Road Rage

JeBurkhardt said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

dankind said:

hedonist said:

People (appear to) make up for their dicks in many ways. In fact, I see some women pull this shit too.

Gotta say that the big truck/small dick theory is kind of tired and old. An easy dig, like a child. 

If you don't work in construction, agriculture, landscaping, etc., why the fuck would you buy a pickup truck if not to seem more manly? Might not be dick size but rather a general feeling of emasculation from the terrible burden of having to being a responsible adult. But it's a thing.

So many giant pickup trucks around my town just to run to the grocery store or drop the kids off at school. That's worthy of ridicule, IMO, especially when the vehicles (not to mention the meathead hockey dads behind the wheel) are much more dangerous to the community at large.

Check out that Bloomberg article I posted. It's a fairly well researched piece by the author of a book on pedestrian deaths in the US.

Many reasons. If you buy a dryer or refrigerator or something, it pays to know a guy that has a pickup truck. My uncle is my guy. And trust me, he's the least "trying to be more manly" guy I could think of.  If you go camping, hunting, fishing, or skiing, you can keep your equipment in the cab. You can keep a bicycle in there if want to drive somewhere to bike. My friend who has a lake house doesn't keep his jetski at the lake house anymore because it was once vandalized, so he takes it to and from the lake in the cab of his truck. You could even put down some padding and have a nice romantic night under the stars with your lady friend....should the mood strike you. 

That's not to say there's not these type of guys, but you shouldn't paint everyone with a broad brush.....

The need for a truck in a lot of different situations is pretty obvious. I have owned 2 different trucks and would like to have another one at some point because they come in handy at times. None of mine however were lifted 40" with coffee can size exhaust pipes and the emissions systems modified to "roll coal". I love this picture though because of the guy in the bed of the truck with his shirt partially tucked in so everyone can see his belt buckle! Not even a week ago I was out shopping, and I saw a guy doing the exact same thing. His had an eagle on it. 

Yeah. If I were rich, I would love to have a truck as a secondary utility vehicle for those incredibly rare moments in life when I could use one (moves, furniture/appliance purchases, etc.)

But I firmly believe that unless your life/livelihood (including but not limited to, hence the etc., the professions bolded above) is one that has you hauling heavy loads more often than not, a pickup truck is nothing more than a vehicular phallic symbol. 

I have two hockey players myself, both of whom fit quite comfortably along with all their gear into our VW station wagon. We also manage to get everybody and the dogs and all of our bikes and camping/beaching/surfing/SUPing/kayaking gear up to Maine and down the Cape every year without a hitch (pun not intended; actually I would like to add a hitch so that I could upgrade to a hitch-mounted bike carrier). I feel like if I owned a pickup truck as my primary vehicle, I'd have to rent something more sensible for family trips. I did own a pickup truck (small Toyota freebie!) for a while when I was young and single. It was OK for my purposes then, but it did suck to be the guy with the truck. I feel for the uncle.

For the record, I grew up on a farm, and knew no other type of vehicle until we moved. And if I wanted to ride into town to the feed store with my family, I was sitting my little ass back in the bed in the open air with the dogs. Crew cabs were not a thing. The only other pickups in town were also at the feed store or on a job site or out at a boat launch. I probably could count on one hand how many pickups were in any other given parking lot. Not the case where I live today. Using the parking lot metric, I would guess that at least one-third of people's primary vehicles in this not-at-all-rural town are pickups, and I don't think that's very far off. I'd (incorrectly) guess 90% if it were the hockey rink lot.

mickeyrat said:

brianlux said:

mickeyrat said:

brianlux said:

I would categorize this little story under road rage.  I'm going to tip toe around certain subjects here because to me the bottom line of this subject is more about the decency- or lack thereof- of some people.  It has to do with the latest game some people are playing on the road. 

I drive a Prius.  That should tell you little or nothing about me personally that you may or may not know about me already.  It's just a car.  I know people of all types who drive a Prius.  For me it's about 1) longevity- my mechanic says I should have no trouble hitting between 300K and 400K miles with no major work needed other than one change of the big battery,  2) great cargo space for a small car.  I can carry up to 16 banker boxes full of books if I really pack carefully- about the same my wife can carry in her 4-Runner-, and 3) fuel efficiency.  I have done the math and so far, at 185 K miles, this car has save me about $12,000 in fuel expenses.  With some luck, I will eventually save most or all of the original price of the vehicle which I purchased new.

So here's the problem.  Where I live, there are a great number of people who drive large pickup trucks.  OK, fine.  Like I said, my wife has a 4-Runner.  But lately, the bigger the truck, the more these guys (and it's always guys) like to harass us small car drivers by getting right up on our bumper.  At night, this is particularly problematic because these guys like to jack up their mongo trucks and/or raise them up further with over-sized tires but don't adjust their headlights.    This happens a lot and, in fact, happened twice today.  The second time I'm pretty sure they guy tried to run me off the road.  He didn't know I have good reflexes and a lot of driving experience.  I think he felt kind of stupid afterwards. 

The bigger problem is that I've talked to other Prius and small car owners who have had the same problem.  This is not going to turn out well for someone with less driving experience.  It's gotten to the point where driving is like roller derby on steroids.  Every outing is an exercise in ultra defensive driving and, whenever possible, avoidance.  I don't know what the trip is with these idiots.  I suspect they are using something big and loud to compensate for something small and ...

...well, that's enough for this rant.

dash cam mounted in the rear. submit video to the local chp outpost.

