Prius Envy / Prius Rage

Every once in a while I encounter a vehicle operated in a way that makes me think I was driving offensively. I back off or change lanes only to find out it is a person that substitutes oil for knowledge. As you watch them go down the freeway, you realize it is not you, but they are the idiots - they consistently drive erratically at high speed with little disregard for safety of themselves and others. It is unsettling. When this happens I tell myself they are an accident, and, or, a ticket, waiting to happen. Erratic driving behavior is more dominant with lower fuel prices. As fuel approaches $20 gallon ($5 Liter), people suddenly exhibit more responsible driving.

Locally we have a parallel highway system, the older and the newer. I normally drive the older roadway at 50 mph and earn 50 mpg. On those rare occasions when I drive the newer roadway, it is like day and night - people racing, making bizarre lane changes, tailgating at high speed, throwing refuse out the window, on a cell phone, eating food, and more.

 

I've only had my 2006 for a week now and yesterday was bumped in the rear bumper in a parking lot! Now I am wonering if it was on purpose?! I couldn't believe the bad luck. My Prius looked new, even the interior which is light tan is spotless! I hate parking lots!

 

Ugh parking lots. I do alot of walking in parking lots since my car is off by it's lonesome. I doubt anyone did it on purpose because if they did it would be a key job walk by real fast so no one noticed deal. No you got an assh*le who can't drive and just backed into you.
Down here you should see what goes on in parking lights. We have fossils driving cars. People who have been dead for weeks and no one told them are driving cars. They back up till they hit something and then somehow able to put it in D and drive away.

 

Actually, you DO have a point - particularly about the Gen II Prius. Seen from the rear in an ordinary standard ICE car, it DOES look decidedly humongous and does seem to block out the view ahead on account of its unique "Kammback" shape. And a few people DO get "papa oscar'd" when their forward view is blotted out by something as big as that. Even I tend to avoid being stuck behind HGV's or similarly huge vehicles, though I don't go raging at them and trying to use "The Force" to strangle them remotely (with my fingers grabbing empty air in the ubiquitous pincer grip) while my eyes glow a beastly yellow with Sith malice aforethought. Perish the thought. I just change lanes or drop back so I can get a better view of what's ahead of them, then pass them safely when I can. We all have to share the road!

Yes, the Prius Gen II does look like it's driven straight off the futuristic set of "I, Robot" - and I also suspect that there are those who are more prejudiced to an unusual "Alien" shape they do not understand, much more than the fact that's it's a Prius with rather green credentials and it's piloted by a presumably smug driver sneering at the myriad of "lesser" cars all around him burning fossil fuels like it's going out of fashion.

For what it's worth, I couldn't care less what other people drive. Wanna purchase and drive a 4.0 Litre BMW 7 series "Land Barge"? Be my guest. You can afford the fuel, insurance and sleepless nights. It's a free world after all. I'll stick with my futuristic "Star Trek TNG style" Shuttlecraft on wheels with it's equally retro futuristic dash board that wouldn't look out of place aboard the original Shuttlecraft Galileo!

However, the road rage continues here in London. About 3 weeks ago, another BMW driver went completely ballistic at me, just because I emergency braked while turning into a junction, just to avoid running over some jay-walker who decided being run over by a car was a non issue because his body is probably holographic or something. This BMW owner went to extremes, horning violently, waving his fists, extending "Das Finger", and using his car as a weapon by overtaking me, then stopping abruptly for no reason and backing up on me repeatedly. Stupid childish idiot. Of course I didn't respond at all - however, judging at the way he was frothing at the mouth, I fully expected him to leap out of his car gun in hand and try to shoot me. Thankfully he stayed in his car, otherwise I would have had no qualms running him over IF he emerged with a gun.

I quickly realised that this Neanderthal wasn't even intelligent enough to realise what a Prius was. He was simply experiencing testosterone fuelled rage, and posing in front of the cute blonde lady sitting beside him, clearly young enough to be his daughter! Finally, when balding middle aged Mr "swarthy hairy beer gut with no redeeming features" had had enough of making a complete and utter fool of himself, he took off at 4mpg and tore off down the road throwing caution and speed limits to the wind. He wasn't a Prius hater. He belonged in a funny farm to begin with and might have well been out on day release. He'd have done the same thing to anyone else regardless of what they were driving.


iPad ? HD

 

LOL!!! NO I DON'TCARE WHO YOU ARE....THAT'S FUNNY!

