MrCjolsen

Road rage over construction work closes California highway

Ok, so you have construction workers toiling away to widen a road, and the very cagers for whom the road is being widened are attacking the construction workers for the delays the project is causing them.

oilfreeandhappy

I guess it's not surprising to see these reactions. When driving in a hot car, in the hot sun, even with air conditioning, many drivers lose their patience. I see it more and more this time of year.

donnamb 

Someone in Foo a couple of weeks ago reminded me of this Edmund Burke quotation.

"Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them in great measure the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex and smooth, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they support them, or they totally destroy them."

JonathanGennick 

Turning lights and sirens on when driving the ambulance seems to have a similar effect. I remember once we were running lights and sirens on a country road paralleling Lake Michigan, and a family of (probably) tourists saw us coming, and the parents hurried up and scooted their kids right across the road in front of us to get back to their car. We actually had to brake to avoid hitting them. Why they didn't wait for us to pass is beyond me. Had the same sort of thing happen just a couple weeks ago too -- woman looked very carefully right and left, guaged our speed, ran across right in front of us.

Drivers often react strangely and inappropriately to emergency traffic too. Unlike with the construction workers though, you can often chalk that up to the disorienting effect that comes from suddenly discovering you've get an emergency vehicle behind you. People are surprised, sometimes inexperienced, and they often do all sorts of things other than pulling over to the right and stopping.

Getting back to that construction story linked to by the original poster, that's just amazing to me. I've been frustrated by construction myself. We all have, I'm sure. But to attack the workers, wow. It's not their fault. Better to find a different route in to work if the stress gets to one that badly.

Sprawl is an interesting phenomenon. People move outwards to escape the city, but as more and more people move outward, urbanization eventually catches up, and people move outward even more, and so you get these concentric rings of "obsolete" suburbs that explode outward on the landscape. We humans seem to have an amazing capacity to build up huge urban environments in which no one wants to live. Then we move on and do the same thing all over again somewhere else.

CommuterRun

Just proves some people are just flat out stupid.

Bikepacker67

What a fluckin moron:

Eli_Damon

It seems to me that there are certain towns and certain roads where people magically become more obnoxious and aggressive when they enter them and magically go back to normal when the exit. I wish someone would explain that. I think that traffic engineers should team up with psychologists to work on this problem.

The Human Car

There is a concept I call the Dangerous Doughnut which is a belt around congested areas where there is a lot of angst over the upcoming or just got out of congestion.

The MD Safety Office had some stat about most car accidents happening between congestion.

As far as some towns being bike unfriendly I think that has a lot to do with the car being perceived as the only way to get around and the whole built environment reinforces that notion. Where not only the roads lack bike accommodations but destinations advertise their ideal customer with vast parking lots and no sidewalk to the entrance.

The transformation GIF on this page says a lot IMHO.
https://www.completestreets.org/

AlmostTrick

Since motorists have proven themselves unable to use the road safely and considerately while it is under construction maybe only bicycles should be allowed to use it during this period.

unkchunk

Nah, they are pretty much the same out of the car too. I came to that conclusion not too long ago in the super market where people seemed to walk the same way as they drove. Of course it doesn't apply to bike riders, cause I couldn't hop the curve, walk on top of the shelves and then get back in the aisle on the other side of the congestion.

Donnamb, nice quote about the manners. Those manners things can be very utilitarian. I was listening to a BBC bit where a historian was saying that manners were a fashion trend. And for a time people competed in politeness like they do with any fashion trend. And then unfortunately it went away like all trends eventually do. Anyways, it was a new take on manners for me. I assumed it was a thing that was always in the past.

trackhub

Holy crap! Just another sign of a country going down the drain.

Ya gotta love that "I'm the victim" bit. Think his lawyer told him to say that?

Blais

Yeah but that car is going to crash into the island that appears right in front of it and just cause more congestion and road rage. I don't like that plan at all.

GreenGrasshoppr

Not to mention those who are too lazy to return their shopping cart and launch it away against other cars...

s0rcerer13

I've witness this too many times.

littlewaywelt

Idiots are idiots whether they turn a steering wheel or handlebars.

genec

Yeah, but those with steering wheels have the potential to harm so much and so many more.

Wulfheir

Recently a highway in Toronto was closed, which directed commuters to other arteries. The back-up of traffic on one of the arteries resulted in a road rage incident, which closed that road due to police presence, making the situation ever more futile.

sbhikes

I think there's something in the air lately, too. I saw a whole lot more idiots the other day than normal, including one guy driving a jeep wrong way up the bike lane. As if that makes it ok.

CommuterRun

Nah, he'll swerve left, cross two on-coming lanes, and take out the cyclist that "appeared out of nowhere."

The Human Car

+1

oscaregg

I've long thought that highway construction flaggers should be very heavily armed--AK's, large caliber sniper rifles, etc. Drivers should know that deadly force will be met and maybe even pre-empted with deadly force. If motorists are armed with Expeditions and Suburbans, why should highway flaggers be out there naked?

sbhikes

Meet with deadly force to what? To people eating croisan'wiches and making business deals while driving? I think you've gone a bit too far, but it world probably work.

trackhub

Funny you should mention it. Now why do I say this? Well, Massashusetts is, I believe, the only state in the nation that does not permit flag men (or women) on road construction projects. No, this duty must be performed by actual police officers. The law requires it. Officers do this on overtime. Many officers make quite a sizeable amount of money on these construction details.

Guess what? Even in the worst cases of backed up traffic, the notorious drivers of MA behave themselves.

Some citizens are against this. They want the law changed, so flaggers are used instead of cops. I favor leaving things as they are. It makes motorists behave themselves during "road construction season" better known as summertime. On occasion, you might hear about some impatient motorist (Gasp!) doing something, such as laying on his horn, or screaming a bunch of expletives while waiting at a construction project. But, once they notice a an actual cop giving them the hairy eye, well, that calms the offender right down. If some officers earn enough money on these details to pay for expensive hobbies, (such as boats) well, that's fine by this taxpayer.

Maybe it's time for CA to do this.

Dchiefransom

The city of San Jose does it, but they are receiving lots of criticism due to the cost.

soze

NYSDOT projects often have a statie hanging out in his cruiser, and guys still get hit.

Still not as bad as Chicago, though. Last year when I was visiting my folks for a couple like five workers got mowed down on the Dan Ryan while I was there. Wtf.