pakole

Is have an ego an extra when you purchase a car?

I'll explain what I mean. When I am waiting at a light, some cars just wait behind and allow me to accelerate and get to speed. Some are just beside me and accelerate to get out my way or so I'm not beside them, but there are some who end up behind me or next to me edge up to the line and almost burn rubber from the suggestion of a green light. This also happens when I am riding and catch up to another car, but instead of allowing me to past it or ride along side it. It just go and accelerate down the street. Is it just me or can people not stand the idea that a bicycle can go faster than them in traffic? Are people trying to show me off when we are at a red light? Or should just stop thinking and get back on the saddle?

huhenio

Stop thinking and get on the saddle. They want to be far away from you ... not behind you

tokolosh

those people would be obnoxious on bikes too, is my guess. machinery doesn't change personalities much; it just displays them.

gboy

I always find it funny that most motorists accelerate towards a red or amber light, while i just maintain my speed to go past them when the light turns green. Last night, a police car ran an amber light that was visible for several seconds, even though i stopped on the line. I was going to honk my AirZound, but I decided against it.

ItsJustMe

Some people can't stand that anyone is ever in front of them in any situation. I've seen people who were driving along on a nearly empty expressway, and when a car enters in front of them going the same speed, they speed up so they can pass. It's just unbearable to them that they can't be first.

It's sort of an almost socially acceptable way to be a 6-year-old pouting crybaby in an adult body.

silverphoenix67

Right, the car itself doesn't make the ego... it just gives people who aren't solid within themselves a means of looking like they're better than you.

I passed a car a few weeks ago and happened to make eye contact with the driver who gave me this look like, wtf? I didn't really think anything of it... until I heard him gun the engine moments later and blow by me only to make a right hand turn a couple of blocks ahead.

Mr_Super_Socks

I actually disagree. I believe there is something about the automobile and infrastructure (i.e. the isolation, the power, the ease of accel. and decel., the comfort, etc.) that actually makes people behave differently. Normally polite, respetful, gentle people can become monsters behind the wheel and will do things that have potentially deadly results without a second thought. People don't understand on a visceral level how lethal they are in a car.

Cromulent

Egos come standard with most newer cars. And don't let them talk you into the Id undercoating. Complete waste of money. Ids don't rust.

Some people have be first off the line. Otherwise stuff gets in their way. And it's not just us commuters. Everything is in their way. Life is in their way. It has very little to do with you... or any of us. All we are to them are obstacles. The faster they get around us... and everything else... the better.

DataJunkie

I turn into an arse when I drive. Mainly since everyone starts to irritate me. Tailgaters, people driving the speedlimit in the left hand lane, the fact that I have to drive instead of commuting on a bike, and more.
However, I am cognisant of this fact and do my best to restrain my lovely temper. I repeat the following every 5 minutes "bike tomorrow. bike tomorrow. don't have to put up with these idiots on the freeway. bike tomorrow. bike tomorrow.". Repeat until at destination.

noisebeam

Which very well may have been legal. Usually running a red light requires the light turns red before the vehicle enters the intersection which may be defined as a line that goes from curb to curb, although these definintions depend on locality.
Al

jamesdenver

i agree. the same traffic problems happen at grocery stores with shopping carts as they do on the streets. jams, congestion at checkout lines, delays getting around hmm, large shoppers with carts, yet no one gives each other the finger, or swears at them. the protective bubble of a car does the above posters power

timmhaan

i know that everytime i drive, it just seems to bring out the worst in me. not that i'm a road raging a-hole or anything like that. but i get a little more annoyed than i would if i was, say, walking down the sidewalk. i honestly don't know how people can drive all day long. i'd be a pretty unhappy person if i were doing that.

caloso

It's not the Ego that's the problem. It's the Id.

genec

This is quite easily demonstrated by simply driving a couple MPH below a posted speed limit on an surface streets... it is amazing how many folks just get beside themselves trying to pass you or do the bumper to bumper thing... so many motorists feel that speed LIMIT means "drive this speed."

genec

maybe there is something sinister in "new car smell..." or those little pine tree fresheners...

That new car smell is really the scent of toxic chemicals
By Severin Carrell
Published: 16 October 2005

The distinctive smell of fresh upholstery, gleaming plastic and polished paintwork is one of the pleasures of owning a new car. Until now. That seductive "new car smell" can be dangerous to your health.

Many new cars emit a cocktail of potentially toxic chemicals that can cause headaches, nausea and drowsiness. For some people, these compounds can even provoke serious allergic reactions.

noisebeam

No need to drive under. Try driving at the speed limit and notice the same behavior.
Al

cooker

Drivers can also be afraid of bikes...find us unpredictable, worry that they'll collide with us and then have to deal with that... so they may simply want to get ahead so they can relax.
R

Tree Trunk

Driving a car probably magnifies a personality type in the same way riding a bicycle magnifies a personality type.......

Hmmmmm, methinks you make too much of this issue.

va_cyclist

The behavior you're describing is a symptom of impatience, not ego, and it's not limited to those in cars.

Tree Trunk

Wish I would have said that.

timmhaan

that's a good thought. it's a mix of the two, for sure though. cutting someone off to rush to a red light 100 feet away goes beyond impatience, it's a sense of "i'm in a larger machine, therefore i have the right of way". that feeling of entitlement i see on the road almost every day suggests there is an ego trip component to it.

Flak

People are afraid of bikes. They want to be as far away from them as possible.

va_cyclist

Good call -- maybe we need some of those "FEAR THIS" stickers for bikes

Flak

Cyclophobia

https://www.changethatsrightnow.com/problem_detail.asp?SDID=403:1483

pakole

Hmmm... I hope not.