I like to shake my finger as if at a child to go naughty naughty naughty. They fucking hate it
This is also my play. Older men go absolutely frothy with rage.
Similarly, I give the condescending head shake, like a disappointed father.
Like this?
Yes! The “I’m not mad, just disappointed” classic.
Flipping them off just hurts their feelings. A thumbs down goes on their permanent record.
Flipping someone off only shows them that your feelings are hurt.
This is real! I have the thumbs up to a cybertruck driver, locked eyes with him and slowly turned it to a thumbs down.
His soul died. 😂😂
My favorite thing is cybertruck drivers telling themselves the hate is due to jealousy. Like no dude, I could probably name 50 cars that cost as much or more than your stupid box and I don’t hate them at all.
Ikr?? Watch. That one downvote I got is from the one cybertruck nerd on this site 😂😂
I don’t understand how, but somehow drivers seem to be the biggest whinny cunts on the planet. I feel like 80% of drivers rage from the smallest of inconveniences, if you inconvenience them for even a few seconds they’ll yell at you or flip you off. God forbid someone not notice the bonus right-turn green arrow. I feel like every time I see that everyone behind them wants to bring hell down upon them and curse their entire lineage for even existing. Even people I know personally that are typically very nice and aren’t prone to getting angry get irrationally mad at people they see on the street for such trivial things. It’s amazing.
I get especially annoyed at lights when people are slow to react. You know why? 9 times out of 10 theyre on their phones and not paying attention. Thats what makes me angry, not the delay.
I get that, but I also sometimes see the people behind them when walking completely loose their shit from that, visibly angry, leaning in, yelling and honking, which I feel is a bit overkill.
Honking is like the most not overkill thing ever when a car isn’t moving at a green light
I don’t know where you learned to drive, but I clearly remember that lesson from driving school “honking is only to be used in case of immediate danger”. Which, here, is clearly not the case.
Cars really need a variety of horns. Like one that politely says “pardon me, do you happen to have any grey poupon?” and one that says “move or I’ll rip yer fucken eyeballs out!”
Trucks in SEA often do, they have this warbling “hey, I’m here”, and then a much more aggressive “get the fuck out of the way!”. People also modulate their bike horn to just give a little chirp so the person you’re passing knows you’re there, or two to say thank you, 3+ loud ones to say “get out of the way”, etc
One long hold — aggressive A gentle “beep beep”, seems more friendly. At least, to me, and I hope that’s how it’s perceived.
I do the beep beep at red-turn green lights, but try to wait a little. It’s midly annoying if a driver doesn’t react quick enough but driving is a frustrating enough experience as it is. No need to add fuel to the fire, so to speak. I’ve been beeped at the moment the lights turned green, and at the time, my foot was already pressing the gas. I felt embarrassed… my car does not react that quickly!
It’s because driving is fundamentally stressful and requires you to be ‘on the ball’ or risk death. You constantly have to adjust speed and positioning, and monitor everyone around you just in case they make a mistake. Sure, most of this eventually becomes automatic, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t stressful - just that you don’t think about how stressful it is. It’s the most uncomfortable thing people usually do in their day.
Honestly the act of driving just makes people mad. They know they can go fast, so they are entitled to. Anything that gets in the way of them going fast induces anger.
Biking on the other hand…
Honestly the act of driving just makes people mad. They know they can go fast, so they are entitled to. Anything that gets in the way of them going fast induces anger.
Am driver, love traffic. Was on the motorway today and it was going at carwash speeds for a good 10 minutes. Had lots of fun, heard and saw some trains. Love driving
Your bumpers stickers: I’d rather be driving 🚗 My other car is a car More Honkin’ Less Tonkin’
Vanity Plate: Luv2Drv
… appears to be just as bad, and they often don’t even keep to biking roads (eg. biking through “no-biking” pedestrian streets and getting angry at the pedestrians being all over the place, or biking over the pedestrian crossings, etc.).
But your first statement rings true.
I personally feel far less rage biking. It’s probably because most of the time I’m out of breath. Plus it’s hard to be too mad when you’re exercising.
It’s good that you feel that way. I’d wish that was the case for the local bicyclers too.
Cars are obviously expected to slow down and keep behind the biker till able to pass (that’s the law, though drivers often attempt too close passes anyway), that said, when walking on narrow pathways in the woods, cyclists will often come cycling way too fast and ring - without slowing down any significant amount - and apparently expecting me to jump to the side to not be hit.
I’ve had multiple close-hits, and they’ll start screaming and be abusive if you don’t give way (you know, since they’re faster than you, and it’s inconvenient for them to slow down just because of you). And no, the forest road is not a mountain biking path. Contrary, the paths are usually footpaths that are destroyed by the bicycles plowing up the loose dirt - the good side being, that the small roads often change and stay exciting.
