Road Rage

[Potemkin Villager]

I wonder if any body else has noticed an increase in aggressive and careless
driving that seems to be part of the generally worsening situation. Personally I
am noticing increased tailgating , lack of indicating, unsafe overtaking (like insane
disregard for own and other's safety), pulling out from side roads with no regard
for traffic on the main road etc etc

A lot of it seems down to folk retreating into their own little bubbles and the resulting
acute lack of awareness about what is going on in the environment around the.

I notice a lot of comments on r/collapse Weekly Observations mostly reported from
USA and Canada but also this interesting one from France.

" People are driving more and more like they were in a video game, rather than on a busy road with other people around them, stopping dead in their tracks in the middle of a roundabout to fiddle with their phones, or slaloming around without warning lights rushing towards their deaths, because yeah, accident numbers have increased on the road. Policemen complain that people are just irrationnally aggressive now, and they see a lot more road rage than before covid, and that the ones they arrest are acting a lot more entitled, enjoying pushing the officer's buttons.

It seems to me it's like a tear between reality and what those people percieve of the world through their screens (social media, videos they stream, gaming, ...), like they are unable to interact with the physical world anymore, trapped in their mental world. Like a low key collective hysteria of sorts."

[PS_RalphW]

During Covid lockdowns, travel was heavily restricted and naturally the level of accidents fell sharply.

However, the number of extreme speeding offences increased even more sharply, indicating that some people literally drive to a level of perceived danger, regardless of legal restrictions. I seem to remember that there is some sort of parasitic infection which is documented as increasing the victim's risky behaviours, leading to higher accident rates. Toxoplasma is a possible example.

I would not be surprised if people continued to drive at a more risky level as the roads got busier again, but equally you may have forgotten the normal level of risk you encountered before lock down, and your expectation of seeing risky behaviour is now lower than it used to be.

Personally speaking, since getting my new and much more powerful electric car, my driving style has changed sharply, knowing that I can accelerate rapidly , quietly and smoothly from stationary with zero chance of stalling or fluffing a gear change. The car also has much better road holding than my wheezy old diesel. I now perform manoeuvres I would never dream of in my old car, although I am still (I hope) a careful and polite driver. I just hope I am not over estimating my skill by too much (as almost everybody does).

[kenneal - lagger]

If you drive your electric car more gently you will get better range.

[PS_RalphW]

True, but with over 200 miles range, and 3 times as much silent power under my right foot it is very easy to get drunk on the thrill, and regenerative braking recovers a lot of the unnecessary momentum before the next junction. It is a driving style which must piss off a lot of petrol heads as I burn them off at the lights and then stop accelerating at the speed limit, before cruising gently to a halt at the next lights. Definitely an added bonus. I still get 4.2 mpKWh in summer. I might get 5 if I really tried.

[Lurkalot2]

If you drive your electric car more gently you will get better range.

Same goes for ICE vehicles or even horse powered ones for that matter. I don't drive particularly fast , on a local work run i use about four miles of duel carriageway and run at around 50 mph. Even when we had the recent "fuel shortage" panic I didn't notice anyone on that short section driving slower to conserve fuel.

[kenneal - lagger]

.....................I didn't notice anyone on that short section driving slower to conserve fuel.

We all live such busy lives now that we can't afford to slow down to economise!! If we do the boss will be on the mobile phone chasing us up.

[Lurkalot2]

Self employed so the boss doesn't mind me tootling along.

[Potemkin Villager]

......It is a driving style which must piss off a lot of petrol heads as I burn them off at the lights and then stop accelerating at the speed limit, before cruising gently to a halt at the next lights......

This is fascinating and I feel compelled to ask what drives (sic) you to do this? Is it a way of giving
2 fingers to folk in cars with ICEs? Still it is in a different league to boy racers who only slow down
at red lights, with pedestrians crossing, at the last moment by slamming on their brakes as they
glare from feet away at the pedestrians blocking their way.

I think folk express their psyche whilst driving reflecting frustrations in their life generally
exacerbated by the realisation that there are increasingly so many things they have no control over.

