Road rage and self-absorbed douchery on the roadway on the rise?

[BE Mike]

Is it my imagination or has traffic law enforcement become as rare as unicorns during COVID?

 

[AllenM]

My daughter wrecked her Durango, which isn’t unusual if you know her. But I talked to a body shop here. Everyone was booked up for 3 months minimum. Ended up getting a donor car some old guy was selling and just swapping parts myself

Yea we are booked out until end of February and parts delays are not helping either

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

I'm glad we live in the sticks and try not to go anywhere anymore post Covid. Since I'm work-from-home now, its Church, store, back home. My car can sit for a week at a time with no driving...

Stay safe out there.

 

[JettaKnight]

This has been on the rise for a long time Amigo. Distracted driving. Self centered morons that have crap lives and take it out on the interstates. Cell phones, tv's in the vehicles you name it. More and more people resist being called out for not following the rules we are all trying to follow.

I've always thought it can't be as bad as you say it is, but I recently went to Indy on a Monday - yes, it's very much like you say.

And drivers in Chicago don't seem as bad, but they very much like to play chicken with exits, changing lanes in or out as late as possible.

 

[Brad69]

I normally drive about 3,000 miles a week. Jeffersonville, IN to KC, MO and back.

I haul flat steel and aluminum for Ford in racks I cannot lock up my brakes it will damage the cargo. So I have to be extra vigilant on following distances.

Cars will pile into my following distance and I have to slow down. Cars flip me off and get mad on a daily basis. I am a safe and courteous driver with zero tickets, zero CSA points and zero accidents.

I have to avoid road rage to keep my business. I am at work not just driving. Thankfully IN,IL,MO State Police are cracking down on crazy drivers.

Road Rage is on the rise in major Metro areas just more lawlessness IMO.

 

[Ark]

I don't have a hypothesis, but I can certainly corroborate the observation that something has broken and people are crazy now.

Here in the hood, clapped out junkers with no headlights or plates blasting past you at 70mph on surface streets is pretty normal. Red lights are a suggestion, don't trust them or you'll die. Insane ped and cyclist deaths this year.

I've seen precious little traffic enforcement from IMPD, although they do finally seem to be stationed on the 38th White River bridge pretty regularly. You could sit there and nail 30 over speeders all day, plus all the unlicensed and unregistered.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Older men too!

Older people should drive faster. They have less time to get where they are going, after all.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Is it my imagination or has traffic law enforcement become as rare as unicorns during COVID?

Predates COVID. You know the ol' "don't you have anything better to do than write me a ticket?" trope? Well, you're seeing it. Reduced manpower and increased crime means less time for traffic enforcement, foot patrols, etc. You'll not make buddies with your partners if you're routinely gone from the increasingly busy shift for a few hours for traffic court, either.

Everybody should be happy, though. Traffic enforcement was only about revenue, remember?

 

[AllenM]

Older people should drive faster. They have less time to get where they are going, after all.

I resemble that remark

 

[Hoosierdood]

It all boils down to this… people do stupid crap because they can get away with it.

My wife witnessed a hit and run and called the police. Even got a picture of the tags. Police found the vehicle with obvious damage, but because my wife couldn’t identify the driver out of a line up, they got away with it.

My car was totaled back in September. The driver who hit me was driving on a REVOKED license. Shouldn’t have even been on the road. Got a heafty ticket I’m sure, but left the scene on their own.

I can’t believe the amount of hit and runs that I see posted on social media. Road rage is up. People driving like a-holes. The fact is that the police just don’t have the resources to track down every single incident. And people know this. And when people know that they can get away with being a-holes with no consequences, their true nature comes out.

 

[jsx1043]

Predates COVID. You know the ol' "don't you have anything better to do than write me a ticket?" trope? Well, you're seeing it. Reduced manpower and increased crime means less time for traffic enforcement, foot patrols, etc. You'll not make buddies with your partners if you're routinely gone from the increasingly busy shift for a few hours for traffic court, either.

Everybody should be happy, though. Traffic enforcement was only about revenue, remember?

BBI beat me to it.

When nearly every contact is either:

A) somebody wanting to harm or kill you;

B) someone wanting to use you as bait for national media attention;

C) gonna land you in the hot seat for a legitimate use-of-force that the brass now want to screw your career over;

you tend to minimize voluntary contacts and stick to just taking dispatched runs.

 

[Twangbanger]

We'll see if it goes back down when I-70 gets fixed.

Guess the derps who put up the orange bleacher seats at Park Avenue & 42nd aren't getting much of a show now?