There are a lot of good bicyclers out there, but I generally feel that the (locally) worst cyclers are the sporty ones and those who freely disregard the law. It’s almost like “I’m not in a car but still faster than the walking plebians, so I can do whatever I like without real consequences”.
I very much wish for proper, separated, biking paths, though that’s mostly for my own comfort as it won’t keep me from running into the two types of bicyclers described above. :(
Edit: Sorry, this got wayy too long. Good night. x)
I think you might just be describing the fact that humans suck and lack empathy rather than a specific mode of transit sucking. Everyone seems to expect that the burden of “paying attention and being empathetic” belongs on others. Sure, there might be some negligible affinity for one mode or another among the biggest assholes, but I’m a firm believer in the fact that 90% of people are just petulant asses who will pay zero attention the moment they get into their car/boat/bike/scooter/moped and then turn around and winge about the injustice of it when someone does it to them the next time they’re on foot. I don’t expect decency from other humans because I’ve seen what they do to public restrooms and places when they think nobody is watching. Immediate reversion to their inner goblin.
I just feel fear cycling. Like when a 53’ long semi passes a foot away from me. Ironically most of my near-miss brushes with death have involved school buses - it’s ironic because I’m a school bus driver. One time I even got smacked in the leg by a school bus’ crossing arm.
Yikes. Hope you get better biking infrastructure!
Nah, splitting to pass and filtering to the front reduces stress of traffic. Also the physical action of operating a bike plus more opportunities to use more than 10% of your vehicles performance gives more dopamine, unlike driving.
Aslo people pay like 80k for their plus size vehicle then cry about everyone else using the same roads.
Driving is a stressful task in many places, especially when the road crosses lanes 2 times to accommodate a freeway. We are moving giant hunks of metal, and as much as I work to chill myself out, I make silly mistakes that scare and stress other drivers, and visa-versa.
Patience is a true virtue, and most lack it 100%
Nothing to do with “drivers” as such. People on public transit are the same. There’s this one guy who yelled at the top of his lungs “GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAAAAAY!” when people didn’t let people off the metro first. That’s not an inconvenience as much as a brain failure in the other people, but…
(I’m avoiding that station until people forget what I look like.)
No no no that guy was 100% right, you let people off or youre slowing everything down. I suppress the urge to yell that every time I get on the subway.
But lmao no public transit is not as stressful. People take naps on trains and buses all the time. I very rarely see people sleeping while riding a car or bike.
That guy … was ME!!!
Every time I board a subway in China or Korea, I should carry a projector and show the people waiting how good the Japanese are at getting on and off subways. As long as it’s a platform with a full wall, and not the half wall a mob of people could potentially chuck you over.
Sounds complicated. I just shove people out of the way. Unless they’re kids, old people, or infirm in some way.
And this is your brain on cars:
The mature thing to do and the most “I don’t give a fuck” way to be is just to move out of the way of people who want to go fast and leave lots of space between you and an aggressive driver.
I’ve spent a lot of time riding motorcycles. Your awareness changes and you learn to identify danger.
Seriously, why do you give a shit about the weirdo whose driving is pissing you off? When you’re in a car, the easiest way to get this person out of your life is to just slow down a little.
Driving like an old person is chill as fuck. Better gas mileage, too.
I used to drive like a maniac until I got a motorcycle.
Now, I’m super defensive and highly aware of aggressive drivers. I just get out of the way.
I accidentally cut someone off on the freeway last week (3 lanes turned into 2 and I was zoned out, I was driving all day). Dude started honking and raging on me, I could hear him telling me to pull over, so I just kept staring forward until he gave up. Normally I would have engaged.
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What kind of driver thinks someone is going to pull over for anyone other than a cop?
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That kind of driver is likely so unhinged that reasonable people should do everything in their power to avoid interaction. Reasonable people definitely should not pull over to talk with/fight with/be shot by that kind of driver.
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Now, I’m super defensive and highly aware of aggressive drivers. I just get out of the way.
Drive like everyone else on the road is trying to kill you.
leave lots of space between you and an aggressive driver.
This is great advice and a great way of looking at it. I use to tell people that you can control how close other drivers are to you when they are in front of you. A crazy fast tailgater behind you might be hard to deal with, but let them get in front of you and you can have a better safety buffer zone.
Even when your tailgater can’t pass you because of traffic, you should still slow down. Not to piss them off, but because they’re more likely to run into you and you want as much distance as possible between you and the car in front of you when they do hit you. This is even a question on the CDL exam.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
- George Carlin
I took that to heart when I first heard it at like 19
Nope. Driving slower is fine as long you realize you can pull off when several cars are lined up behind you. Obstructing the flow of traffic is arguably more dangerous than going 5-10 over the speed limit.
