I hate Priuses, or Prii, or whatever....

I thought I was the only one who thought this way. I commute 1 hour to and from work and I do I feel like when I'm in the fast lane, the car that is mostly in front of me holding up traffic going 55-60 mpg is a Prius (a second place would be a Subaru wagon). I always thought it was just a coincidence, but it just happens all the time. When I do pass the driver, I look at them and they do seem like they're in their own little world where everyone drives as "fast" as they do. Gets on my nerves especially when they have about a quarter mile gap between them and the car in front. 

I think SF is probably worse than SoCal since I feel it's the Hybrid capital of the US. Ever watch that South Park episode "Smug Alert?" Stereotypical but I feel like it's true. 

You are correct that there are a lot of Priuses down here, but I don't agree with your generalizations ... except maybe the first one.  That makes sense, because if you are buying the car to save gas and/or the earth then it would tend to follow that you would be the kind of person that would drive that way as well.  (There is no need for them to be in the fast lane, thats for sure)

Your other two points are not specific to any type of car.  I see people driving like you described in both instances in EVERY kind of car, no particular one any more than any other.

Yes but most cars are no where near as distinctive as the Prius so you don't remember them as much.    And the ones that are distinctive enough are not sold in high enough volumes.  People also tend to complain about bad SUV drivers, motorcylists, and german sports car owners.

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Originally Posted by Golfingdad 

You are correct that there are a lot of Priuses down here, but I don't agree with your generalizations ... except maybe the first one.  That makes sense, because if you are buying the car to save gas and/or the earth then it would tend to follow that you would be the kind of person that would drive that way as well.  (There is no need for them to be in the fast lane, thats for sure)

 

Your other two points are not specific to any type of car.  I see people driving like you described in both instances in EVERY kind of car, no particular one any more than any other.

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Originally Posted by Clambake 

I hate Prius cars, or the plural Prii (according to Toyota).    OK, it isn't so much the car itself, as it is reasonably well put together and a well-engineered package (although the styling is a whole other thing to hate).    I guess what I really hate is Prius drivers.    If you happen to have one, please don't be insulted as there are exceptions to every generality, and I'm sure you're it.    But as a group, I find Prius being driven more poorly than other other model that I can think of.  

 

In Southern California, we have a lot of Prii.    Tons of them.  We must have 80% of Toyota's production within a hundred mile radius.  I probably see at least a couple dozen on my commute each way, maybe more.    And they seem to be driven in one of the following categories:

 

• Plugging along slowly in the fast lane or carpool lane regardless of traffic speed, kind of in their own little world.      This morning I saw three of them roughly side by side chugging along at about 60MPH in a four lane wide section of freeway, causing everyone else to figure out a way to maneuver around their rolling roadblock.
• Driven with little awareness or attention to what is happening around them, changing lanes randomly and cutting off other cars, turn signal flashing for miles, not going when the light turns green, etc.      Also this morning, I saw one (white with a KPBS license plate frame in case it's yours!) suddenly decide to exit the freeway, cutting immediately from the left lane across 4 more lanes of traffic without ever glancing at a mirror to a cacophony of car horns and squealing tires from drivers trying to miss it.
• Zooming along 15 - 20 MPH faster than the rest of the traffic weaving in and out of lanes (wasn't the purpose to have an economical car?  90+ MPH isn't an economical way to drive).

 

I almost never see one just being driven normally.  

 

It has seemed there are always categories of cars that attract drivers that are a moving hazard.   Old men in old Cadillacs was one category, or tree huggers in a Volvo station wagon.     It seems that the Prius is today's equivalent.   These things should be banned from the road in the interest of public safety.

 

OK, I feel better now for getting that off my chest.     

You could say the same about people who drive Buicks.

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Originally Posted by x129 

Yes but most cars are no where near as distinctive as the Prius so you don't remember them as much.    And the ones that are distinctive enough are not sold in high enough volumes.  People also tend to complain about bad SUV drivers, motorcylists, and german sports car owners.

I was going to make the same point.

