Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
The big question then: is it just human nature or is there something about cars that hugely amplifies many of the nastier aspects of human nature whilst suppressing the nicer?
Is it that the car itself is an inherently dangerous thing, because of its power and complexity of function, making cars not truly suited to the very limited abilities of humans to control such powerful and complex technology?
What about the culture of the manufacturers and purveyors, who realise that certain nasty aspects of human nature alloyed with the powerful nature of the car, provide an opportunity to sell more via the design and portrayal of the things as “weapons of choice” for go-getting thrusters-about not allowed guns or blunt instruments of more obvious intent?
**********
Well, some leading questions there! 🙂
But without understanding all the factors that make driving motorised vehicles such a dangerous and damaging phenomenon, how do we ever solve all the pressing problems they create?
I think there’s an ego-inflation issue as drivers think of the car as being an extension of themselves (which makes sense so that our brains treat distances and gaps appropriately). This leads to some drivers treating any bump against their vehicle as a personal attack upon themselves and respond with anger or fear (fight or flight response) despite it obviously not causing any pain or danger. There’s probably a big contribution from the large cost of some cars and certainly the “prestige” brands tend to have very poor drivers.
There’s a big problem with drivers who treat making progress as a sign of their competence, virility or power and this can lead to them acting like a toddler when they encounter a delay which often results in an emotional breakdown – most commonly anger.
Another emotional problem that most drivers face is frustration with being stuck in traffic. The best drivers are usually the ones that learn how to deal with that in a calm manner and hopefully without resorting to using their phone to escape the boredom.
Also, the car advertisements don’t help as they’re selling a dream of carefree driving along empty roads, typically in forests or mountain-sides, and that hardly matches up with the usual scenario of being stuck in a line of vehicles in a dirty urban environment whilst breathing in fumes and pollution from the rest of the traffic.
Coo – is this an attempt by the boy to engage in a dialogue?Don’t be shy, now! Perhaps you could make clear what you agree with and what you find hyperbolic. I admit to hyperbolising when approaching then entering rant mode. 🙂
Careful now, he’s easily startled. I think he’s worried about the Guadrian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati pouncing on him and his comments.
I expect it supports Jeremy Corbyn (if he walks across it) and is vegan.Probably not vegan
This?Close
Wasn’t that the ‘documentary’ starring Father Dougal as a talking cat? 😉
At that rate, they’d soon reach a Commuter Event Horizon where nobody moves anywhere and everyone just lives in their car, stuck stationarily on the road.It’d be like in that BBC documentary, Gridlock
200-year-old Finchingfield bridge to be closed for repairs next week after ‘several’ crashes over the summerhttps://road.cc/content/forum/car-crashes-building-please-post-your-local-news-stories-276441
people?
It’s about time they just pulled down that ‘woke’ bridge that’s getting in the way of hard-working, put-upon drivers. I bet it wears lycra in its spare time and joins Greta Thunberg’s protests.
Oldfatgit wrote:
One of my concerns about segregated infrastructure is the places where it cannot exist and cyclists are again thrown in to the flow of traffic. As unideal as it is, at least with the current system drivers are used to seeing us on the road; true, some of them don’t like it, but at least the majority know how to behave around us. Remove this with segregation, and this behaviour pattern will reduce to insignificance and we will be at an even greater risk on the roads.It doesn’t seem to be a problem in places where they have some decent infrastructure.
Man punched in the face by woman ‘multiple times’ in Gloucester road rage attackWhat cars do to people.
It’s about time that people had driving bans if they don’t have the emotional maturity to deal with modern driving. Let’s get these nutters out of their cars so we don’t have to deal with their self-indulgent rages.
Driver ‘denies speeding’ despite destroying car in roundabout wall crashhttps://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/driver-denies-speeding-roundabout-wall-crash/
That kind of crash and damage would make sense if they were speeding, so maybe they need their licence revoked as the universe is sending a clear sign that they weren’t in control.
Posting here as the Wales 20mph thread is also getting long.Bingo cards at the ready – although because “BBC” they’ve found a few people saying “actually, I see the point in some places”:
One tidbit that snaps my cranks is when they grudgingly allow for limits around schools – presumably they don’t care about the kids’ safety when they’ve walked a bit further.
Rich_cb wrote:
There’s already a bridge and 2 tunnels and a light controlled crossing. After the university it’s a pure dual carriageway, now at 30 mph. It’s not just the 20mph limits that were changed.Well, I can’t add any local knowledge to this but I’m quite happy for as many roads as possible to be 20mph – YMMV.
Rich is talking about the same road I posted above. There is a University on that stretch, and it’s congested, but it isn’t an obvious candidate for 20mph IMO.Maybe it’s the foot traffic from the University that has earnt it a lower speed limit
Rich_cb wrote:
Dual carriageways have definitely had their speeds reduced in Cardiff. Western Avenue in Cardiff is now a mixture of 20 and 30 mph limits. Previously it was mainly 40.That’s curious as I wouldn’t think that a dual carriageway would be counted as a residential road or busy pedestrian street. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is?
There are definitely some questionable examples. E.g. in my neck of the woods, this stretch of road recently dropped to 20mph. I don’t particularly mind, but it’s not residential, and until a couple of years ago the speed limit was 40 (then dropped to 30 when surrounding roads became subject to one of the pilot 20 zones), so I can see why some might think it’s unnecessarily low.With that amount of traffic on it, 20mph might be an aspiration