I’m open to the possibility that it’s just me being more aware/sensitive to how people are driving around me too. And I’m not necessarily talking about drivers I have to interact with myself but just seeing what people are doing in general.
I’ve certainly seen an increase in people driving oversized cars. Those are rude and dangerous even if the drivers tried to drive defensively. It’s the physical embodiment of “fuck you, I got mine”.
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Yep. Coinciding directly with the proliferation of massive trucks with 10 seats and 600 horsepower engines and a bed too small for a TV to fit in.
The city I live in had 15 pedestrian deaths from cars as their previous record, this year we are up to 40.
Cars are rapidly increasing in size and weight, decreasing their visibility, and people wont get off their phones. I do also partially believe that covid hit cognitive function and that tough times are making people antsy and angry too.
Yep. And it gets worse every year.
I avoid major areas every chance I get.
Too many people with the me me me, and whatever aditude on the road.
Yes, because police stopped working after Antifa demonstrations in 2020.
Either way they get paid.
I’ve noticed an uptick in people that drive with their high beams on over the last 5+ years
Likely just the increasing brightness of the bulbs. Lots of times I will assume someone has high beams on only to see them flick even brighter once I go past them.
I’ve thought about that, but it’s not too hard to tell when the light cluster has both on at the same time (not the fog lights)
I’ve seen dozens of different light cluster designs, I don’t think you can visually tell unless you’re familiar with the car in question and they haven’t gotten aftermarket lights.
Generally they’re all within the main light cluster. Fog lights are towards the bottom. It’s much more apparent on older cars than newer ones I will admit.
The high beams are also closer to the center on basically all extant cars. Some older models have dual filament single sockets but these seem to be steadily going away, with the notable exception of Jeep Wranglers.
Both of my cars turn on high beams automatically on dark roads when they can’t see other vehicles
The not as good at it as me though, the cars don’t see the headlights of an oncoming car illuminating the side of the road, they need to see the headlight directly
I wish I lived in a first world country who could provide reasonable public transportation so I didn’t have to deal with driving for EVERYTHING in my life.
I have and wow is it bad. I see people blatantly run reds, including changing into the oncoming lane or the shoulder to pass people stopped at them every day I drive. Same with stop signs and even sometimes in school zones.
I know people have issues with self driving cars, but I’d rather the streets be full of Waymo’s than human drivers at this point. (Yes, I’d really prefer public transit and bikes, but that’s another matter)
Nah, I’d rather the maniac attempting to kill me from the car next to me to also be in that car. Ya know, mutual assured destruction. With Waymos, the maniac is sitting behind a computer somewhere else. Which I’m very much not down for
Er, do you think that Waymos are just remote controlled cars?
It’s not a matter of think. Waymo themselves admitted that whenever one of their cars gets into a pickle that it can’t figure out, which is more often than most people would probably feel comfortable with, control is handed over to remote operators who are apparently located in the Philippines.
Waymo claim that their remote operators are not actually operating the vehicle per se, no sir, but instead are offering it “guidance” on what to do. If you believe that’s actually the case I have a bridge to sell you. I imagine this is rather to avoid the obvious legal question in that how in the hell is somebody located in the Philippines who has a zero percent chance of holding a valid US driver’s license allowed to steer a car that’s here?
I noticed the opposite, but that’s entirely because I moved from the States to Europe.
In America… Yeah, the last many years have seen a catastrophic worsening of driving skills. Law enforcement emphasizes COVID and the lack of enforcement and traffic a lot, but to me it felt like a lot of anger, distraction, and carelessness.
Sort of like when people are at the end of their wits and stop caring about everything. About safety, about others, about rules.
One of the last things I saw was this dude. Four lane stroad by a city park, he drove high speed on the left lane, and every so often swerved into opposing traffic, shouting fuck-yous all around. It was a miracle there wasn’t a head-on collision.
The thing that is pissing me off recently is that when people stop at a light with wayy too much room in between their car and the one in front of them. I think it is a byproduct of many drivers not being able to visualize how large their car is Like seriously, most people leave enough room to fit an extra car or two at the stopped light. Imo it contributes heavily to how many cars can actually pass at a green light, and it makes traffic so much worse.
Counterpoint:
The last time I was rear-ended, I was in stop-and-go traffic going uphill. Every time I moved a few feet and stopped, the car behind me would pull right up to within a few inches of my bumper. It was driving me crazy.
Sure enough, the person behind him hit him, then he hit me.
The rule from the book when I was teaching my kids to drive was: You’re supposed to stop when you can still see the where the rear wheels of the car in front of you touch the street. If your good obstructs the view, you’re too close. If you can see street between your car and their tires, you’re too far.
Few inches is certainly too close-- I am not saying to go until you can see the white of the driver’s eyes in the rear view mirror, but a whole two car lengths is too much at a stop light
Granted, if you are stopping following the rules of the book and you are in a car with one of those absurdly high hoods (to the point where almost a dozen children can sit in front of your car and you can’t see them), then it is still a huge distance.
I don’t trust the ass hole behind me to use there breaks and I’m liable if you push me into them.
The same thing happened after 9/11 and lasted for months. People were stressed, upset and angry and it really showed up in their driving.
We now have the Republicans and their malignant narcissist glorious leader who are actively destroying this country. Medical costs, housing and grocery prices (among other things) are completely out of control and keep getting worse while Trump claims affordability is a “hoax”. Nearly eradicated diseases are surging again and children are dying. Our food has become unsafe to eat. We’re in a war that was completely unnecessary and the dotard in chief is shitting his pants and has no idea what he’s doing. Nero isn’t just fiddling while Rome burns, he and his ilk are smearing shit on the walls and actually lighting more fires.
People are naturally stressed, upset and angry, and it’s again showing up in our driving.
What makes this worse is they actually don’t have the humanity to care because to them you’re just “poor people”.
Actually, JD Vance calls them unhumans in his writings. they don’t deserve human rights because they aren’t human
nah it’s fucked now. and as a result, I’m more aggressive as well
had a guy last night with LED bulbs in halogen housings pull up across the red light. put my highbeams on because I couldn’t fucking see. he turned his LED highbeams on. when the light turned green, they swerved towards me.
funny thing is, that’s similar to what I do when I’m being blinded - I drift towards the center of the road so I don’t go into the ditch. but this guy thought I instigated the situation when I was just responding to him instigating the situation.
nobody won. we’re both pissed off. it’s stupid. but fuck the assholes, nothing will change unless there are consequences. so I’m gonna try to make consequences for them. and that means I appear as just one more asshole on the road to others.
another peeve of mine is driver aids. it’s made people so goddamn bad in parking lots. I don’t give a fuck that your backup alarm wasn’t going, I’M WALKING HERE, and “I didn’t see you” isn’t a fucking excuse or apology for you being a dangerous shit driver. fuck you.
Yes, and the trend feels like it’s correlated with the number of Teslas around here.
They’re easy to identify around here, most drive a pick up. As for the uptick, a lot of people only were decent drivers because they drove regularly. COVID and they lose the constant practice they needed to remain just decent. Add in that there’s a lot of anger directed by males, who I find a higher percentage of these drivers, to others around them and yeah. It’s a breeding ground of shit drivers. Add in that younger drivers are hot blooded typically and it answers the majority of them.