It's the same principle as when you're ready to buy a new car, or you do buy a new car, and you start to then notice just how many of them there are on the roads.

The "good Prius drivers" you simply don't notice, while the bad Prius drivers you notice AND they stand out because it's a Prius.

I don't hate prius per se, but I do hate the "electric car only" parking spaces eating up the prime spots in most of the stores around here.  I've seen a total of exactly 2 cars parked in one of these spots since they first appeared a year ago.

Can we morph this into a "drivers suck" thread as well?  Oahu has the worst drivers I've ever seen, and I've lived in a dozen different states.  If folks aren't driving around at a snail's pace, staring at the scenery and not paying attention to anything, they're flying through the tunnels at 90+MPH.  If it wasn't so freaking amazing here, I might feel sorry for myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by k-troop 

Oahu has the worst drivers I've ever seen, and I've lived in a dozen different states.  If folks aren't driving around at a snail's pace, staring at the scenery and not paying attention to anything, they're flying through the tunnels at 90+MPH.  If it wasn't so freaking amazing here, I might feel sorry for myself.

Ever been to Ohio?  People here not only drive slow, they also cant seem to stay in their lane, driving slow in the fast lane, driving in other peoples' blind spots and changing lanes/merging without even looking to see if anyone is in that lane.  Also, if youre in their lane, they will just turn on their blinker and merge.  If youre in their way, they expect you to move.  When I lived in Wisconsin I thought that Illinois drivers were bad but Ohio drivers are worse.

I'm a SoCal driver as well. Prius drivers to you Clambake are PT Cruiser drivers to me. I CAN NOT stand PT Cruiser drivers. Everything you mentioned above are what I've come to expect when I see a PT Cruiser on the road...

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Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer 

Ever been to Ohio?  People here not only drive slow, they also cant seem to stay in their lane, driving slow in the fast lane, driving in other peoples' blind spots and changing lanes/merging without even looking to see if anyone is in that lane.  Also, if youre in their lane, they will just turn on their blinker and merge.  If youre in their way, they expect you to move.  When I lived in Wisconsin I thought that Illinois drivers were bad but Ohio drivers are worse.

haha i always thought it was the Wisconsin drivers that were bad.  But moving to Washington proved that they are even worse.  I don't know what it is. Some people don't know what a green light is, some don't know how to make a turn.  The worst driver though is one who can't actually see over the steering wheel, they peek between the middle and the outside part of the wheel.  Then they try to see where the road goes driving obnoxiously slow in the process.  I like country roads more and more, because you can drive your own pace and get around the slower ones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillyk 

haha i always thought it was the Wisconsin drivers that were bad.  But moving to Washington proved that they are even worse.  I don't know what it is. Some people don't know what a green light is, some don't know how to make a turn.  The worst driver though is one who can't actually see over the steering wheel, they peek between the middle and the outside part of the wheel.  Then they try to see where the road goes driving obnoxiously slow in the process.  I like country roads more and more, because you can drive your own pace and get around the slower ones.

Illinois drivers are way, way, waaaaay worse.  Every time I drove in Chicago it was like, "have these people ever driven before???"  Thats why the cops in Wisconsin target cars with those funny blue licence plates.  They dont know what theyre doing and its easy ticket money.  I love Chicago.  Its a great city but you guys seriously need to learn how to drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer 

Illinois drivers are way, way, waaaaay worse.  Every time I drove in Chicago it was like, "have these people ever driven before???"  Thats why the cops in Wisconsin target cars with those funny blue licence plates.  They dont know what theyre doing and its easy ticket money.  I love Chicago.  Its a great city but you guys seriously need to learn how to drive.

The thing that Chicago drivers do that I think may say we are bad drivers is that we are aggressive.  We don't wait for the big openings to pull out, we pull out when someone is a little slower than the others.  Otherwise, you get to wait at that spot for a good hour before something opens up.  In Wisconsin, there's no other cars on the road, so you don't need to worry about when you can pull out.  You learn how to drive in those big cities, because either you learn how, or you get caught up on the sidelines watching everybody blow by you.  No one is going to let you in, you just gotta take it.  Good luck with conservative driving in the city.