SCH-I535 ?

 

That may be true in your car market today, and it was true in the U.S. car market 25-30 years ago. But it is no longer true in the U.S. today, where roughly half the 'cars' are SUVs or pickup trucks, and even many 'little' cars have greatly bloated and become much taller. Have you noticed how many American posters here on PC describe the Prius as a small car?

My household tends to keeps car much longer than average, so the trend becomes more apparent. My spouse still drives the car I bought for her in 1989, and I drove a similar 1986 model (still owned by someone in this neighborhood) until joining PC. Both were of typical height when new, but are quite short now. We still have a 1997 model that was one of the tallest true 'passenger cars' of its era, though shorter than any of the SUVs that many drivers were migrating to. But now, even it is so short that I cannot see over the rear sills of many modern compacts and subcompacts in front of me.

 

At least weekly, I experience someone raging on me in the Prius. I know it's rage because the days I drive my IS-F in the same manner I never have these issues. Anyway, it gets so bad at times that I consider selling the car for something without the "image." For example yesterday on my way home on the DC Beltway (4 or 5 lanes wide) I'm doing around 65mph with another car behind me. Coming up in my lane I see a car doing a few mph slower so I signal and move left to make a pass. As I do this, the guy behind me decides to punch it to try and prevent me from making the pass before him. At this point I nearly hit the jerk as I did not see him make the sudden move and as I signaled to merge back to the right he punches it again and nearly sideswipes my car as he squeezed in behind me and the car that I just passed.

If it keeps up, I may just have to sell the Prius for the safety of myself and my family.

 

This does happen. I just set my cruise control to 65 in the right hand lane. If someone comes and aggressively tailgates me I slowly increase speed by 1 mph at a time. Usually the truck/ SUV will move over and pass. At night when it's less crowded I'll drive 75 in the middle lane and move over for faster cars.

 

I just put the cruise control on and enjoy the ride. I could care less about the idiot that is on my tail.

 

I spend three hours a day on my round trip commute, mostly at highway speed on an interstate. There is a curious interaction that occurs time and time again that I find most interesting and wonder if there might not be a statistical explanation for it. The situation develops like this. Driving along with cruise control set usually between 76 and 78 mph. I observe slower traffic ahead and traffic behind me that is moving faster. More times than not, the faster moving traffic coming up from behind is passing me right about the time I would like to be changing lanes and passing the slower traffic. I have to bump out of cruise, wait for the passing traffic to clear, then resume cruise and change lanes. I drive this route at different times of the day and with different traffic densities. There doesn't appear to be a minimum density relative to causation. It seems like just as soon as I detect slower moving traffic ahead, I can look in the rear view and see someone coming up from behind to trap me again. I may have to investigate this further by experimenting with different speeds and maybe some manual pulse and glide to see if it can be changed.

 

Obviously you've never been to Detroit. You get SHOT for doing shit like that and Im not exaggerating.
'Round these parts, you better speed up or get the hell out of the way....and dont try any shenanigans or you will be eating an all American lead enriched dinner.
Google

 

495 is a deathtrap, 66, and the dulless toll road/greenway are no better.

I'm glad that I don't have to drive those roads on a daily basis I'm stuck on 123 and Rt 7 but there are still some fairly aggressive drivers. Never noticed them as much in my HHR, but in the prius they come out of the woodwork. even if I am the fast lane keeping up with traffic, folks will try to slingshot around you on the right and wedge themselves in front of you..

That being said... if I see someone trying to the right hand slingshot, I have been known to push the "go" pedal a bit harder and tighten up the gap on the car in front of me to prevent someone from encroaching on my safe following distance of the car in front of me... I like to think of it as defensive driving. I'm defending the space around my car...

 

Incidentally, on my way to work in Walthamstow (London UK) this morning, an 18 mile drive, I was repeatedly harassed by a 2013 model Mercedes Benz 4 Door Coupe that took considerable exception to being passed by what appeared to be a 2003 Reg. Plate Prius II. My car is actually a late 2008 Prius T Spirit (Touring designation for the UK market), but the sale included a cost free "Private reg plate" that ended in "XXX" - I accepted the free plate - though it gives the impression my car is 5 years older. I'm not bothered by that really.

