Every time I get into a car with a friend or relative, I'm appalled and reminded of the lunacy that is how people drive cars. It's detached, impersonal, pushy, and obnoxious. I do miss driving, but I don't miss it that much.
I'm not quite sure when it was, maybe around 2007 or so, but gas prices in the US had reached a high of around $5/gallon. I was driving a premium guzzling car at the time and couldn't handle it anymore. I sold my Marauder and bought my first import, a FG1 Civic that got an easy 40 mpg on the freeway and roughly 33 mpg around town. At that time, I vividly remember how the car "scene" shifted. When I first got my Civic, I was extra conscious of my driving technique, which consisted of easing up on the lead food syndrome and practicing hypermiling techniques. During this time, gas prices were leveling off and slowly starting to fall. In a direct relationship, I saw the number of SUVs and trucks on the road dramatically fall. In fact, people were no longer tailgating me either. Driving actually got a little more tolerable in my opinion, but that was short-lived. After some months, gas prices continued to drop and then they seemed to equalize around $3/gallon. Sure enough, that was the ticket and out came the heavy hitting clunkers by the dozens. For me, as I still practiced moderate accelerations and other various hypermiling techniques, the change in gas affordability and the car scene spurred the onset of lead foot syndrome and tailgating again.
Even now with gas prices being manageable and affordable, I can't understand the mindset of people in cars. They're always in a rush, inconsiderate and very unforgiving. Of course, this was once me too, but that was me without introspection and growth. Combustion vehicles are one of the quickest ways to get around and yet people still drive like dolts. Poor cagers.
/end rant