backlash from "regular" car drivers

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Dec 21 2006, 09:26 PM) [snapback]365480[/snapback]</div>

I long for the day when everyone will INSTANTLY afford, and INSTANTLY begin driving eco-friendly built / operational cars that have NO impact on the economy and environment. And on that day, Mr. Smugly of the Smuglyest FAILS to get the memo ... so there he is, with his precious EV-Rav4 ... all embarased ... and rather than look smug, down on him, as we know he does to all of us ... in stead, we all reach out a hand of acceptance to him ... thereby heaping FIREY coals of guilt upon his conscious. Buahahahaha !!! :^)

 

Within 24 hours of getting my Prius I had two incidents. The first was some knuckledragger who was offended that I had to slow down for a right turn, so he crossed the double yellow to blow by me and honk. (Uhh...sorry?) The second was just your average tailgater while I was gliding up to a red light.

In the two weeks since, either I haven't encountered anyone else or I have blocked them from my mind. I keep right, stay out of the way, and make it a point to accelerate at a reasonably quick pace so as to ensure that the ICE kicks in rather than draining the battery. But if someone thinks I'm "getting in the way" becase I'm not doing 90 in the right lane then it's not my problem. This is nothing new, as I drove the exact same way in my old car. And just as many people are perfectly happy to follow me for tens of miles at a safe distance.

I don't know what else to say. I used to get all bent out of shape about it until it struck me that I only felt worse when I let them get to me. Once upon a time I would even respond in kind with the [in]appropriate hand gesture. Not so much anymore.

So I hope nobody believes that these folks are really "out to get the hybrids." Maybe a few are, but the vast majority are just experessing their inner misery in hopes that you will share it with them.

 

Well, I found something to add to the thread. I still say it has nothing to do with me driving a Prius (and honestly, when I drive the Prius I feel totally mainstream anyway - I don't think ANYBODY treats me differently because of my car. There are so many of them around here that nobody thinks twice about them.)

At about midnight on Christmas day, I was driving home on a totally straight stretch of two lane highway (two lanes in MY direction, separated by two lanes in the other direction). Speed limit 65, no street lights, and enough fog to make 50mph seem REALLY fast. I was driving my Prius with the Rocket Box on top with my wife and daughter asleep. I was driving 50mph through the gloom, straining to see what was ahead of me. Nobody else around. Then I see headlights in the mirror. And they get bigger. And they get higher. Soon a giant SUV is right on my nice person. Nobody else around, mind you. He stays there. Gets a bit closer. Flashes his brights. FLASHES HIS BRIGHTS. And then finally, changes into the left lane and roars around me. Honestly, this had nothing to do with me driving a Prius. It had everything to do with idiocy, and quite possibly alcohol. He wants me to speed up... in the fog... in the right-hand lane.

 

I get dirty looks when I pass people in a hybrid. There seems to be a universal expectation that hybrids are supposed to be slow even when they're not. Several people who weren't making the speed limit get passed by me, then make a point of accelerating to pass me just to "stay in front of the hybrid."

Very strange.

Why do people find them so threatening?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Display Name @ Dec 27 2006, 08:07 PM) [snapback]367508[/snapback]</div>

See, now. This kind of thing has me wondering. Why do you think the other driver did this "just to stay in front of the hybrid?" The last "regular" car I purchased was a 250hp Volvo T5 high pressure turbo. Way too often when I'd pass people in that car, they would then try to get ahead of me. And I'll bet not one of them was just trying to get ahead of the hybrid. I've never been challenged to more drag races than in that high-powered "family-mobile."

 

I used to drive a 1998 Subaru Legacy and got the same reaction when driving in a conservative manner. In city traffic I just laughed to myself when I pulled up next to them at the next red light. I'd rather have aggressive drivers in front of me where I can keep an eye on them.

 

No way do I subscribe to the theory that Prius drivers are subjected to any worse treatment than drivers of regular cars. The poster who said "working on a persecution complex" hit the nail on the head.

In an ironic twist, the very suggestion reveals something about some Prius owners that I've started to notice, both in person, as well as on these forums. And owners of other types of cars seem to notice too, from what they have posted on other car forums. Some Prius owners seem to WANT to be treated differently. The poster who said "Pious" hit that nail on the head.

A self fulfilling prophecy in the making?