Anyway, I was minding my own business cruising with the traffic or slightly faster, zooming along in the "fast lane". I wasn't racing anyone - on the contrary, I was trying to conserve fuel while sticking to the speed limit or slightly more.
The Benz in question had initially pulled away from me at some traffic lights and dramatically zoomed off. I noticed because it was in the middle lane. Somehow, I caught up with it 5 miles down the road while coasting down a long slope of a bridge at 99mpg. It was gliding along in a line of traffic still in the middle lane. I flew past on my momentum of coming down the slope, more interested in squeezing every bit of free energy out of my downward glide than anything else. The Benz Coupe eventually ended up behind me in a traffic jam. There were two young dudes in it and they seemed normal, chatting to each other.

I left them behind in the congested traffic till we'd got past a junction and out onto the clear three lane highway ahead. Climbing a hill, I wisely chose the slow lane and set my cruise control for 50mph - the speed limit. As I cruised up the hill, they shot past me at the speed of sound, crested the hill and disappeared. Probably everything overtook me on the way up. I glided down the other side, entering a 3 mile "sweet spot zone" where the Prius glides along mostly on momentum and even when the engine is on, it's still showing 99mpg. Pure nirvana!

Three miles later - more congested traffic. And somehow, I glide past that same Benz again, silently, noiselessly. And that's when it got interesting. They suddenly jumped lanes and were on my tail again, crawling through the traffic. Once we were past the next traffic lights, I was off again, choosing my lanes carefully and STILL keeping up with the traffic by pulsing and gliding where possible. I smoothly changed lanes and left them behind once more - and forgot about them - till 2 minutes later, I spot a pair of white hot halogens diving in and out of 3 lanes of traffic behind me, cutting up other road users horribly. Next minute, he was beside me - and he tried to cut ME up....!!! Unfortunately, this wasn't possible as there was NO SPACE for him to dive into - so he almost side swiped my Prius instead.

Let's just be clear - I wasn't racing him or indeed anyone else. I was just keeping up with normal traffic in the fast lane....!!!! The line of cars I was in on the fast lane were all close to each other so the Benz simply couldn't squeeze in - so he consequently got left behind - and once again performed his highly illegal powered lane jumps (cutting cars off) to get ahead. Once more he caught up with me in a tunnel with two lanes and a double white unbroken line between them, indicating absolutely NO changing of lanes. Once more, he pulled alongside me, almost slamming into the car in front of him before trying violently to change lanes and get in front of me again. And once more he failed - almost side swiping me once more! Now I got a bit worried. He kept trying to shove his car into a non existent space. I wasn't - indeed - DID NOT speed up to cut him off. I definitely hadn't done anything to upset him - it seemed he was irate that despite his spirited driving, and his powerful Mercedes Benz 4 Door Coupe, somehow, this annoying Alien Red Toyota Prius kept getting ahead of him (without really trying)!! I left him behind once more, wondering if he was actually a "Terminator T-800" the future to kill me for some unspecified reason.

He never did catch up with me after that. Not that I cared - I wasn't racing him anyway - I was just keeping up with the traffic in the fast lane. Perhaps he wanted to prove that a Mercedes Benz was faster than a "slow coach" Prius - duh!! Of course it's faster. But in traffic, especially congested traffic, choose your lanes wisely and you can easily leave the fastest Bugatti Veyron behind!!! And I wasn't even trying to race him! Silly dude!



iPad ? HD

 

You have no idea what drugs he was on or if he had a GUN in his car as I do. A-holes like that are better left alone. Let him find somebody else to vent his rage on !
See PriusGuy32 above.

 

New to Prius (one year), I've had similar situations driving other cars. My wife and I are both in our early sixties, and neither of us are spirited drivers. She can cite an occassional tussle with aggressive drivers. There's no shortage of selfish drivers on the roads who drive too fast and careless, have no regard for obeying the law or regard for fellow drivers and safe driving.

 

As for 'Rednecks' and 'hate' . . . you misunderstand 'em, my neighbors. They live in a "bubble" . . . a constant state of fear. They pretty much hate everything except those who teach them to be afraid and resentful. Their motivations and behavior pretty much shadow those who fear . . . Rednecks.

Oh yes, my home state! Truck, Beer, Guns, and Women in that order! Now don't you want to be a Redneck too?

 

Huh?

 

But....but....but... we are constantly being told that those in the UK are safer because they don't have guns.

 

Whom is safer?? The Bad guys or the good guys??