4 ms·

Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've

Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen. Hell, about an hour ago a cop tailgated me while I was going 15 over the limit, wove through traffic to cut me off, run a red light, then damn near ran another driver off the road. No lights, no emergency, just an asshole. This is the behavior you have to expect from all drivers now. At least two or three times a week I have a close call that would wreck my car or seriously hurt someone, and I pretty much only drive up and down the one road between my house and the office, it's a 5 mile drive. There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon.

standardUser 4y ago
I thought people in the US drove like insane idiots long before the pandemic. Weaving in and out of lanes, excessive speeding, road rage over the slightest inconvenience and, the dumbest one to me because it is virtually effortless, failure to use turn signals. It's very easy to drive safely but a good chunk of divers seem to outright refuse. Having said that, the data backs you up. 7% increase in per capita road fatalities in 2020. Then a 10.5% increase on top of that in 2021!
- AmVess 4y ago
  Driving like idiots compounded by lack of traffic enforcement as police budgets and staffing decline. I just moved away from a pretty decently sized city, and the police there didn't do any traffic enforcement at all. Not enough manpower to cover traffic and crime.
  - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
    it's not that they don't have the resources, it's that police would rather racially profile people and only perform a traffic stop if they think they can illegally force a search to find or plant drugs.
  - rolenthedeep 4y ago
    No, police are very explicitly choosing to not enforce traffic laws.
- a_e_k 4y ago
  > failure to use turn signals Why signal your intentions to your opponent like a chump? They'll just use that information against you to block you from changing lanes, or to duck into a parking lot row ahead of you in a crowded parking lot and steal that empty spot. /s
- snozolli 4y ago
  I've found that drivers vary tremendously in the US. The best average drivers I've been around were in the California Bay Area. Oregon drivers are generally out of it (left lane freeway camping always started the moment I crossed from CA into OR), and only moderately angry. Arizona had wildly incompetent "snow birds" in the winter and insanely aggressive road raging locals in the summer. I've heard that Boston and New Jersey are like Mad Max with potholes.
theGnuMe 4y ago
>There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon. Any hypothesis as to what it is? I think it is a lack of community. We've become transactional and virtual/online communities are not sufficient. In terms of driving I think it got a lot worse during the pandemic because with the lack of daily commuter traffic allowed people to drive faster and hence more recklessly.
- wolverine876 4y ago
  The encouragement of hate, outrage, prejudice, and mis- and disinformation. It's pretty transparent - we see the expected outcomes.
  - chii 4y ago
    this is how a high-trust society devolve into a low trust society. It's quite alarming, and it seems to me, that nothing is being done to reverse it. By the time the "regular" people feel it (ala, the rich people), the problem may be irreversible.
    - wolverine876 4y ago
      What are you doing about it? Let's start now. > By the time the "regular" people feel it (ala, the rich people), the problem may be irreversible. I think they definitely feel it. You can see it here on HN. You can see it everyone resigning, in the vogue of despairing and not caring.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jessaustin 4y ago
  All day long, every day, the news media attempts to gin up more wars. They foster ignorance, fear, and hatred. Foreign leaders who haven't been in the news for years are made the primary focus overnight, just because that's where we're supposed to bomb next. Not all of us can even imagine why we should fight people in other hemispheres who've never done anything to us, so our fear and hatred lands closer to home. That's a big reason we have such tyrannical prison sentences. If we didn't have a gigantic military that spends over a trillion dollars a year on the purchase of armaments, our armaments manufacturers would have less money to make our news media insane.
havblue 4y ago
I've noticed the post pandemic crazy driving anecdotally as well and it's alarming. Lots more tailgating, lane changing where they almost clip you and driving really fast while passing on the right. I think defensive driving is becoming more important as well and I worry far more about driving at night, as people get more erratic, than I used to.
zol 4y ago
I’ve noticed this trend as well around my neighborhood since the pandemic.
dTal 4y ago
>Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen. That's easy enough. People who were socially minded stayed home; people with an individualistic attitude ignored recommendations. You hear similar stories from people working in customer service - the average quality of the person they had to deal with plummeted. What's a bit peculiar is that, according to you, road culture has not recovered.