EDIT: Another thing that makes anybody a bad driver is not knowing where you are going. Too many people rely on their GPS on their dashboard or phone trying to tell them the best route, then they mess you up somehow.  Use the internet and plan your route before you hit the road, then use the GPS as a reminder, not the direction maker

This is the part of the thread where we all start talking about how our towns drivers are worse than yours ... but I am going to go in a different direction.

I live in OC now, so I have the joy of dealing with LA/OC drivers and traffic all of the time now.  I contend that drivers down here are much better than a lot of other places (specifically Fresno, where I grew up)  Yes, you have lots of crazy, reckless drivers.  People not paying attention, people driving way too fast, weaving in and out of lanes, etc, etc.  But those kind of drivers exist everywhere.

The main difference I've seen is that in places like Fresno/Bakersfield, when it gets near rush hour and there are more than 10 cars on the road, everybody panics and slows down.  In LA/OC, people actually know how to drive in traffic.  We can have a car every 50 feet in every lane and still be moving at 60 mph.

Here in NY your driving encounters change drastically depending on what time you're on the road. 

During rush hour (6am - 9am) you'll be cut off numerous times by the guy that thinks changing lanes 100 times per mile will get him to work on time.  The pre-occupied twenty something female who is too busy texting, chatting on the cell phone, putting on eyeliner to realize there are 100 cars lined up on her bumper as she drives 45mph in the left lane.  The guy who thinks the right lane, exit lanes and on-ramps are designed for passing and causes near accidents as he leap frogs cars in the right lane at each exit.

After rush hour you get the retired blue hairs that believe the road belongs to them after rush hour so they drive 3 across at 40 mph because they have nothing else to do and no place to really be. 

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Originally Posted by newtogolf 

Here in NY your driving encounters change drastically depending on what time you're on the road. 

 

During rush hour (6am - 9am) you'll be cut off numerous times by the guy that thinks changing lanes 100 times per mile will get him to work on time.  The pre-occupied twenty something female who is too busy texting, chatting on the cell phone, putting on eyeliner to realize there are 100 cars lined up on her bumper as she drives 45mph in the left lane.  The guy who thinks the right lane, exit lanes and on-ramps are designed for passing and causes near accidents as he leap frogs cars in the right lane at each exit.

 

After rush hour you get the retired blue hairs that believe the road belongs to them after rush hour so they drive 3 across at 40 mph because they have nothing else to do and no place to really be. 

You know what is really fun?  Driving in Manhattan.  I've done it a couple of times, and I don't know why, but I really enjoy it.  Almost like it's a sport ... I like the challenge.

If I had to do it all the time, probably not.  But once every year or two, especially in somebody else's car, I get a kick out of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iacas 

 

I was going to make the same point.

 

It's the same principle as when you're ready to buy a new car, or you do buy a new car, and you start to then notice just how many of them there are on the roads.

 

The "good Prius drivers" you simply don't notice, while the bad Prius drivers you notice AND they stand out because it's a Prius.

This point is so obvious.  The Prius looks distinctive, so when one is driving in a way you don't like, you notice both "a**hole driver" and "Prius".  If it's just an a**hole driver in some more generic looking car, you just get pissed in the moment but have no idea a day later exactly what car it was.  If a Prius near you is driving totally normally, you don't notice it at all, just like you don't notice ANY car near you driving normally unless it's some ferrari or whatever.

Also might have something to do with your internal biases.  When I'm down in SD I only notice the giant (often raised) trucks driven by huge a**holes.  But then I'm biased towards looking down on guys who buy ridiculously huge trucks that will never be used for anything that requires anything bigger than a Vespa with a side surf rack, so I probably remember the a**hole overly large truck drivers more than the a**hole generic sedan or Prius drivers.  Maybe you're biased towards assuming Prius drivers are pansy stoner hippies "off in their own world" who you can look down on?