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Comment by ericmay | Hacker News Reader

Obviously just an anecdote but reckless driving and road rage got way worse during the pandemic. When the roads were cleared back in March/April 2020 I saw a ton of people driving like maniacs, 100+ MPH in Columbus on I-71 and weaving in and out of traffic, drifting into another lane with no signal, lots of just really bad behavior.

Idk why but combined with the dirt bike gangs and riots and protests it felt like we were tolerating lawlessness in a way that we hadn’t before. People just realized there weren’t consequences and started doing crazy things.

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I think that the argument being made in the article is not that reckless driving and road rage didn't increase, but that these are "crimes of opportunity" and that the behaviors have always existed, but that traffic congestion suppressed their expression.

It's an interesting theory, and I believe that there is some truth to it. But I also believe that the events of 2020 did cause behavioral changes as well.

I really enjoyed the article actually, and appreciated it being thoughtful about making actual predictions. However, I do think it was a little dismissive of the reckless driving hypothesis and made somewhat of a strawman out of it.

For instance, measuring population recklessness via vaccination rates isn't totally unreasonable, but it does conflate a lot to the point it's extremely questionable. For example, you could make the argument that many people have avoided vaccination precisely because they are extremely not reckless, trying to avoid unknown risks of the vaccines (I'm boostered at this point and would get another dose tomorrow if I could so I don't share this perspective, but it's there).

Your comment is relevant because I'm not sure the reckless driving hypothesis, or the one promoted by the author are really independent. They seem to think reckless driving is something different, but wouldn't lack of constraints from traffic congestion "reveal" reckless driving behavior?

I think you could take the author's same predictions and explain them via recklessness. They seem kind of like two different labels for the same thing at some level.

A more direct test might be to show that e.g., being in an accident during the pandemic was more strongly correlated with past risky driving indicators. E.g., the correlation between DUI history and accident event during the year was stronger during the pandemic. Maybe? It's interesting to think through, and I think important.

Anecdotally, I saw the same thing on city streets at that time. Cars would blow through stop signs and go right-on-red while hardly even slowing down or looking for pedestrians. It felt like everyone was in an anxious rush to get out of public spaces, while at max fear of the virus and the stay-at-home dictates.

My observations of course could be confirmation bias, but I certainly felt it as a pedestrian and cyclist.

I noticed this as well in Toronto. If you tell people it's the end of the world, and create that impression by shutting everything down so it looks like zombie apocalypse out there, people's time preferences shorten, their anxiety and aggression spike.

Toronto also suspended lots of low-level law enforcement like parking tickets, reinforcing an atmosphere of living outside normal rules.

If people are weaving in and out of traffic, they are likely not the most at-fault. If it is both possible and desirable to pass you on the right, you are committing a crime in many states and a civil infraction in others.

For example, in Virginia, it is explicitly lawful to pass on the right on a multi-lane highway, Code Virg. § 46.2-841, available at https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter8/secti... and explicitly unlawful to remain at the prevailing traffic speed in the passing lane when someone is trying to pass, Code Virg. § 46.2-842.1 ("The driver of the overtaken vehicle shall move to the right to allow the overtaking vehicle to pass as soon as the overtaken vehicle can safely do so."), available at https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter8/secti... .

It’s not so much going slow in the left lane stuff. I see that everyday anyway but I was seeing people just drive and weave in and out of lanes because fuck it. Like going 90 in a 55 and just swerving because why not. Lots of crazy stuff. Anecdote of course. Hope that goes without saying

Depends on the level of desire, no?

If people are weaving in-and-out of traffic that means they're at least going faster than the majority of people on the road. Assuming everyone's going a reasonable speed, that means this person is an anomaly that's likely going a bit over the speed limit (if not significantly over). If I'm in the left lane going 70 in a 70, and you pass me on the right going 80, I can tell you which one of us is "more at-fault", and it's not apparently who you think it is.

I understand that people have strong feelings about going the speed limit in the left lane. However, that is not consistent with either safe driving practices or the law.

The left lane of a multi-lane highway is for passing. If you are going the speed limit in the left lane and someone is trying to pass you, you are still required to yield and allow them to overtake you.

This is the law in nearly every state (Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland do not require you to get out of the left lane unless you are going below the speed limit).

https://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5804590/slow-left-lane-driving...

From the link: Now, some people counter that as long as they're going the speed limit, they don't have to move over — and by slowing down would-be speeders, they're making the roads safer... Apart from the fact that in 44 states, simply going the speed limit doesn't permit drivers to travel in the left lane, this argument doesn't make a lot of sense based on research into how accidents occur.

So that is why people in Ohio love camping in the left lane. When driving in places like Utah, Montana, Dakotas, etc. 95% of people pass and get back in the slow lane. In Ohio and surrounding states, it seems like people have an aversion to the first lane and immediately jump to the middle lane if available or just persist in the fast lane after passing, even when the slow lane is empty. If people drove with a float:right mentality, wouldn't congestion be eased by allowing more efficient flow based on speed segregation and less unnecessary braking?

Ohioans park in the left lane because they’re dumb. They don’t know the law. I’m an Ohioan.

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