I have,… had, a different problem.
I like engines, I like shifting gears, I am a bit of a thrill seeker, and I love driving.
I’m mid 30’s now, but when I was a kid… man, some stuff you just shouldn’t incriminate yourself with. Raise hell, praise Dale.
These days I have to keep in mind that I’m not only endangering myself, I’m endangering others, so I… tend to keep a light foot.
Unless you can see others driving. In which case you’ll probably see or hear them doing rude or psychotic behavior. Or at least that’s how it is here
Nah. The hate of other people never leaves my body. When driving it’s the dumbasses that don’t use their blinkers. While walking, it’s the people that stay far enough from the wall in order to occupy the most space while staying close enough that you don’t fit between the douchebag and the wall.
The hate is always there, it’s just not provoked.
With cars, there is no space. Other people are close. Traffic shows us how we feel when our expectations are not fulfilled.
Its sorta annoying because the car culture is so engrained. I had a job prospect in a burb that was not easy by transit but I could swing it with by doing bike and commuting on the reverse (away from downtown) train line. My brother had a folder and since its possible you can be denied bike access and I need it on the other side of the trip to I asked if I can borrow. No he was hoping to use it to teach his kid to bike but he said hey I can borrow his car. Im pretty sure he is just trying to fix my bad decision on how to do things.
I had the extremely good fortune to move to a place where I don’t need a car and I am always surprised by how quickly the hate returns when I get behind the wheel.
I experienced the reverse of this when I spent 4 years biking around Los Angeles. Road rage…gone, even when I eventually got back into the coffin on wheels. And now I just get frustrated when friends and relatives get unreasonably angry with cyclists and pedestrians.
Like I have relatives who are completely nice people until they get behind the wheel, when they become just the most angry I’ve ever seen them even when just driving down a calm non-busy street…it’s unreal.
Reposting (with minor edits) something I wrote in another comment a few days ago:
Cars force communication that is inherently anti-social. If someone is genuinely sitting at a light too long, you honk at them. There aren’t a lot of other good options. But even a honk sounds aggressive. You could be as polite a person as can be in any other situation, but making the completely reasonable choice to honk at them makes it sound like you’re calling their mom fat.
When this happens to me, and the guy ends up pulling into the same parking lot, I tend to avoid any other contact, even if it’s just walking by.
It can be different regionally too, where I’m at now everyone honks all the time so a little honk is a fine courtesy if you don’t see the light change, where I moved from though it would come off as screaming at someone on the street.
But meanwhile as a cyclist if I pass someone and they give me extra space we can smile at each other and wave, or if I have to ‘honk’ it’s a little polite bell. But also I semi-frequently have times where I think “that car could have killed me” and I continue my commute unfazed. It encourages an entirely different mindstate than car-brain.
Commuter rail is hilarious for this. All the same people that were in orderly lines, holding doors open, giving seats to older or disabled people, and saying “oh you go first” for the last hour spend thirty seconds back in the “safety” of their white SUV and they’re acting like absolute animals to all the same strangers.
You don’t really learn how to curse until you learn how to drive.
The first time I can recall someone not my brother giving me the middle finger was my first time driving on a real road, and I wasn’t even in the wrong ahah.
There would still be a lot of hate in my heart if I had to walk through crowds everyday.
While less dangerous (honestly with how people responded to covid maybe not that much less dangerous) you still have to put up with entitled idiots that arent fit to be out in public.
Am I the only one who hate-walks? Obviously my hate is directed at drivers.
There is some scientific backing to this. Basically by isolating ourselves in these little bubbles of death, we stop seeing the other people as people and this removes any moral/societal blockers to descending into a pit of rage and calling for the termination of their bloodline, death by inept firing squad, etc.
I wouldn’t even say we stopping seeing them as people, but instead that we view them as generally terrible people based on how they drive. They’re either an idiot or an asshole, as the saying goes. (‘Anyone that drives faster than me is an asshole and anyone that drives slower than me is a moron’ is the saying)
I’d say “you don’t hate driving, you hate capitalism”, but I guess that applies to mostly everything.
I’m not saying capitalism doesn’t have a lot to answer for, but I’m pretty sure road rage has separate and distinct causes related to cars themselves, including but not limited to:
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When you’re enclosed in a car you become more anonymous and may feel less accountable for your bad behavior than you would if you were exposed as a pedestrian. Conversely, other drivers are also enclosed so it becomes easier to dehumanize them.
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You’re driving what’s likely your most expensive piece of personal property, so you’re prone to be defensive when it’s threatened by other drivers’ behavior.
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A car is also a very personal choice that’s designed to provide the comfort of a private space, so it’s easy to feel like the presence of other road users is intruding on your space.
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