Generally, yes. I believe in treating others how I would like to be treated, whether they are a person I encounter in my car or outside of my car. Additionally, I believe that following the rules of the road help everyone get to their destination safely and smoothly. Acting counter to those rules makes for more confusion.

I also strongly believe that it is best to not let our emotions get the better of us on the road. I absolutely encounter frustrating jerks on the road. But my life and my safety, including the safety of my vehicle, are just not worth the conflict. Road rage is real and its scary. I would much rather let some jerk have their way than risk getting shot or my vehicle smashed because I was trying to prove them wrong or teach them a lesson. Of course I get angry and upset but I try to just verbally let it out inside my car, and not let it change the way I'm driving.

Cars hitting pedestrians seems to be getting worse. I try to be hyper conscious of it because I would never want to kill or injure a pedestrian. On a personal note, there is a zebra stripe pedestrian crossing across a private road into a parking lot of my rec center. The parking lot is shared with a middle school. Cars have a stop sign AND it's a cross walk so they must yield to pedestrians. I have almost been hit numerous times when I crossed around the time school was starting and parents were frantically dropping off kids blowing through the stop sign. I try to make eye contact and be safe, but it's a gamble every single time and it's scary.

I notice all of the above. I wonder if the hypercourteous ( great term) drivers know what a danger they are. if i am making a left hand turn onto my street, sometimes the oncoming person will stop and let me turn. very nice, but they are risking being rear ended by someone coming along behind them.

As for the aggressive drivers, they are everywhere. I have learned to always hesitate before going on green to watch for the next three cars that run the red light.. I used to be more aggressive with a lead foot but after seeing too many bad accidents, I got over that.

Interesting word "hypercourteous" when what you mean is someone who is not following the rules of the road and it's the rulse that protect us from accidents. Everyone needs to know what to expect from all the drivers on the road. That means following the rules.

Yes - I commuted many years on a busy interstate highway and feel I have seen it all. Things run so much more smoothly when people follow the rules of the road. Pet peeves - following too closely and driving with hazard lights on in the rain.

Then there are the ones who will not let you in when a two lane road narrows into a one lane road. This is particularly when encountering road construction projects. My biggest peeves are drivers who tailgate and drivers who don't use their signal. I try very hard to be a courteous, rule following driver, but boy, do these other drivers make it hard sometimes.

I have a theory about why there are so many bad drivers on the road, at least in California. Back in the 1980's due to budget cuts, driver's ed was removed from the high school curriculums which means that there are now drivers in their 50's who never had that valuable training. Most of them were taught to drive by their parents and some waited until they were old enough that they didn't need to take any driver's ed and this is the end result. That and just the general anger and entitlement that so many people seem to feel these days.

One can never know "what to expect from all the drivers on the road", and that's why driving defensively at all times is imperative. My dad taught me to drive many decades ago, and that's one thing he has instilled in me. I've only been involved in one accident (knock on wood), and that was years ago when a woman pulled right out of a parking lot without looking and T-boned my car. There are things that simply cannot be predicted, and of course drivers have become increasingly erratic in recent years thanks to "technology". I cringe when I see a driver with cell phone in hand while they're driving; it just doesn't get much less attentive than that!

I remember driving at times like a fool when I was 18 or 19 years old, but I thought I was invincible. Now that I'm "an old lady", I am perfectly content to drive in the slower lane most of the time, although I do know how to get on the accelerator to execute a quick move when needed. I try to remain highly alert at all times, and to constantly be scanning the road to know what's around me. Even so (or maybe exactly so), I enjoy driving less and less. I used to love nothing more in my younger years than to get in the car and just cruise. I even thought I would still enjoy that, so bought a cute little red convertible a few years ago. It was a cute fastback with retractable roof and I did enjoy owning it, although I became increasingly afraid to drive it. Because it was a tiny two-seater, I wouldn't drive it on the highway for my daily commute and therefore it didn't get driven much at all. A cost / benefit analysis told me what I needed to know: I don't want or need a "pleasure car", only a dependable vehicle to get me from point A to point B and back again on a daily basis. I don't want or need a little two-seater in which I feel as unseen as someone on a motorcycle surely feels. My goal these days is to make it there and back incident-free, and to enjoy the commute by refusing to engage in "road rage games" or in assumptions made about the intent of other drivers.

Oh, I still get perturbed by a number of things that other drivers do, but I try not to take it personally (though that's sometimes easier said than done).

This doesn't speak to the subject particularly, but I was annoyed today when a car blocked one of the rows of a busy parking lot. I don't know what they were waiting on, not a parking space, but they were causing chaos as other cars tried to get around them. I thought about knocking on their window to see if they were incapacitated in some way, but I decided not to bother and just leave. Luckily, other drivers were kind enough to let me out of my space and into what was left of the aisle.

I am an excellent driver who stays calm and courteous while thinking bad words about other drivers.

Sometimes out loud, but calmly. And never so they hear me.

