I see so many YouTube videos of people running blatantly red lights and getting in accidents or other videos of people stopped and gunning it backwards, hitting something, then they put it in drive and launch full speed forwards and hit something else. What is going through these peoples mind? I just don’t get how there is such a high quantity of these videos.
No, but also YES. It’s less that most people are bad drivers, but that there is a fucking SHIT TON of people driving. The thing is you’re always going to notice the idiot driving a multi-ton death machine on the same road as you, more than you will the soccer mom driving speed limit in her minivan. Think about how many cars you pass every time you drive and pay no mind, but how you immediately notice when someone is driving like a jackass.
Here’s my hypothesis so far.
People have to drive. That’s the way cities in North America are made, and I suspect the same applies in a lot of other countries.
There are people that enjoy driving, but when it becomes something you have to do in order to get chores done, it’s understandable if it’s not fun anymore.
These two points above make some kind of case for why I would say most people driving don’t actually want to be driving most of the time.
Now, we also have annoyances while driving. There is a street light I often have to wait at which will give me an eternal red light even when there is no traffic. There are a lot of cyclists here that want to be treated like cars, but don’t want to show the same considerations to cars. Basically, driving can be aggravating, and people may form bad habits in response: such as driving very close to cyclists to pass them without going into oncoming traffic, or racing to beat a red light at all costs.
In conclusion, I think a lot of people don’t really want to be driving, don’t stay mentally engaged while driving, and will act like assholes while driving because they expect other people to do the same to them and the driving experience is frustrating.
Yes, there are.
We made north american society wholly dependant on driving, without accounting for the fact that there is a sizeable portion of the population who should, under no circumstanfes, be allowed to operate a several thousand pound rolling metal pox powered by small explosions.
The fact that we are alright with having so many “ok” drivers on the road, who only occasionally do something so incredibly boneheaded that it would cause several deaths if not for other driver’s paying attention, just goes to show how held hostage we are by car culture.
Wild shit happens all the time somewhere. But before the internet your sample size was small and you didn’t see it. Now you see anything you want.
I think the Internet has also rationalized stupid driving for a large number of people.
As someone learning to drive (L plates), I have already experienced a few people that have cut me off and done dangerous things. It has just made me more determined to be a better driver, remember to use my turn signal, etc
My city’s DPW recently performed 2 traffic studies as part of their pedestrian plan.
One was driver yield rates at unsignalized crosswalks. The results of this study indicated that of the 825 yielding oppurtunities observed, drivers yielded only 173 times (aka, 79% of drivers failed to yield in violation of state law).
The other was a speed study. Of the 35 observed roads, all 35 had a measured median speed that exceeded the speed limit. 34 of the 35 had measured average speeds that exceeded the speed limit…
Based on these findings, An overwhelming majority of drivers fail to abide by basic traffic laws. I would argue that breaking basic traffic laws makes one a terrible driver, so yes. A large majority (like 79%) are terrible.
More than that, look at the number of drivers who fail to follow turn signal laws or speed limits. It’s gotta be hard to find more than a handful of people who follow the basic traffic laws.
Yes.
As somebody that drove truck for five years.
Yes.
No turn signals is the worst thing. But, a vehicle signalling to go to right, and then turning left. Lots of those.
Cars going off an exit ramp, and then leaving the exit ramp and coming back onto the highway. Looking at you Atlanta. I saw five cars do that in less than an hour in Atlanta.
A tunnel near me used to always have traffic backed up behind it because the number of lanes reduced. Most people would merge early and just get through it. Some assholes would merge at the last possible second to get as far ahead of everyone as possible. But the true shit-eaters would use the last exit before the tunnel and its companion on-ramp to jump I dunno maybe 15 cars ahead? A constant line of people would be doing that, adding one more merge to slow everyone down.
If you ask people like that what they’re thinking, you’ll get some mishmash of the following:
“You don’t get that much ahead but take what you can get, you know?”
“Everyone’s doing it, not just me.”
“What? Did I do something wrong?”
“It’s not against the law so what’s the problem?”
“I’m supposed to get to my destination slower for the sake of other people? Why?”
“If I don’t do it, someone else just will anyway. “
Shit eaters, all of them.
Not trying to argue because I see some dumb merging every day, but you’re supposed to use the whole merge lane to form a zipper or traffic starts to back up behind you unnecessarily. It’s as much about not blocking the intersection/ramp/merge that you just left as it is about merging the traffic onto the highway or whatever.
Ah right, I forgot:
“It’s actually better for traffic this way, no, really.”
;D
I mean, yeah. I’m not saying to drive like an asshole and cut people off to get one car ahead but merging prematurely is counterproductive to the movement of traffic.
