Who is behind the steering wheel?

[wheelswings]

I’ve long been intensely curious about interactions between drivers and bicycle-riders. I feel genuinely touched when drivers go out of their way to stop, and I am grateful that such kind people exist in the world. In the reverse, when I encounter particularly aggressive drivers, I find myself desperate to know what sort of person it is who would behave so badly. In fact, I can recall at least two unpleasant interactions with motorists in which — instead of admonishing the drivers for their rudeness – I have inadvertently yelled the question, “Who ARE you???”

Here is an article that tries to answer at least a part of that question. It was published in May in the Economist 1843 Magazine. My apologies if it’s old news to some of you…I’m a bit behind in my reading. The article is called “Does power really corrupt?” It talks about a Berkeley professor who set out to see if there is a measurable difference between the behavior of those who drove fancy cars and those who drive more middle-class vehicles.

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/does-power-really-corrupt

Here’s the most interesting and bike-relevant portion of the article:
The professor put a group of students on the case; sent them out with clipboards to loiter on the traffic islands of Berkeley. They monitored vehicle etiquette at road junctions, kept notes on models and makes. They observed who allowed pedestrians their right of way at street crossings; who pretended not to see them and roared straight past. The results couldn’t have been clearer. Mercedes drivers were a quarter as likely to stop at a crossing and four times more likely to cut in front of another car than drivers of beaten-up Ford Pintos and Dodge Colts. The more luxurious the vehicle, the more entitled its owner felt to violate the laws of the highway. [Emphasis added.]

Interesting reading, for sure. I’d be curious to hear others’ observations.
Be safe. w&w

Topic

[huskerdont]

The girl has always said Prius drivers are the effing worst, and I have usually protested. She’s looking at it from the perspective of a driver caught behind them, and I was looking at it from the cyclist side. However, recently as a passenger in her car and as a driver myself, I have come to believe that Prius drivers are … differently abled.

[creadinger]

@dkel 144438 wrote:

Around this region I always feel like negative interactions with drivers is a result of their general impatience and their ignorance of cyclists’ rights on the road. Put those two ingredients together and you always get honking, yelling, rude gestures, and unsafe passing. I’d like to think better driver education would go a long way to fixing this: if drivers understood that 1) time lost waiting to pass a bike safely is always easily made up in a car, and 2) bikes have a right to be in the street (and—more often than not—in the center of the lane), there would be no urge to get belligerent.

3) If we could only make it happen, but I think the bike a mile on my wheels principle would educate A LOT of clueless drivers as to what it feels like to be passed too closely.

………

Ok, they fall into the SUV category, but in my mind there are SUVs and those damned Armored Personnel Carrier (APCs) SUVs that so many suburbanites have to carry their platoons around in. Dude, if you had a reasonably sized car you wouldn’t need 2 full lanes to go around me safely!

[accordioneur]

Here’s what I’ve observed:

1. When I’m running, cyclists who pass me within inches and don’t call their passes (and there are lots of them) are the WORST.
2. When I’m cycling, runners and their crazy Ivaning and tendency to run N abreast are the WORST.
3. When I’m either running or cycling, drivers who don’t stop at trail intersections or pass too close are the WORST.
4. When I’m driving, cyclists who take the lane for no apparent reason are the WORST. And runners who run in the street ninja style are the WORST.
5. When I’m running, cycling or driving, anyone who is either considerably slower or faster than I am is the WORST.

What’s cool is that all of these observations can be combined into a single unified theory:

Everyone who is not me is the WORST.

[TwoWheelsDC]

You lost me at “experimental psychology.”

[rcannon100]

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 144518 wrote:

NEIN, bitte. [ATTACH=CONFIG]12289[/ATTACH]

[Author]

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