backlash from "regular" car drivers

I've never had any of these sorts of things happen to me. Maybe it's just because Fargo and Spokane are friendly places. Overcrowding, which is the normal condition in big cities, and frequent traffic jams, which are also the normal condition in big cities, cause people to become psychotic and anti-social. If you put too many rats in a cage, so that they do not have enough space, they will attack and eat each other. And from the point of view of psychology, rats and humans are nearly identical.

But the reason I'm skeptical that the reported behavior is due to your driving a hybrid is that I don't think those a-holes know what a hybrid is. They're just angry that you are not driving ten mph over the speed limit, which for them is the minimum acceptable speed. That's on top of their general anger at everything because they're psychotic. And because they cannot make ends meet financially due to the cost of putting gas in their car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ Dec 22 2006, 07:08 AM) [snapback]365599[/snapback]</div>

My condolences for your injuries and damage to your car.

I had a young woman in an SUV swerve hard into my lane while I was riding my BMW motorcycle. The only thing that saved me was the power-assisted anti-lock brakes on the bike, which takes a fraction of a second off the time it takes to reach full braking power, and allows you to apply the brakes full-force without regard to skidding, since the wheels wont' lock up. I missed that SUV by inches. Miss SUV did not signal a lane-change, and didn't bother to even check her mirror. God forbid she would do a head-check before changing lanes.

When I first got my Prius, I was very nervous about how other drivers would act. I expected something bad to happen, and it did. Some numbnuts put a horrendous ding in the passenger-side front door from carelessly swinging their car door open. Of course the perpetrator did not leave a note to identify himself. I had a body shop eliminate the ding for $250, and now I park well away from the Neanderthals.

Harry

 

My experience has been much like daniel's experience.

I don't find that other drivers are any worse when I'm in the Prius as opposed to when I drive our Explorer. So many people around here don't really know that a Prius is a hybrid or what a hybrid is so I don't think that people get worked up over seeing them on the road.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Dec 21 2006, 09:48 AM) [snapback]364986[/snapback]</div>

So does mine!

The only difference is that yours is collected yesterday, whereas mine is collected millions of years ago.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Dec 22 2006, 05:14 AM) [snapback]365605[/snapback]</div>

Come on, Daniel. We were working on a good persecution complex here.

 

Walker1 - I hope this woman's insurance is totally paying for all the harm done to you. Of course, she should be treated like a DWI.

Daniel, I'll agree that a lot of roadway anger is not directed at hybrids, but sometimes it is. In addition to specific instances to me, trollers come here - may have people that harrass hybrids on the road and on the net.

_________________________________

This suggestion will draw controversey, but her it goes. At some point in the future, both cars and cell phones need a chip. Most recent cars already have a "black box" that gives the vehicle speed, acceleration, braking, needs to include the "cell phone left swirve". There needs to be records of when a cell phone is in use.

So maybe five years from now, say that woman hits someone else like she did Walker1. Police ID the vehicles involved, databases indicate her phone was on before and during the accident. Legally, the burden of proof would be on the phone caller to prove their innocence - no different than someone caught with an open container.

I know people are going to raise privacy issues, but public safety should take precedence. All because some people choose not to act like responsible adults. Ditto for video cam speeding tickets - it would not happen if there were not so much speeding.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Dec 21 2006, 03:06 PM) [snapback]365272[/snapback]</div>

If the Prius is the vehicle most likely to attract aggressive behavior from other drivers, although people make way for high-dollar German cars, the vehicle least likely to garner moronic attention has to be a plain Ford Crown Victoria painted the color of the state police, particularly if the vehicle has a driver's side spotlight and plain hubcaps.

I had a white one in the late eighties and people 'really' get out of your way when you're driving one of those. It's one of the few positives for owning an old-tech, large, American sedan.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rudiger @ Dec 22 2006, 10:59 AM) [snapback]365676[/snapback]</div>

I've fansized using holographic projection to make it seem like I'm driving a Bradley Fighting Vehicle = giving Bubba bowel failure.

Not practicle of course. Assuming the holographic technology existed, the energy requirements would vaporize my fuel economy.

 

What I have found is that drivers who either travel too fast or too slow, fail to use turn signals, or fail to compensate for blind spots, or travel needlessly in the passing lane are those drivers who seem to be tailgated the most, given the middle finger the most, and generally upset other drivers. I wager there are wa whole lot of people driving around who do not even know a Prius is a hybrid.

I drive slow in my conventional car. I also drive to maximize the mileage I can attain but I concede mileage in the interest of safety every time. Life is too short to risk an accident based on someone elses lack of ability because I am trying to save a nickel.

Oh yea.... My slow butt driving the speed limit does have a bumper sticker... NHRA membership.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tnthub @ Dec 22 2006, 11:06 AM) [snapback]365736[/snapback]</div>

I agree that safety should trump most (all?) other concerns. I disagree with the concept that saving gas is ONLY about saving the driver money, and that reduced fuel consumption has no safety component all by itself.

By safety, most people think of "avoiding an accident." But please think about the safety aspects of burning gasoline. People get sick from it. People die from it. The less gasoline you burn, the fewer "safety issues" it creates for everything on earth that breathes.