Obsessive lawn cutting is another ritualistic activity that folk use to try and convince themselves they have
some agency in a hostile world.

[PS_RalphW]

I don't drive like this all the time. It is the noticeable change since I got such a powerful, quiet car, and I think it is more a motor memory in my right foot - in my 1.2l diesel you need to partially floor it away from the lights not to get rear ended, but with the electric I use half the pressure and I am mildly surprised to see the cars behind fall away in eerie silence. I do still drive to the rules of the road and give other users plenty of space and time. After 40 years of driving I can spot a nervous or inexperienced driver or inattentive pedestrian or wobbly cyclist a long way off. My instincts are still to drive economically, and I rarely exceed 65mph

I did not choose the car because of its power. I still drive in 'eco' mode, so I don't use all of it. My previous electric was half the power and plenty fast enough for me. However, I now know I can pull out of a side road into a far smaller gap into the traffic in safety and without annoying other road users. Accelerating up a steep hill is fun.

[clv101]

What did you replace the Leaf with?

[Potemkin Villager]

I am not the least concerned with folk like yourself having a bit of fun in an ev,
for some reason I associate you with a bicycle rather than a car.
I wonder why you upgraded to a more powerful car? To my mind the
current ev offerings are all overpriced. over powerful, and insanely over complex and "performance" obsessed.
Still I guess this is just bau.

It is rather concerning though that lots of hormone ridden, frustrated teenagers may soon be racing around
in vehicles with even more absurd power to weight ratios than their current ice vehicles.

My own idea of an ideal ev would be something along the lines of a 2CV with range of about
200 km or so. I may be waiting sometime before it comes along.

[PS_RalphW]

I used to commute by electric bike, but I no longer commute and I had prostate cancer, and I no longer have the stamina for much cycling. Most of my driving is ferrying my kids or shopping.

I replaced my 24KWh Nissan Leaf with a Nissan Leaf. I wanted a reliable 200 mile range and the new 62 KWh model was available at a reduced price during the first lockdown to compete with the ID3 coming available. At the time it only came in the highest spec option, all the bells and whistles, most of which I don't use. Best features are the all round camera for parking and the heated steering wheel to save on the cabin heating. The Nissan Leaf has a reputation of being one of the most reliable cars on the road, although early models had battery longevity problems.

Just one year later and there are a dozen different models with 200 miles range and a similar price, but availability is still limited by chip and battery shortages.

The cheapest and lowest spec cars with reasonable range are either Chinese MGs or the base model Vauxhal/Peugot models.

More cheap Chinese models will arrive in the next year or two.

Unfortunately my eyesight seems to be developing significant problems, so I may not have much longer that I can enjoy driving it.

[adam2]

I have long held the opinion that a lightweight, small and speed limited type of car should be allowed without a licence, and cheap to insure.

Something like this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35210572 They are invariably petrol driven, but a cheap electric version should be possible.
Limited to 28 MPH, small and cheap battery, charged from a standard domestic socket outlet.

[clv101]

I am not the least concerned with folk like yourself having a bit of fun in an ev,
for some reason I associate you with a bicycle rather than a car.
I wonder why you upgraded to a more powerful car? To my mind the
current ev offerings are all overpriced. over powerful, and insanely over complex and "performance" obsessed.
Still I guess this is just bau.

It is rather concerning though that lots of hormone ridden, frustrated teenagers may soon be racing around
in vehicles with even more absurd power to weight ratios than their current ice vehicles.

My own idea of an ideal ev would be something along the lines of a 2CV with range of about
200 km or so. I may be waiting sometime before it comes along.

I agree with much of this, but I think EVs needed to be *better* than ICE in their own terms, power, acceleration etc to avoid the bad reputation that beset compact fluorescent light bulbs for a couple of decades.

I too would like a cheap, simple, light, efficient EV for local travel 100km range would be sufficient.

[PS_RalphW]

Like this ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -can-drive

The smallest full ev with 150 mile range is the Fiat 500e