross the road, and they painted the road with some blue waves, to showcase that. I often drive whe. She’s with me, because she drives like a maniac. Anyway, people were crossing the road and i waited. She told me that cars have the right of way here and i could just go. I just gave her a look and then drove off when people were done, like 5 seconds later. The next time a few weeks later, she said the same thing and i told her: I don’t care how often you tell me that, i’m not gonna run over people to save 5 seconds. She told me that she would usually just honk or rev up her engine, or “pretend to run people over” it’s so weird to me what they get out of that behaviour
That kind of behavior should be considered attempted assault with a deadly weapon.
“Pretending to run people over” is a crime lol. At least in the States. That’s textbook assault (making someone fear bodily harm), and arguably reckless driving or endangerment.
What is it about cars that make people into psychopaths? Or does it just bring out these things in already bad people?
In my experiences and from the stories I’ve heard and read, cops and courts are a lot more lenient when it comes to cars, probably partially because they all rely on them too. Some people even say things like “its better to kill the pedestrian instead of just injuring them because dead people can’t sue” and “if you want to murder someone in north america, do it with a car, you will probably walk away with relatively little consequences.”
People have a sense of security inside their murder machines that pushes them to do whatever they want.
But she only threatens to murder pedestrians so that makes it okay. She wouldn’t actually murder them (as long they scurry out of her way
What do the blue waves signify?
Your friend is crazy and probably going to lose a mirror at some point.
A mirror? How about a licence
More likely someone rips off your mirror than losing your license unfortunately.
In North America, the best that can be done is a license suspension, between a few months or maybe a year or two in extreme cases. Even that doesn’t stop people from driving though.
Lol wtf
How is there not the concept of someone being too dangerous to ever drive again
Hell, that frankly applies to a good chunk of everyone over the age of about 80
It’s because our whole society is built around having a car. There is no real alternative. Taking away a license inflicts a major burden on them. The idea that “driving is a privilege, not a right” is a cruel joke.
I had a friend who’s mom had a seizure while driving. Her foot jammed the accelerator to the floor while going downhill. She didn’t hit anyone, and survived the inevitable crash, but there wasn’t much left of the car. It was likely going to happen again, and yet the state did not take away her license. Now, the family was responsible and made sure she didn’t have to drive anymore, but not everyone has a responsible and proactive family like that. There are almost certainly people with similar medical issues driving around right now, and it keeps me awake at night. Not even an uncontrollable medical issue that makes you a rolling time bomb is enough.
Your friend is a fucking psychopath and I can’t imagine how you’re still friends with them. I know it’s only one thing we’re seeing from your comment but I don’t think there’s much one can do to redeem “doesn’t have the barest consideration for strangers or their lives”.
Yikes.
If a street is to be shared with pedestrians, they should get the ultimate right of way, followed by push bikes then motor vehicles.
it’s the IMPLICATION
Go to any Instagram comment section about something to do with bikes, and every other comment is some blood thirsty version of “I get hard when I run over bikers”.
It’s revolting.
That’s why it is important to never cross the road without your safety brick.
Gonna start cycling with two propane tanks on the sides of my bike.
You MAD lad.
Ok but it does seem like people drive way worse now than just a few years ago. I have theories though.
Theory 1: Existential dread. People are so beat down by climate, endless war, failing economy, and more that they’ve gone completely insane.
Theory 2: Long covid brain.
I think the number of people with little care for those outside their vehicle has increased. At least a chunk of it is due to the vehicle design - it’s hard to be aggressive in a 1970s car, it’s easy in how separate you are, how isolated from people outside, in an SUV
Theory 3: Trump and other authoritarian world leaders/parties/orgs has validated unmitigated rage and contempt towards almost anyone for almost any reason.
Carmera.
San Francisco is taking an interesting approach to this problem: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-police-wear-flashy-costumes-to-catch-drivers-19769362.php
Put this in the sidebar (it can hold images just like comments and posts)
The cyclist in the last panel was probably running a red light.
Or the car turned right and didn’t care/look. =)
So. Many. times I’ve had drivers pull up, look left, then almost drive into my bicycle…
Or they overtake in a risky and hazardous way only to stop at a red light, which was already red before they did this 30 meters ahead.
Why are you beside them at an intersection? That’s pretty dangerous. You should either be directly in front of them or directly behind them. No one cares about where you “can be” as a cyclist when you’re pinned under the wheel of a car bleeding out.
From one cyclist to another, don’t pull up beside a car at an intersection. If it’s a stop sign, take the lane and get directly behind the vehicle and act like a car. If it’s a light and you have time, pull directly in front of the lead car. Your acceleration off a green light will far surpass a car.
Thank you for the suggestions, but no, I will not move out of the bike lane to sit in front of or behind the first vehicle, then move back over. You don’t have to pull the legal vs safe angle with me, I ride (and drive) very defensively. The “don’t look where you’re actually turning” move is annoying and dangerous, but I’m always ready for it…
In my head I wasn’t thinking about a bike lane, just a regular road. That makes a difference, and (ideally) a driver would check the bike lane before turning, but I’ve had cars turn almost straight through me too many times. I just queue up like a car at particular intersections now. Annoying and carries its own dangers, but it works for me, and I was sharing my strategy. Stay frosty out there, friend. I’m tired of seeing ghost bikes.
![[meme] THE CHIMERA](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/452937e5-62b3-4663-9795-14adc523c5bd.jpeg){kind=link}
