Comments on The Urban Country Bicycle Blog: Confessions Of A Bad Driver

Thanks for sharing this, I can relate with it. m...

2011-12-15T03:45:49.182-05:00

Thanks for sharing this, I can relate with it.

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You are not Stuck in Traffic You are Traffic

2011-12-09T10:01:31.483-05:00

You are not Stuck in Traffic You are Traffic

Road rage is very familiar to me but many years ag...

2011-11-25T22:20:26.166-05:00

Road rage is very familiar to me but many years ago I started using public transit to save money and realized how much I enjoyed my commute when on the bus. Actually, I enjoyed the experience of walk to my stop, dropping in the coffee shop for a cup to go and waiting at the stop. I got a lot of reading and "me" time in. Now I most bike to where I need to go and drive when the weather condition warrent. Biking and busing have help me realize the importance of slowing down. Rushing around is unhealthy and a waste of energy. Short of a job interview, nowhere I have to be is really that important.

Thanks Simon - found that segment on Google at htt...

2011-11-25T08:15:11.499-05:00

Thanks Simon - found that segment on Google at http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/london-calling
It's no surprise the car came last on London's overcrowded, medieval streets. As for the boat, well, the guy in the video used a racing boat on the calm, slow-moving Thames. You're not going to do nearly as well with your basic inboard/outboard, especially on our choppy lake.(I'm still wondering how these races would fare in Toronto)

Tkeen, re. the assumption the driving is quickest,...

2011-11-23T16:45:51.279-05:00

Tkeen, re. the assumption the driving is quickest, UK motoring TV programme Top Gear ran a 'race' across London. The presenters used a powerboat (along the Thames), a bicycle, a car and the London Underground tube system. The cyclist won, the boat was second and I believe the driver was last.

I often think I would suggest to abusive drivers and those who cut you up while overtaking that they swap places. I'll drive the large van at them while they quiver and dive for the gutter. I feel that it is a lack of willingness to empathise, along with the frustration and relative anonymity, that prompts this behaviour. Most of these people would not behave that way if their mother was beside them.

Road rage is not difficult to understand - people ...

2011-11-23T13:51:12.885-05:00

Road rage is not difficult to understand - people in cars don't want to be there, and are frequently in a hurry to get where they want to go, and are being delayed and possibly made late. Traffic congestion has got a lot worse quite recently here in Toronto and travel times across town have more than doubled over past 15y or so, to my experience.

People tend assume that driving is the fastest way to get to where they want to go, when it may not be so. One NYC website had a video where three people raced from a starting spot in Queens to a finish in midtown Manhattan... one in a car, one on a bike, and one by transit. The cyclist finished first, and I believe the motorist came second. How would such a race go to downtown Toronto?

So very true. Quite an astute observation. It'...

2011-11-23T11:03:06.854-05:00

So very true. Quite an astute observation. It's time that people take responsibility for there actions. I think there is a further "disinhibition effect" or maybe a cognitive dissonance caused by the fact that the forces behind driving mass, speed, etc are effectively incomprehensible. Much in the same a human mind interprets information as random when it becomes sufficiently complex (and it's not very complex at all see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life) concept such as speed and mass are incomprehensible when they exceed what millions of years of human locomotion have equipped us to deal with. Here is an interesting article about objective and perceived motion. http://www.purveslab.net/research/explanation/motion/motion.html

Regarding your little old lady at the grocery

2011-11-22T12:23:14.419-05:00

Regarding your little old lady at the grocery

I use to get very frustrated whenever I drove anyw...

2011-11-22T11:06:14.359-05:00

I use to get very frustrated whenever I drove anywhere for the very same reasons you explained in this article. It's amazing how self-entitled people can get when protected in a steel shell. Now, I have never vented my anger on other drivers, cyclists or pedestrians. At worst I'd yell to myself if I were alone in a car; the presence of passengers quells my frustration significantly.

Now I very occasionally drive and bike everyday for all my trips. The kind of frustration I get these days on either vehicle is the realization of how unlivable and people-unfriendly our cities and roads have become. At best you get congestion with driving. As cyclists and pedestrians you're viewed as a burden by many drivers and are subjected to disrespect and harassment and ridiculous waiting times just to cross one little street. As if it wasn't already bad enough having to share roads with drivers who don't want me on it, I get a red wave with the 7 traffic lights I pass going to work everyday; only 6 will be red if I'm lucky. None (or most) of this would be unnecessary if every street weren't designed for cars and only cars. We like to claim in the US that we're the land of the free, but I guess that excludes mobility when not in cars.

Back in the 80's, I was relatively new to driv...

2011-11-22T10:39:22.592-05:00

Back in the 80's, I was relatively new to driving on big freeways in heavy traffic. I used to get very frustrated at all the stop-and-go. For a while, I'd pound on my steering wheel to vent my rage & frustration, until it occurred to me that I might actually damage my steering.

So I turned to pounding on my dashboard. That worked fine until... I cracked the dashboard. I was driving a 1974 Pontiac Ventura -- no airbags, and the plastic of the dash had probably been made a bit brittle by the sun. But still...

That was a wake-up call for me. I had to live with that stupid dashboard the rest of the time I had the car. It was a reminder to me that getting that mad is Just. Not. Worth. It.

I still have a bit of a bad temper, but I try to rein it in these days.

Great post! Thank you.

2011-11-22T10:01:28.423-05:00

Great post! Thank you.

I think the point isn't in whether you will sh...

2011-11-22T10:00:34.448-05:00

I think the point isn't in whether you will shout out what you think. The point is what do you think in that moment. And if you're just politically correct enough to not shout at that stupid sluggish old lady, that "correctness" doesn't make any important difference, and you're still an asshole.

I don't agree with one more point you made.
I lived and pedaled in Belgrade city which is full of road rage for 10 years, and there I started hating motorists. There I also got used to scream and shout on them. Now I live in small town where motorists are relatively well-behaved (that's why I moved in fact :) ), and it happens very rarely that someone rages at me. But still I find myself relatively frequently yelling at them (even if they are outside the car (standing on the road and opening car door for example)), though I am not behind a glass wall.