Of course we’ve been saying since the 80s that we should do annual driving tests for those over 65, and im saying in 2025 we need to find a way to outright disable phones in the car. Pull off and call them back if its super important or fuck off.
I drive a Miata. I have to pretty much drive like I’m invisible. I’ve had people try and merge right over top of me. I don’t understand the mentality of trying to ‘win’ on the road. I let anyone I can around me as politely as possible.
I drive a Z3 and it is indeed some scary shit. I hate driving next to those monster fucking pickup trucks and realizing they can’t see me AT ALL.
Because the Wi-Fi who’s driving us posting me off nearly fucking hit me by trying to cut me off inches from my front bumper from two lanes over instead of pulling into the giant expanse behind me for no reason.
Driving slow doesn’t warm me they’re going to spasm into my lane like that
And it’s legal! Where iam living, flipping someone off, can be a big fine.
I can’t tell if this is a US thing anymore. Used to be protected under free speech but I don’t know anymore.
Last I heard it’s still technically a freedom of speech issue… But, then again, people are supposed to see a judge before they’re extradited as an illegal immigrant… And we all know how that’s been going.
I find that a big shit eating grin in tandem really helps sell it.
But you don’t have to take MY word for it!
Pointing and laughing at them will make them actually try to kill you.
When you make eye contact, show him a picture of you and his mother out for a nice seafood dinner.
Flicking = / = Flipping
No, it literally means the same thing in this case, it’s a regional variant. I heard people say it around northern Virginia several times.
Feel free to imagine something else though.
I understood what it meant. I also understood that using the phrase “flicking someone off” is not widely recognized.
This reminds me of something I saw in BoneAppleTea back in my Reddit days.
Anger is fleeting. Disappointment is forever. A good lesson for teachers, too.
I like to do this too. I liken it to a parent saying they’re not mad, just disappointed.
But I don’t know that I’ve ever had anyone get ridiculously angry about it.
It’s because you’re explicitly declaring that they do not have your approval, instead of just being pissed off, which is easier to dismiss.
I liken it to a
parentsaying they’re not mad, just disappointedRoman emperor
As I understand it, we don’t actually know whether Romans did a thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate whether a gladiator should be killed or not.
Ah, but the driver I’m insulting may not know that.
I gave someone a thumbs down while driving probably 10 years ago and they got so upset they had a mild case of road rage. Not to the point where they caused an accident, but I saw them yell and scream then speed off around me. Hands flailing the entire time.
I once pointed to my crotch and made the blowjob motion to one dude who was tailgating me as he was exiting the highway. He went ballistic like his head was exploding and got right back on via the next onramp. Traffic was heavy but I could see him trying like crazy to catch up to me, weaving in and out of lanes and even driving on the shoulders sometimes. He never caught up and I exited after a sharp turn and he didn’t see me. I was pretty amused after making him drive so far out of his way just to rage, but after a while I realized that I had just exposed myself to legitimate danger for no particular reason.
This woman in her BMW wagged her finger at me the other day for a turn I made
Was she right to disapprove?
Technically yes, but in no way was my driving unsafe to anyone
My wife does a small peepee 🤏
Sorry for your loss
I give a giant smile and enthusiastic wave. Confuses the hell out of them.
I give a thumbs down to any Teslas I see. Whether or not they notice I have no idea, but it’s satisfying for sure!
I’ll never forget when I took my 4yo on a walk and as we’re waiting to cross the street he saw a cyber truck pull up to the light next to us. He goes “dad look!” The guy was smiling as he heard my son and saw him point out the car. Then my son followed with “the ugly box truck!” The way the guys smile melted from his face was fucking art.
Idk why, but hearing kids say things can hurt the most. There was a kid that said a racial slur to me (I was also a minor at the time, but I was older), and I momentarily felt like as if my soul left the country.
I’m a school bus driver and one time a kid said “excuse me mister bus driver, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings but your ears stick out like an elf’s.” I said “well that’s because I am an elf.”
“No you’re not … you’re a bus driver!”
“I only drive a bus in the off-season.”
“Wow, so you know Santa Claus?”
“There is no Santa Claus.”
“That’s not true! If there’s no Santa, why does he bring me presents on Christmas?”
“That’s your parents.”My favorite thing about this story is that when hearing it, most people react like I killed the kid and ate his liver. When all I did was destroy his Christmas illusions - as payback for saying I have fucking elf ears.
maybe it’s because they think elf ears look cool. by they i meant me >:(
It can be because it’s unfiltered truth
But it can also be learned bigotry
what about those who bought them for the “better than a gas-guggler” reason )plus some tech optimism and design allure maybe)?