standardUser 4y ago

I thought people in the US drove like insane idiots long before the pandemic. Weaving in and out of lanes, excessive speeding, road rage over the slightest inconvenience and, the dumbest one to me because it is virtually effortless, failure to use turn signals. It's very easy to drive safely but a good chunk of divers seem to outright refuse. Having said that, the data backs you up. 7% increase in per capita road fatalities in 2020. Then a 10.5% increase on top of that in 2021!

AmVess 4y ago
Driving like idiots compounded by lack of traffic enforcement as police budgets and staffing decline. I just moved away from a pretty decently sized city, and the police there didn't do any traffic enforcement at all. Not enough manpower to cover traffic and crime.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
  it's not that they don't have the resources, it's that police would rather racially profile people and only perform a traffic stop if they think they can illegally force a search to find or plant drugs.
- rolenthedeep 4y ago
  No, police are very explicitly choosing to not enforce traffic laws.
a_e_k 4y ago
> failure to use turn signals Why signal your intentions to your opponent like a chump? They'll just use that information against you to block you from changing lanes, or to duck into a parking lot row ahead of you in a crowded parking lot and steal that empty spot. /s
snozolli 4y ago
I've found that drivers vary tremendously in the US. The best average drivers I've been around were in the California Bay Area. Oregon drivers are generally out of it (left lane freeway camping always started the moment I crossed from CA into OR), and only moderately angry. Arizona had wildly incompetent "snow birds" in the winter and insanely aggressive road raging locals in the summer. I've heard that Boston and New Jersey are like Mad Max with potholes.

theGnuMe 4y ago

>There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon. Any hypothesis as to what it is? I think it is a lack of community. We've become transactional and virtual/online communities are not sufficient. In terms of driving I think it got a lot worse during the pandemic because with the lack of daily commuter traffic allowed people to drive faster and hence more recklessly.

wolverine876 4y ago
The encouragement of hate, outrage, prejudice, and mis- and disinformation. It's pretty transparent - we see the expected outcomes.
- chii 4y ago
  this is how a high-trust society devolve into a low trust society. It's quite alarming, and it seems to me, that nothing is being done to reverse it. By the time the "regular" people feel it (ala, the rich people), the problem may be irreversible.
  - wolverine876 4y ago
    What are you doing about it? Let's start now. > By the time the "regular" people feel it (ala, the rich people), the problem may be irreversible. I think they definitely feel it. You can see it here on HN. You can see it everyone resigning, in the vogue of despairing and not caring.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jessaustin 4y ago
All day long, every day, the news media attempts to gin up more wars. They foster ignorance, fear, and hatred. Foreign leaders who haven't been in the news for years are made the primary focus overnight, just because that's where we're supposed to bomb next. Not all of us can even imagine why we should fight people in other hemispheres who've never done anything to us, so our fear and hatred lands closer to home. That's a big reason we have such tyrannical prison sentences. If we didn't have a gigantic military that spends over a trillion dollars a year on the purchase of armaments, our armaments manufacturers would have less money to make our news media insane.

havblue 4y ago

I've noticed the post pandemic crazy driving anecdotally as well and it's alarming. Lots more tailgating, lane changing where they almost clip you and driving really fast while passing on the right. I think defensive driving is becoming more important as well and I worry far more about driving at night, as people get more erratic, than I used to.

zol 4y ago

I’ve noticed this trend as well around my neighborhood since the pandemic.

dTal 4y ago

>Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen. That's easy enough. People who were socially minded stayed home; people with an individualistic attitude ignored recommendations. You hear similar stories from people working in customer service - the average quality of the person they had to deal with plummeted. What's a bit peculiar is that, according to you, road culture has not recovered.