The majority of human history has shown us that no, in fact, walking does not inherently make you kinder.
I think the point being made is that having to drive everywhere makes people even less kind than they usually are, as borne out by road rage incidents
Yeah, for sure! I was being tounge in cheek, mainly for my own amusement lol.
For the majority of human history we didn’t have cars.
#thatsthejoke
You don’t really learn how to curse until you learn how to drive.
The first time I can recall someone not my brother giving me the middle finger was my first time driving on a real road, and I wasn’t even in the wrong ahah.
Peeps are more civil without a 1500Kg weapon at their fingertips.
I think it’s both the weapon and the isolation: you get more angry when someone else’s mistake could be deadly for you, and it’s so much harder to see them, so you start to assume the worst.
But there’s also time where people are literal dicks. Most times I drive, at least one driver does something selfishy reckless. I’m reminded every time I drive why I hate it
This phenomenon is so well-known that Disney was making cartoons about it 75 years ago.
Yeah, that cartoon was the first thing that came to mind.
As someone who mostly bikes (no license to drive), interacting with cars on the road definitely increases my bloodpressure compared to other public space users.
I walk and bike (driving makes my anxiety go crazy), cars never properly look out for us and it makes walking and biking way more dangerous than than it should be
I call my morning drive my “twenty minute hate”.
My commute is 1.5hrs one way.
I think I’m missing the joke. Are you calm for 70 minutes of your commute and hateful for 20?
My first commute was 20 minutes and I just got used to calling it that
Nah. Assholes will be assholes regardless of their mode of transportation. The car/bike is an instrument and a conduit that helps express one’s assholeishness, but that state of mind exists even on foot where it gets even more up close and personal.
The trope of the asshole cyclist is as accurate as the preachy vegan i.e. it’s an unfounded caricature by people who are mad that other people choose a more inconvenient way of interacting in society even though it has very little bearing/impact on them personally.
Yes there are assholes who ride bikes. Yes there are pretentious vegans. But we all know that people pretend that is the default personality and it’s all born of a completely self-inflicted defensive posture
Selective bias then. Got it.
You’re more right than you realize
The difference is when a gaggle of young teens take up the sidewalk, I can walk around. When a truck comes barrelling down the road, it damages my hearing and actively threatens to kill me.
Unequal comparison. A gaggle of teens is comparable to a wedding convoy. Slow, loud and annoying.
A truck barreling down the road is like a group of gangbangers threatening to shoot anyone who looks at them funny.
Considering I almost get run over every other day and I’ve never seen a gun outside of a shooting range I’d say your comparison is unfair.
If we ignore that I live in Europe and not America, we can still look at some statistics:
In 2020 45,222 people died to guns in America.
In the same year 38,824 people died in motor vehicle accidents.They seem pretty comparable?
I’d say “you don’t hate driving, you hate capitalism”, but I guess that applies to mostly everything.
I’m not saying capitalism doesn’t have a lot to answer for, but I’m pretty sure road rage has separate and distinct causes related to cars themselves, including but not limited to:
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When you’re enclosed in a car you become more anonymous and may feel less accountable for your bad behavior than you would if you were exposed as a pedestrian. Conversely, other drivers are also enclosed so it becomes easier to dehumanize them.
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You’re driving what’s likely your most expensive piece of personal property, so you’re prone to be defensive when it’s threatened by other drivers’ behavior.
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A car is also a very personal choice that’s designed to provide the comfort of a private space, so it’s easy to feel like the presence of other road users is intruding on your space.
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Driving is stressful the entire way even if you’re not actively thinking about it. It is mentally and physically taxing and you’re on guard the entire time - or you die
The hate is always there, it’s just not provoked.
With cars, there is no space. Other people are close. Traffic shows us how we feel when our expectations are not fulfilled.
There is some scientific backing to this. Basically by isolating ourselves in these little bubbles of death, we stop seeing the other people as people and this removes any moral/societal blockers to descending into a pit of rage and calling for the termination of their bloodline, death by inept firing squad, etc.
I wouldn’t even say we stopping seeing them as people, but instead that we view them as generally terrible people based on how they drive. They’re either an idiot or an asshole, as the saying goes. (‘Anyone that drives faster than me is an asshole and anyone that drives slower than me is a moron’ is the saying)
Am I the only one who hate-walks? Obviously my hate is directed at drivers.
it’s not the driving, it’s the assholes on the road who drive like it’s baby’s 1st power wheels. when i moved from city to rural, the improvement in my mental health just from the zero traffic was unbelievable. there’s like 2 good things about living in a city, and neither are remotely worth dealing with the many reasons NOT to live there
So, not just the “having a 1500kg weapon”, but also having to make sure that your 1500+kg weapon does not attack some other 1500+kg weapon while both are armed and are in the process of being discharged, continuously.
Yeah, that would be a stressor.Well, at least I only have to worry about my ~15kg runaway device, not getting hit by any of those weapons.
Oh wait, I also have to worry about the fragile thing not breaking down under my own force and running me straight into one of those weapons.the fuck…?
Yeah, there’s little I dislike more than HAVING to drive in the city or through one. Luckily, we’re working on a project that is close enough to public transportation for the time being.
I’ll be sad once this one finishes because, I’ll most likely need to return to car life.
Absolutely the opposite for me. I am a chill driver but get very frustrated when trying to walk through busy places. I still like when I can take a non-car option, though
That said, my “very frustrated” at no point ever rises to the level of the road-rage that is all too common amongst drivers
Commuter rail is hilarious for this. All the same people that were in orderly lines, holding doors open, giving seats to older or disabled people, and saying “oh you go first” for the last hour spend thirty seconds back in the “safety” of their white SUV and they’re acting like absolute animals to all the same strangers.