So yes, by all means be as safe as you can be. And continue to think of ALL aspects of your actions when you drive. When you drive efficiently, you are increasing the well-being of everybody. You aren't just saving a nickel.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Dec 22 2006, 08:14 AM) [snapback]365605[/snapback]</div>

Bingo! And even though they can't make ends meet spending all that money on fuel, they still feel that somehow it is expected of them. Because if they don't, it will indicate to everyone else that they're not doing well financially (nevermind that it does make them look just plain stupid and irresponsible), which in turn reflects directly on their worth as a human being (because we're all so status oriented in the U.S.A. and so bent on being individuals, and externally driven, that we've lost control of the idea that our self-worth is actually intrinsic to us -- ourselves -- and consequently tied to our actions, not our possessions).

People in the U.S. do seem kind of pissed off, generally, a bit entitled, perhaps...and we've saved so little for a rainy day and acted so imprudently for so long that we have no recourse but to act like selfish babies.

Maybe I'm getting older, but our country is seeming more and more immature. And it seems that the rest of the world is noticing, too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Dec 22 2006, 01:08 PM) [snapback]365803[/snapback]</div>

Well, the Party's Over (swiping the title of a book I read recently). The cheap energy has been consumed, and we find ourselves faced with needing to actually protect the environment from our wasteful ways. It was fun while it lasted. Now we have to start cleaning up before the parents get home.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Dec 21 2006, 02:06 PM) [snapback]365272[/snapback]</div>

It's to my understanding that the "Red Sea" was a mistranslation, it was actually meant as "Reed Sea" or "Sea of Reeds".

I also see road rage issues that seem to be geared toward the Hybrids. I had an Insight for two years and soon going on one year in the Prius. My Insight was just about run off the freeway by this truck:
http://hometown.aol.com/ILUSNFORC/images/99211861125.jpg
I honked the weenie horn as I was pushed aside until he finally swerved back into his lane (failed to check his blind spot and never knew I was there), then I had to chase him for a few miles until he finally took an exit and pulled over. Of course the first thing I did was whip out the cell phone and get a picture of his license plate. I hope the white lettering on his tires didn't get damaged...


The Insight was also rear ended leaving an air force base waiting to make a right turn when the traffic was clear, the woman behind me "thought I went" and she was looking left at the traffic as she pulled up and discovered that I was still there...

The most agressive was on new years '05: On a rural road in a heavy rain storm a car approached from behind and came within inches from my Insight flashing the high-beams further reducing visibility. I spotted my turn and entered the turn lane only to find my tailgater attempting to illegally pass me, they went into oncoming traffic nearly missing a car head on and clipped my mirror and front corner as they swerved across the road. I called 911 and took chase onto the freeway at 85+ for at least 15 miles before they finally lost me, fortunately I got the plate and a description. An officer found the vehicle with marks from hitting my car and was able to get a confession from the driver. I was contacted by their insurance company to get my side of the story, then they told me the wife of the driver said they thought I was drunk (if anything I had reason to believe they were intoxicated). Then she told me how sad it was that they had their 3 kids in the van as well.

My most recent incident in the prius was in our NEIGHBORHOOD! A truck was tailgating and started flashing his lights including the big round off-road lights mounted to the grille gaurd while honking his funky ferrari sounding horn. At a 4-way stop he came right up to my bumper so I just sat at the intersection for a while. I think he didn't want me to know where he lived because when I finally left the intersection he just sat there and finally turned so I lost sight of him. I still take my dog for walks around the neighborhood looking for the truck. Some people are just idiots...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Dec 22 2006, 03:45 PM) [snapback]365792[/snapback]</div>

I did not mean to imply that economics are my only concern... Cold air intakes, more efficient exhaust, and computer tuning combined with efficient driving reduces emissions, gasoline consumption, and helps the pocketbook. Short of switching every driver to newer and more efficient technologies I believe we can significantly help the planet in more ways than one if we simply educated our drivers better and tuned up existing vehicles to be more efficient than they were when they came from the factory.

 

ilusnforc,

That was a heck of a hit. Did the insurance settle it for you?

Next week my Silver Insight gets out of the shop in Dallas from a hit-and-run - the entire left side was scraped. I was doing 60 and they guy was probably doing 90. Since I was on the Irving city limit and he was arrested there two days later, I'm claiming Quincy Carter - the washed up ex-Cowboy quarterback hit me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Dec 22 2006, 04:15 PM) [snapback]365806[/snapback]</div>

I couldn't have said it better, Darell.

I've been tailgated closely in my conventional Civic by some redneck in an F250 4WD monster truck on the Interstate. He was in some road rage mood for some imagined slight or whatever. I have no idea what his problem was. I didn't appreciate him putting me at risk.

Another time I proceeded by some slower traffic on my motorcycle, on an Interstate, at about 7 mph over the limit. Another guy in a monster truck thought I hadn't proceeded quickly enough, and tailgated me at a very short distance, something I took great exception to, being very vulnerable on a motorcycle. I let him know about it. He got off at the next exit, which just happened to be my exit. He pulled off into a parking lot, apparently afraid some crazy biker was about to do him great harm.

Harry

 

This reminds me of someone I once knew who, when confronted with a blatantly aggressive 'road-rage'-type driver on a public road, would take immediate steps to put some distance between themself and the offender, but follow them to their destination (at a respectful distance), watch and wait until the offender had exited and left their vehicle unattended, then quickly and unceremoniously let the air out of one of their tires.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Earthling @ Dec 23 2006, 10:31 AM) [snapback]366050[/snapback]</div>

Ha ha. Serves him right!