Is it me, or is the Prius a moron magnet?

You gave the LEO too much credit

 

Make sure you videotape the Prius on a run! I'd love to see one stretching "her" legs!

 

Found a funny video on youtube. Which reminded me a line from the Bad Boys movie. When Martin Lawrence was giving chase in a 911 turbo at near the end of the film. Mike Lowrey: [after Marcus outruns Fochet at the airport] Now that's how you s'pose to drive. From now on, that's how you drive!

So look at this video, and this is what I want to say to all the Prius owners "Now that's how you s'pose to drive. From now on, that's how you drive!" LOL!

For a good laugh.

 

How about this?

 

Great I love it! This is how people should start driving their Prius from now on! this is how you drive!

Look on the bright side hauling nice person in the Prius still gets 20 mpg, way much better than the 8 mpg in the Ferrari. And after all you are the underdog and you get respect. Ferraris suppose to be faster than everyone else, so if you get passed by a Ferrari it's normal, but get passed by a Prius? That's epic!!!

Thanks for the post, I love it!

 

Got cut off on the way home from work by a moron driving a GenII. She didn't even look.

 

And people who tailgate think that they are enforcing the 'get out of my way' driving courtesy rule. They don't however think that they are keeping everyone safe.

 

I guess after 6 pages we are still at it. Good post OP.

The concept of driving slower is safer is grossly incorrect. It is the driver's driving skill and the ability to understand vehicle dynamics that dictates safety.

How many times have you seen a inexperienced SUV driver flipped over simply because they caused an imbalance to their SUV by jerking the steering wheel?

I am still shocked at the bare minimal skill level required to obtain a driver's license in the US.

I think everyone who is driving on the road should attend a professional high performance course at least once. Not to become a professional race car driver, but at least learn the basic maneuvers in case of emergency, understanding basic weight transfer of the car. And proper steering wheel holding technique. Makes me cringe every time when I see someone not holding their steering wheel properly. FWIW, rest the thumb of both of your hands on the spoke at 9:00 and 3:00 position. Not the 10:00 and 2:00 position. That's why the steering wheel spokes are always at 9:00 and 3:00 and all the thumb controls happens to be placed there.

And don't confuse high performance race track training with aggressive driving and speeding, one thing have nothing to do with the other. Actually, after the professional training you gain a lot more respect for the road and keen eye to stay away from other potential disasters on the road.

Here is a starting point to a better and safer driver....
High Performance Driving School and Driving Experience | Skip Barber Racing School

 

My understanding of vehicle dynamics says that hitting something while going slower will be safer than hitting it while going faster. My understanding of vehicle dynamics says that I have less time to avoid an unpleasantness if I am driving faster. Calling it 'grossly incorrect' is not evidence.

 

When I say drive fast I don't mean drive at unsafe speeds, but just to keep up with the rest of the traffic but not just stick to the speed limit law or trying to get the best MPG. It actually causes more danger the flow of other drivers, that's the common courtesy I am speaking of. Actually pretty much every where else in the world knows that left lane is for passing only, but of course in a large metropolitan city all lanes are often used. The left lane courtesy is more evident on interstate highways. Surely you will get flashed for doing the speed limit in the left lane.

As for speed in relation to safety, modern technology and vehicle design and construction have far exceeded what the engine is capable of. Since I've spent so much time at race tracks I've seen my share of high speed wrecks, now keep in mind these track cars are mostly all production street legal cars right out of the assembly line. Of all the crashes I've seen on a race track I've yet seen anyone get hurt or seen any fatality. Modern day cars are very crash worthy. Here is an interesting Govt report, noticed that the fatality rate continue to drop.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.pdf

Here is a collection of wreck photos I gathered over the years. booboo

 

Here is how driving fast screws up the 'flow of traffic'. Driving slower gets everyone home sooner in many circumstances. That is common courtesy. Of course no one ever talks here about the lack of common courtesy of cutting people off, beating the guillotine, three lane crossing to exit, and any of the myriad ways that fast drivers act discourtesly.

36 thousand deaths per year seems like a lot to me. That's about a 9/11 tragedy every single month.

Anyone want to rank the states by average speed and use the fatality rates in that report to get the correlation between speed and deaths?

 

You know there are laws against hugging the left lane in many States, if they made it into law there must be a reason.

State "keep right" laws

I think the deaths is related to population density, not speed. Since in Montana there are no speed limits... And TX just increased theirs to what? 85 mph?

 

Total non-sequitor to my argument.

So you didn't actually LOOK at the data did you? Montana is Number 1 on fatality rate.

 

I did its based on 100 million vehicle miles travels. Don't look at the ratio look at the actual numbers they are low

 

Your argument is simple drive slow its safer, my argument is that's not always the case. Keep with the flow of traffic is safer. It's your choice to drive slow if you want just stay on the right lane dor the sake of public safety and yours. Prius owners already have a bad enough reputation as inconsiderate drivers. Why can't we be both environmentally and road friendly at the same time. Not keeping up with the flow of traffic is internationally recognized as inconsiderate. Just a simple unwritten rules of sharing the road.

 

Miles traveled is the correct divisor. If you want to know if speed causes more deaths, and are using information divided by state, you can either normalize the data by miles traveled or by population. Either way, more deaths occur in places with higher speeds, NOT in places with higher population densities.

 

That assumption is completely flawed.

 

We haven't even gotten to my argument yet. I am just disproving yours.

"Of course no one ever talks here about the lack of common courtesy of cutting people off, beating the guillotine, three lane crossing to exit, and any of the myriad ways that fast drivers act discourteously."

 

Oh, there's an argument. No reason. No evidence. Not even an explanation.

They put in the "U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States" they wouldn't do that if there was no reason (to use your argument).

Plonk.