I’m just like Maddielee (loved your description,ML!!!) My DH and I raised both our kids to be the same. I‘m constantly amazed at the bad and dangerous drivers on our roads these days, scary!

I have a new job and I can WFH 3 days a week (woohoo!), but on my two days in the office, I commute on a two lane, mostly 55 mph state road, and my pet peeve is people who keep their brights on, I hate it and it seems to be frequent. Fortunately, now that the sun doesn’t set at 4:30, it’s not an issue, but man, after communing in the opposite direction for years, on an interstate, the whole brights thing wasn’t an issue, but I sure have noticed it this winter, and I am not a fan, especially those super bright headlights, they are glaring to my oldish eyes.

I was taught defensive driving as well. Speeders and those who seem to be angry at other drivers (tailgaters, hornblowers) bother me the most. Thanks for the reminder about those ultra bright headlights - they're a menace, IMO.

Remember those PSA billboards 'Arrive Alive'? Or was that just in FL?

I think a lot of bad driving can be chalked up to stupidity. I mean, anyone with half a brain would realize how great the potential for harm is. Too many people seem to lack awareness of anything beyond their own immediate desires.

And yes, I drive courteously, but I do sometimes say nasty things from within the safe haven of my car.

I’m glad i’m retired. The traffic commute in early mornings or late afternoon would drive me nuts. It’s bad enough some other times of the day. I’m another who does a lot of cussing inside my car and SMH at the things I see other drivers doing. I do try to be courteous with a merge situations and things like that. I stay alert and look at every little thing, side roads, look ahead, etc to try and stay safe. I cannot stand the fools, usually it seems to be young males, who weave in and out of heavy traffic, tailgate, speed, or just drive dangerously in general.

The hypercourteous, Maddielee, love that term. Down here we still have a few who will signal that the person in front of them is turning left. I don’t get it.

The number of drivers on the roads has greatly increased here in the past several years due to the huge growth in population. And of course road construction and improvement has not kept up. The influx of people from a variety of states has contributed to different driving habits seen. It’s not unusual to see many cars with out of state license tags. I’m sure many don’t know the laws in their new state or city. We have hands-free cell phone laws, left lane laws to keep slow traffic out of the passing lanes, and of course the move over law to protect law enforcement during accidents or someone pulled over on the side of the road.

A few days ago a 91-year old man from out of town drove into a pond in a downtown park. He thought it was a parking lot. Fortunately he only dropped his front wheels over the edge and was not hurt. SMDH for several reasons.

While I've seen the above behaviors, I don't think they're the norm (Oakland, CA). I sometimes marvel at how smoothly traffic goes for how many cars are on the road. Complicated merges in heavy traffic only work when people accommodate other drivers and create a stagger.

I particularly think about how smoothly rush hour goes (again, relative to the volume of traffic) when I'm driving on a weekend, when there's just as much congestion with half as many drivers on the road (compared to rush hour), but most of them are going somewhere they don't go routinely, don't know the route so they don't plan ahead and end up making late and abrupt lane changes.

People who create uncertainty and chaos in the name of "courtesy" are a pet peeve of mine, too. Just follow the rules. But again, I think that's pretty rare around here. I'm not saying drivers are rude, but if they have right of way they are going to take it.

I’m calm and courteous when driving, but when I'm a pedestrian and a driver makes a turn cutting me off in the crosswalk, I've been known to raise my voice and express displeasure.

I am a courteous driver and rarely, if ever, exceed the posted speed limit. As to clueless or emboldened pedestrians, I have to be very careful as my electric car is so quiet they won’t hear me. Many people don’t look both ways before crossing a street and I am especially watchful.

In our province, parents now have to take part in Driver's Ed with their learner. I think this was a very smart move. They are constantly harping on parents reminding them that the attitude they model while driving is going to determine the attitude their child takes on. It really made me reevaluate those little angry or sarcastic comments I'd make while driving and stressed when the kids were in the car.

Overall, I think I'm pretty chill and I will almost always let others in, but am guilty of (when I'm alone in the car) cursing the driver waiting to pull into traffic until there are no cars in any lane for 2 miles while cars back up for blocks behind them.

I also think drivers' attitudes are regional. We have two bigger cities in our province and when I moved from one to another for school, I was shocked that cars would go out of their way to stop for pedestrians, wave cars into line, and just generally show respect for others on the road. Huge change from the city I usually live in.

I realized that, beginning with the 2020 shutdown, I rarely drive the hour and a half into the nearest "big city". I had to a couple weeks ago and man, was I astounded by the change in freeway driving. I've always been a fast driver (and I drive a pickup which makes it worse) but so many cars were supersonic and weaving into and out of nonexistent lane spaces. I don't think it's me aging or being unused to freeways - we drive fast around here because there isn't much traffic. I'm going to blame video games, lol.

I think it was much easier to be calm and courteous before. I always do the zipper approach when it comes to merging but many many people don't. I make sure to smile and wave when people do let me in. Yes I too have noticed weaving extremely fast drivers. It is a bit nerve-wracking.