 

[BugI02]

I really dislike tailgaters. We live in an area with a long state rd, 25+ miles, with few places to pass. It is 12 miles West of 65 so no easy access to the interstate. Seems like it is normal to be the only 2 vehicles on a mile of road and they are 2' from the bumper. Rain, ice, nighttime doesn't matter.
Especially irritating when I am on the bike. Just love to see a young person in the mirror at less than half the following distance on the phone.

I usually pull over and let them go.

Don

Two feet is definitely too close, but please keep in mind that if the legal places to pass are few and short, then a driver who wishes to get by will stay tucked in in order to minimize the passing distance required. I'll usually sit at about 1 car length or a bit more. Some people seem to see that as tailgating

 

[BugI02]

Take a ride around DC on any road starting with a "I" and ending in "95" if you wanna see some Mad Max s**t. I am typically driving through there late at night during the week or early on Sunday morning, times you'd think would be pretty calm. It's still absolute chaos. Makes Chicago driving seem downright civilized.

I had a recent uniquely horrifying experience in that area! I was coming back from the eastern shore through Annapolis and the beltway around to 270. a little slowdown on the last 5 or 6 miles before getting on 270, nothing unusual. But from the time I got on 270 until 68 and 70 split in extreme western MD it was a bumper to bumper conga line that never could sort itself out. Traffic on every entrance ramp was heavy and caused heavy braking and sometimes a near complete stop of traffic already on the highway while merging, yet you had to stay pretty tight on the car in front in order to stop the urge people seemed to have to zoom in front of you and then slam on the brakes because there was no room

Starting at about 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, it was 150 miles/3 hrs + of white knuckle driving

I've been in heavy traffic in that area before but never anything like this. Was it just that everybody was trying to get out of the area for the weekend?

 

[ghuns]

I had a recent uniquely horrifying experience in that area! I was coming back from the eastern shore through Annapolis and the beltway around to 270. a little slowdown on the last 5 or 6 miles before getting on 270, nothing unusual. But from the time I got on 270 until 68 and 70 split in extreme western MD it was a bumper to bumper conga line that never could sort itself out. Traffic on every entrance ramp was heavy and caused heavy braking and sometimes a near complete stop of traffic already on the highway while merging, yet you had to stay pretty tight on the car in front in order to stop the urge people seemed to have to zoom in front of you and then slam on the brakes because there was no room

Starting at about 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, it was 150 miles/3 hrs + of white knuckle driving

I've been in heavy traffic in that area before but never anything like this. Was it just that everybody was trying to get out of the area for the weekend?

I know exactly what you mean. The first time I went through there, I assumed that once I hit 270 I'd be home free, I was wrong. 95/495 are dicey, but there a lot of lanes, plus an express lane. Much more room to maneuver.

My kids are down at Quantico so at least I have options to avoid the DC mess, just adds 30/45 minutes to the trip.

 

[1gunaholic]

I resemble that remark

Me to.

 

[Jeepster48439]

Moved to Indy just over 3 years ago......running red lights seem to be legal in this state.

Didn't you see in the driver's manual where traffic signals are advisory?

 

[buckwacker]

I really dislike tailgaters. We live in an area with a long state rd, 25+ miles, with few places to pass. It is 12 miles West of 65 so no easy access to the interstate. Seems like it is normal to be the only 2 vehicles on a mile of road and they are 2' from the bumper. Rain, ice, nighttime doesn't matter.
Especially irritating when I am on the bike. Just love to see a young person in the mirror at less than half the following distance on the phone.

I usually pull over and let them go.

Don

With these high gas prices, maybe they're just using the draft to save fuel.

 

[yeahbaby]

Driving anymore is a real PITA. The number of drivers I see run through red lights is just ridiculous. Fortunately, so far, I have not seen an accident which I find amazing. Although glad is has not happened. I see a lot of drivers with the mounts for their cell phones. So they can talk/text whatever while driving. I retired last June. I try to do all our errands and running during the week when traffic is not so heavy. The weekend traffic in Porter county is just ridiculous.

 

[mmpsteve]

Driving anymore is a real PITA. The number of drivers I see run through red lights is just ridiculous. Fortunately, so far, I have not seen an accident which I find amazing. Although glad is has not happened. I see a lot of drivers with the mounts for their cell phones. Do they can talk/text whatever while driving. I retired last June. I try to do all our errands and running during the week when traffic is not so heavy. The weekend traffic in Porter county is just ridiculous.

If you like Porter County, you'd love Lake County. We make a lot of deliveries in NWI and into IL, and it's all about the same - bunches of idiot drivers.

Had one girl bump into my rear bumper while crawling along in bumper-to-bumper traffic. She actually jumps out of her car in said traffic and starts toward me to apologize, but then the traffic started moving again. I waived her off and yelled out the window for her to get off her damn phone.

They don't learn until it's too late.

.