California still requires a front plate dont they?

Now there's a thought!  Thanks, M!

they have models now where its 2 camaras for one. main one out the windshield the second as a remote deal out the back.

Perfect!

I get annoyed by the “coal rollers”, but I get equally annoyed by the little dumbasses that drive Pontiac grand-ams and make their mufflers so loud they rattle your windows.  Also, I always get a kick out of the people that think they can drive their over powered sports cars in icy conditions.  Anyone that tries to make their cars crazy loud suffer from the same little dick syndrome as coal rollers, that also goes for the bass blasters that spend more on subwoofers than the cars they put them in, ha

brianlux said:

PJPOWER said:

I get annoyed by the “coal rollers”, but I get equally annoyed by the little dumbasses that drive Pontiac grand-ams and make their mufflers so loud they rattle your windows.  Also, I always get a kick out of the people that think they can drive their over powered sports cars in icy conditions.  Anyone that tries to make their cars crazy loud suffer from the same little dick syndrome as coal rollers, that also goes for the bass blasters that spend more on subwoofers than the cars they put them in, ha

One of the things that's popular with some of the younger drivers around here is to take these little Honda civics (great car, I had one for awhile) and lower them, put a fin on the back, and change out the muffler to one of those noisy kind like that's gonna make it into a race car or something.  Pretty ridiculous, actually. And the noise is obnoxious.  A friend of mine refers to them as "perpetual farts", haha!

As for subwoofers, I fucking hate those things.  Talk about obnoxious.  I had this guy in big jacked up SUV pull up behind me with that thing blasting away and then he cranked it to overdrive to the point where it was pounding my chest.  I surprised him by whipping around in a really tight 360 (my car has a great turning radius) and got behind him.  I coolly and at a safe distance chased that fucker down the road for about a half mile until he did a quick left between on coming traffic.  No problem, I had better things to do.  These guys really need to figure out what really matters and what really makes them something other than pieces of shit.  I have no tolerance that that crap.

I am 100% with ya!  They might as well just get a loudspeaker that says “narcissistic coming through” on repeat.  Obnoxious as hell!

dankind said:

I had a window-rattling booming system in my teenage whip. And yes, it was probably worth more than the car (a Monza). Actually, come to think of it, I had a pretty booming system in my next car, too, and it was probably also worth more than the vehicle (a Storm).

If I could get away with it as a grown-up, I'd totally add one to the family truckster.

"Nothing sounds quite like an EIGHT-OH-EIGHT!"

I can't judge someone too harshly who loves bass so much that they want too feel it. To be completely honest, I still blast the radio when I'm driving alone (and sometimes with the kids ). I'm OK with being that kind of asshole, I guess.

Maybe it comes from doing most of my listening through headphones, so when I use loudspeakers, that shit needs to be, well, loud.

It’s fine to love bass, and want to feel it.  Hell, I do too, but if you pull up next to some one and are rattling their windows, it’s just rude and obnoxious and screams narcissist.  Why not just wear headphones at that point since you cannot hear anything (emergency vehicles, etc) anyways...I wouldn’t blink an eye if I saw someone keying their car.

PJPOWER said:

dankind said:

I had a window-rattling booming system in my teenage whip. And yes, it was probably worth more than the car (a Monza). Actually, come to think of it, I had a pretty booming system in my next car, too, and it was probably also worth more than the vehicle (a Storm).

If I could get away with it as a grown-up, I'd totally add one to the family truckster.

"Nothing sounds quite like an EIGHT-OH-EIGHT!"

I can't judge someone too harshly who loves bass so much that they want too feel it. To be completely honest, I still blast the radio when I'm driving alone (and sometimes with the kids ). I'm OK with being that kind of asshole, I guess.

Maybe it comes from doing most of my listening through headphones, so when I use loudspeakers, that shit needs to be, well, loud.

It’s fine to love bass, and want to feel it.  Hell, I do too, but if you pull up next to some one and are rattling their windows, it’s just rude and obnoxious and screams narcissist.  Why not just wear headphones at that point since you cannot hear anything (emergency vehicles, etc) anyways...I wouldn’t blink an eye if I saw someone keying their car.

Because it's illegal. As is property damage.

dankind said:

PJPOWER said:

dankind said:

I had a window-rattling booming system in my teenage whip. And yes, it was probably worth more than the car (a Monza). Actually, come to think of it, I had a pretty booming system in my next car, too, and it was probably also worth more than the vehicle (a Storm).

If I could get away with it as a grown-up, I'd totally add one to the family truckster.

"Nothing sounds quite like an EIGHT-OH-EIGHT!"

I can't judge someone too harshly who loves bass so much that they want too feel it. To be completely honest, I still blast the radio when I'm driving alone (and sometimes with the kids ). I'm OK with being that kind of asshole, I guess.

Maybe it comes from doing most of my listening through headphones, so when I use loudspeakers, that shit needs to be, well, loud.

It’s fine to love bass, and want to feel it.  Hell, I do too, but if you pull up next to some one and are rattling their windows, it’s just rude and obnoxious and screams narcissist.  Why not just wear headphones at that point since you cannot hear anything (emergency vehicles, etc) anyways...I wouldn’t blink an eye if I saw someone keying their car.

Because it's illegal. As is property damage.

It’s not illegal in every state.  Unsafe (just like blasting bass so loud you cannot hear emergency vehicles), but not illegal.  Maybe it is in your state?