 

<_< For over 2 years, I've been driving Prius [first my '04, now my new '07] in Texas both in town and on the freeways. I can't say I've noticed any difference at all in the way my Prius is treated in traffic or in conversation. I have received more questions about the Prius and more than a few complimentary comments.

I have received a few subtle questions or comments revealing a lack of accurate knowledge about what a hybrid is and/or how it works. I did not percieve them to be derogatory or negative. I subscribe to the idea that your own attitude colors your perception of how others think about you, your choices and your choice of transportation.

HAVE A HAPPY, HEALTHY & PROSPEROUS 2007

 

YodaddyAlex, your most recent post conjured up a mental image of a headline:

Prius driver rams another Prius driver

"... when reached by telephone at her hospital bed, Prius driver A said she purposely plowed into Prius driver B because 'he looked like he was stuck up, thinking he's all that because he was driving a Prius. So I wanted to be sure to let him know that he was just like me!'" Wham!

Too funny!


PS... I wonder if some Prius drivers even remember that they, too, drove a regular car before getting their Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cbs4 @ Dec 28 2006, 12:54 PM) [snapback]367673[/snapback]</div>

Since you don't own the Prius, are you a troll, or what's your deal?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Dec 28 2006, 01:57 PM) [snapback]367814[/snapback]</div>

sl7vk... look left.

 

Conservation is patriotic...cbs4, if I'm proud of ("stuck up about" you may call it) being patriotic, why ever would you have a problem with that?

 

People tailgate me all the time in the Prius and my Land Rover... The only stickers i have are little peace signs. I mostly get tailgated from these huge f350 diesel trucks and what not... Whatever, im not a slow driver, always 10+ posted... People have issues... mentally.
I was behind this idiot today doing like 10 MPH in a honda odyssey with a 90 year old driving it with ' Bush Cheney '04' and 'BIOLOGY MATTERS 1MAN 1WOMAN' And "If it werent for jesus, What would we do'... i was just like whatever, its USA, we can have our own image and what not but i totally don't agree with some of her bumper stickers and I DONT TAILGATE! I stayed a good distance but kept up with whatever MPH she was doing.

 

Dallas/Fort Worth is a big area with about 5 million people. Most areas on the Dallas side have an abundance of aggressive drivers. Some of the rude driving is not directed at hybrids or small cars, but some of it is. Some of it may be refusal to drive 10-15mph over the speed limit - too.

When drive, I'm thinking "how was my ride" and maybe listen to the sports stations. Terrell Owens is a frequent sports topic. Can't understand such self-absobed people - some of them seem to be trying to project that trash on Prius and hybrid drivers.

 

This thread was started by an L.A. driver. I've observed two things in L.A. 1) There are a whole lot of Prius drivers. some times it feels like every other car is one. And 2) there are lots and lots of crazy bad drivers. It's hard to actually figure if you're getting buzzed because you are in a Prius or because that nut bird in a hummer just likes to buzz cars smaller than them.

IMHO

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(YodaddyAlex @ Dec 28 2006, 02:54 PM) [snapback]367837[/snapback]</div>

YoDaddy... look left.



No, really. LOOK this time.

And while you are looking, consider the remote but distinct possibility that I joined this forum an entire year ago, some 10,000 members ago, only because I just KNEW that one year into the future, you would eventually come to join this forum a year later, and post what is quoted above, and I would need to have already well established some type of plausible proof (to keep up my "pretense" to you) that I was a Prius owner, for the sole purpose of "justifying" comments that you seem to take so personally.

Highly unlikely, but still remotely possible... if you believe that the world revolves around you. Which if true, might help to explain the original post, which until just now, I hadn't realized was initially authored by you in the first place. Now things become more clear.

See, I was merely commenting on some Pious owners, because of the title to the thread, and because of some of the comments made by others, whose names, like yours, I didn't remember.

In the almost 40,000 miles that my wife and I have put on our Prius this year alone, we haven't noticed any "backlash from 'regular' car drivers." But maybe that's because we ARE regular car drivers, driving a car that happens to be called a Prius.

We don't think that we are any different than "regular" car drivers. And we believe, firmly, that other regular car drivers don't think about us... AT ALL. They don't give a flying fig WHAT we drive, be it Prius, Pious, or Pretentious, as long as we don't drive it in their way.

You asked. Now you know.