I was thinking about this the other day and came up with a theory. When you first learn to drive you are worried because you are driving a large vehicle that can really hurt or kill people if you make a mistake. There’s an element of fear when you get behind the wheel for the first time, and learning the rules of the road help mitigate that fear.
As you gain experience with driving, that fear becomes masked by driving becoming a more or less muscle memory task, but doesn’t go away. It’s always just below the surface. Then when you witness someone who breaks the rules of the road (yourself excludes because you’re a good driver now) the fear can’t come out (again because you’re a good driver) but gets transferred to rage very quickly.
I thought this when riding my bike in an area where cars aren’t allowed, which thankfully is a large part of my commute. People along that stretch are polite with each other and smile when going by each other. That doesn’t happen in a car and I think the riding of bikes doesn’t have that same basis in fear that allows this to happen. It’s only when cars get involved that bike commuting becomes extremely stressful.
Not being able to see the face of the person who does the stupid thing also has a massive impact on how people think of the other drivers. Similar to how (most) people who would chew someone out over the phone will hesitate to do the same in person.
My phone support days had way more customers willing to be nasty than any of my retail jobs.
Hrm, so the driver’s face should be projected onto the back and sides of the vehicle. This would allow other drivers to see which direction the driver is looking and if facial expressions were shown the alertness or distractedness of the driver would also be evident. Would probably help a lot when you’re trying to figure out what another car is likely to do.
I was thinking about this the other day and came up with a theory. When you first learn to drive you are worried because you are driving a large vehicle that can really hurt or kill people if you make a mistake. There’s an element of fear when you get behind the wheel for the first time, and learning the rules of the road help mitigate that fear.
As you gain experience with driving, that fear becomes masked by driving becoming a more or less muscle memory task, but doesn’t go away. It’s always just below the surface. Then when you witness someone who breaks the rules of the road (yourself excludes because you’re a good driver now) the fear can’t come out (again because you’re a good driver) but gets transferred to rage very quickly.
I thought this when riding my bike in an area where cars aren’t allowed, which thankfully is a large part of my commute. People along that stretch are polite with each other and smile when going by each other. That doesn’t happen in a car and I think the riding of bikes doesn’t have that same basis in fear that allows this to happen. It’s only when cars get involved that bike commuting becomes extremely stressful.
Not being able to see the face of the person who does the stupid thing also has a massive impact on how people think of the other drivers. Similar to how (most) people who would chew someone out over the phone will hesitate to do the same in person.
My phone support days had way more customers willing to be nasty than any of my retail jobs.
Hrm, so the driver’s face should be projected onto the back and sides of the vehicle. This would allow other drivers to see which direction the driver is looking and if facial expressions were shown the alertness or distractedness of the driver would also be evident. Would probably help a lot when you’re trying to figure out what another car is likely to do.