If you drive an expensive car you're probably a jerk, scientists say

Courtesy - it’s a thing

I have drive right so deeply ingrained that I can’t even make myself sit in other lanes. I was once driving (a van) overnight up to North Carolina. I-95 had a rough right lane for about 50 miles and there was no traffic, so I got into the center lane. Every 5 miles or so I’d instinctively go back to the right lane and start going wompa-wompa. Then I’d move back to center until another 5 miles passed.

 

Once heard someone say...

"A clean car is the sign of a sick mind."

As I pondered my recollection of those who seemed to spend a good deal of time cleaning their cars, myself included, I suffered an epiphany...

Now I let the constant Oregon rain wash my car for me. I'm still crazy as a loon, but it doesn't show.

 

I drive in Italy where the only rule is that whatever you drive, you drive it as fast as it can go! Makes no difference how much you car is worth

 

This isn't scientific or anything, but I drive every day. On the freeway. In Los Angeles. The jerkiest driving behavior I see usually comes from:

- Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers.
- Jacked up pickup trucks
- Work trucks/vans

Any time you're being tailgated, cut off, or not allowed to merge, you can pretty much count on one of the above as being the offender.

Pretty sure this has more to do with the likely age and gender of the driver than anything else.

 

No study needed. TGP is proof undeniable.

 

The one who's wife is a real estate agent fits her stereotype. She traded her minivan for a Honda Pilot in fancy trim.

Maybe we have to cut them some slack. The inventory of old rear wheel drive Volvos is getting pretty low. Biomechanical engineering is not sociology. Most dean of student seats are probably not volunteer firefighters. The Civic is wrong for that role too. At the station he parks it next to big pickups.

Full disclosure. These are all wonderful people. The prior neighborhood was deteriorating. So far I'd rather suffer the consequences of the neighborhood going more upscale than down.

Maybe we're spared some vehicles as neighbors because the more mature neighborhood doesn't have the big McMansion garages.

 

They medically revoked my driver’s license due to the injuries that I suffered in the military.

But if I could still drive, I’d buy the biggest Lincoln they make, and a hound’s tooth check hat with a colorful feather on the side, and go out on the Interstate and do 40 MPH in the passing lane, all day, every day.

That particular urge came upon me the day that I turned 60.

 

That was humbling. I had Mustang GTs same time I drove semi. Early on a woman didn't stop at an intersection and couldn't accelerate as fast as she thought. I didn't do other lane and kill people and did not hit her but her car disappeared from visible by the hood. Then I hauled dangerous and super expensive stuff. People give me crap about being such a cautious driver yet doer of adventure sports.

 

In the pre lux-baby-stroller era there was a constantly recurring phenomena involving Moms on the upclass NYC streets during regular business hours quickly shoving the baby stroller in front of oncoming traffic.

Literally cars would have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting the child, though this signature shove was always from the shoulder, not from the hip, so the Mom was not in danger of getting hit.

Crosswalk laws are confusing, but perhaps more to some than to others, where the in addition to the fact that's it's illegal to run down pedestrians in the crosswalk, there are also traffic signals that say Don't walk, while there are Moms who will do so regardless under protection of crosswalk laws and the terror of hitting a child.
Terror is a good description of motorists response.

I swear I'm not making this up and it was pretty much daily if I was out that I observed this.
One I recall I was only a few feet from a Mom who shoved the stroller in front of a bus maybe 10-15 feet away traveling at normal midtown Avenue speed.
The look on her face was cold like Rambo as she slammed that bus to a lurching halt a shoulders distance from her baby.
The Incredible Hulk would have blushed at the violent halt that bus came to.
My jaw most certainly dropped.

How does this fit in with lux car drivers mentality?
I'll say, none of the Moms I observed doing this remarkable thing looked like they were on welfare.
And areas of NYC where welfare Moms were prevalent never seemed to have this happen.

 

I once rented a black Ford Crown Vic when I had to travel from Houston Airport to a three day meeting in Galveston. I thought it was amazing
how everyone in the fast lane would hustle over to the right to let me by, while decelerating to something closer to the posted speed limit.
I thought, "I could get used to this". You could almost see their visible relief when they realized it was just a dude in a rental car, not
some kind of law enforcement officer.

 

I grew up driving in SoCal. Turns out it's the same crop of folks here.

Mustangs.... Don't get me started.

I have hypotheses on this that I won't share here. I may drive a Honda. But that doesn't mean I can't be an elitist a$$hole when I feel like it. I will say that age and gender may not be the main factors.

I will speak no more of my feelings beneath.

 

And in every roundabout you toot your horn and go for it! *memories of driving in Firenze*

 

So if I like the idea of a flash car, presumably I like the idea of being a jerk. Sadly funds are insufficient.

 

Are you sure you are from Florida?

 

You have got to search for dump truck race videos.

 

I’m actually ok if other people think I’m a jerk. The only ones I care how they think are my family.

 

Well, I’ll go right out and sell my Ford GT.

 

Funny, I just saw an interview the other day with a scientist, in which she made the statement that scientific studies tend to find what the sponsors paying for the study want it to find.

I've always enjoyed and respected science, but f*ckabuncha scientists.