Journalism student inquiring about vandalism and road rage targeted at Prius drivers

[journalismstudent]

Greetings. I am a science journalism graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz and am investigating a story on rates and incidences of road rage and vandalism on Toyota Priuses. If you feel as though you've been targeted since you started driving a Prius (compared with before you had it), I'd love to hear about it and the details of the situation. Please also tell me where you are from and when and where the incident occurred.

Thanks so much!

[markderail]

Montreal (West Island), prov of Quebec, Canada

2006 Prius bought in Sept 2006

The first two years, or rather the first two summers:

• road rage on multi-lane small streets, SUV's mostly and sportier cars passing me either on the left or right.
  They don't like my coasting to red lights.
  And get real pissed when I pass them in the first 2 seconds to the speed limit - like a drag race if I'm first to leave.
  Only about 3 such cases. Considering I use my car 7 days a week, it % is like 3 / (365 * 2) = 0.004% of the time.
  
  Having kids point out to the parents out of windows 2 - 3 feet higher up, happened often in the first two years of ownership.
  
  By summer 2008, in my region, the Prius became a lot more common thanks to the gas price doubling.
• road rage on highways - riding my bumper when there is no need to, since I'm following at matching the speed the guy in front. This happens often, and happened just as often when I had with my previous ride, a Toyota Sienna 1999.
  No conclusion.
• Parking lot - a guy spitting on the car. This was in summer 2007 when the infamous Dust to Dust - Hummer / Prius fake study was popular. Happened only once.
  No deliberate scratching or other vandalism.
• Throughout 2006 - 2007, people driving or asking me getting out of the Prius in parking lots / stores, questions about the Dust-to-Dust, or how it's going to cost me a large amount of $$$ to replace the batteries after the warranty of 4 or 5 years.
  I get a kick telling them that the battery is warrantied for 10 years / 160 000 KM, and some taxi drivers still use the original batteries after 350 000 KM's (with only a slight loss of capacity)
• At gas stations up till 2007 - people surprised at gas stations - what was I doing there with an electric car !

Since the "high gas prices" and after their subsequent drop, I've had zero cases where another driver went out of his way to let me know that my car choice was such a bad decision.

Also no more stoooopid questions at all in 2009.

Our local dealer has the (The Stupid, It Burns meme) still pushing a V6 Camry instead of the V4 HSD, or the Matrix over the Prius.
They have an in-stock G2 Prius that I've noticed since March 2009 that hasn't budged an inch where it's parked.
IOW, the salesmen don't get people taking it out for a spin, don't know squat about the car's advanced features.
The salesmen are all older 50+ crowd.

Even my Father in law got a Mazda 626 v6 when for the same price could have had a hybrid Camry or Lexus. He still thinks a v6 is a "better" and "safer" car.

[TonyPSchaefer]

I've seen people honk at school buses. You want to talk road rage, I've seen some pretty stupid people. Though I try to balance my personal intentions with maintaining the flow of traffic and being a decent person, I find that my attempts at civility are not appreciated by those who install entire stereo retail stores in their vehicles and shake the paint off everyone else's cars. Couple that with the speedsters, the mufflers, and the other jerks on the road and I blend right in.

[PriusLewis]

Originally Posted by journalismstudent

Greetings. I am a science journalism graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz and am investigating a story on rates and incidences of road rage and vandalism on Toyota Priuses. If you feel as though you've been targeted since you started driving a Prius (compared with before you had it), I'd love to hear about it and the details of the situation. Please also tell me where you are from and when and where the incident occurred.

Thanks so much!

If you haven't already done so, search the forum for some existing posts on the subject. One can be found at:

http://priuschat.com/forums/fuel-eco...-hate-you.html

Check Post 6 on the above thread and it will lead you to another thread with a similar subject.

Here in the Denver metro I have had jacked-up pick-ups follow so close I can't see their grille in my mirror, but I'm not sure this is because of the Prius or it's their usual attitude. I drive the speed limit and do not use hypermile techniques, so I probably get less harassment than those that do.

Come on, forum, any more stories out there? As a recently graduated Masters student, I know how difficult it is to get input for research projects! I'm not looking forward to the same hassle for my PhD dissertation.

Good luck on your data gathering!

[journalismstudent]

Hey Prius Lewis, thanks for the info on searching past blogs. Definitely looking for more though. So if anyone has a story, please do post!

Thanks!

[Pings]

It happens all the time. I will pass someone who is not doing the speed limit, and they will make it there goal to cut me off. People get pissed when you pass them in a Prius. The other day in fornt of Wally World. Some A-Hole was taking trash about the Prius, global warming, something about "more gas for me". I had to tell douche I don't even believe in global warming, and I bought the Prius to save money on gas. The guy didn't even know the Prius ran on gas. One thing is I'm in my early 20's, and people expect me to be some Liberal tree hugger when I'm driving my Prius. When I 1st got my Prius. My buddy and I were driving my Prius, when it was brand new. So we passed a cop, at a 4 way stop sign. The cop looked at us real hard. Then we both read his lips while passing him. He said "FAGS", my buddy and I both started busting up. I never get looked at by the cops while I'm in my Prius. In my other car, I have been pulled over for nothing. In my Prius this one time. I was speeding with a pack of cars, me being the last car in line. The cop went around me to pull people over in front of me, that were doing the same speed that I was. So the social story of the Prius has it's ups and downs.

All stories happened around Sac to Chico, CA.

[thedutchtouch]

whats the point of starting a second thread that's exactly the same, except posted in a subgroup and not the main forum like your other one?

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-ma...s-drivers.html

[ericbecky]

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[patsparks]

Originally Posted by thedutchtouch

whats the point of starting a second thread that's exactly the same, except posted in a subgroup and not the main forum like your other one?

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-ma...s-drivers.html

Well in the last thread he/she said they were a science jounalism student and when someone pointed out that road rage has nothing to do with science or journalism they felt a bit silly I imagine.