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Comment by strict9 | Hacker News Reader

Finally, a study to explain something most people know-- drivers of BMWs, SUVs, and Teslas are usually more aggressive to others on the road.

This bad and unsafe behavior by these drivers is usually more pronounced toward a pedestrian or cyclist.

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> BMWs, SUVs, and Teslas are usually more aggressive to others on the road

I've never heard this stereotype of Tesla drivers. I normally associate aggressive driving (and not signalling) with really big, high above the ground cars and trucks.

>I've never heard this stereotype of Tesla drivers.

Really? Tesla drivers are like 2% tech enthusiasts and 90% the kind of people seeking the latest and greatest flashy car.

In Ohio I find Tesla's to be some of the slowest drivers. I am constantly on their ass on the on ramps. It infuriates me cause I know they could accelerate faster than everyone else around them.

What sort of car do you drive?

The cheapest worn out beater I could find. I can get up to freeway speed, but I need my foot all the way to the floor for the entire on ramp. When sports cars (always sports cars) with great acceleration don't accelerate until the very end they make it so I'm the one trying to merge at 30 mph (50km/h).

My car isn't my status symbol. My bank account is enough that I don't worry about downturns too much and I'll be able to retire to a nice life in the future (assuming civilization doesn't collapse)

Toyota Corolla

It might be a regional thing.

I wonder if it is? That would make an interesting follow up study. It's pickup trucks around me that I notice most often.

I am a pedestrian who enjoys not being flattened and I definitely have this stereotype about SUVs and Teslas.

The Tesla thing probably depends on where you are. If you have a lot of people driving the high-end models, that would match up with the assertion. If you’re in a middle class area with mostly model 3s, then you might have a more reasonable experience.

I find Prius drivers to be disproportionally bad when it comes to not stopping at stop signs. In terms of merging aggression, big vehicles seem to be the worst, presumably because they know other cars are going to get out of their way.

For reference, I live near Palo Alto.

I'm not defending Prius drivers here, though I used to be one. I will say, by way of mitigation, that when you have real-time information on the energy required to overcome inertia, coming to a stop is painful. If every car had the dashboard indicators a Prius does, we would have a lot of public pressure to replace stop signs and stoplights with traffic circles/roundabouts.

That said, come to a freaking stop.

I drive a plugin hybrid so get what you mean. But there's regenerative braking, which mitigates the perceived startup effect you refer to.

Also, if a bunch of cars make rolling stops, then the vehicles behind them keep crawling along the whole time (instead of coming to a complete stop and having the engine cut). I wonder what the cumulative effect is?

The Prius doesn't have an indicator of how much mitigation regenerative braking provides, but my Fiat 500e does. It's lower than I would have hoped. I get it, but I'm watching the display read -8KW when braking, but 40KW when accelerating from a stop. Acceleration takes longer, too. A complete stop is even more painful now!

Most stop signs should be replaced with nothing. The uncontrolled intersection is safer in most cases (in part because nobody has the right away so everybody takes care), uses less energy (see the Prius response), and makes the few cases where a full stop is required for some reason more obvious so drivers are more likely to stop.

Update: For Germany the consensus seems to be that Audi has taken the lead from BMW. /s

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