Why have Pittsburgh drivers gotten so aggressive and angry? (Butler: houses, taxes)

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Copanut

1 car Length for every 10 miles per hour-

Right. I assume he's arguing there is no reason to every drive faster than 30 miles per hour. A bit extreme, but speeding kills.

[fleetiebelle]

THis article was in the WSJ this week: One Driver Can Prevent a Traffic Jam - WSJ

As Mr. Beaty merges onto a crowded stretch of Seattle’s I-5, he drives at a steady speed, keeping a space of several car lengths in front of him. “As merging cars come in, I don’t have to slow down, which means that nobody behind me has to slow down,” he says. As he nears an exit, two drivers on his left merge smoothly into the lane in front of him and exit without hitting the brakes.

Meanwhile, the car behind him is just a few feet away. “That’s the tailgating philosophy,” he says. “You push ahead, and you think if everybody would just push ahead, then everyone would go faster,” he says. In fact, “it just turns the road into a parking lot.”

[Goinback2011]

The worst drivers are impatient, tailgating, lane-swtching speeders.

[8YearsinPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

The worst drivers are impatient, tailgating, lane-swtching speeders.

Or maybe they are just people like me, who just want to drive with other people who are focused on keeping traffic moving.

[SteelCityRising]

So yesterday I was involved in a road-rage incident. I was pulling out of my on-street parking space on Brereton Street. It was a tight space, so I needed to make a couple of swings to successfully shimmy my hatchback out. As I was making my last swing out I noticed a car approaching in my lane coming up the hill from the stop sign at 30th Street by West Penn Park, but it was still a couple hundred feet back at the time. Just as I pulled out the guy intentionally sped up to close the gap and then rode my rear bumper up to the top of Brereton Street, where I promptly slammed on my brakes as we hit congested traffic at the intersection with Hancock/Herron. The guy behind me, driving what looked to be a Subaru WRX, flipped me off. I flipped him off back. This antagonized him even more as he again rode my rear bumper up the hill on Herron. I again slammed on the brakes as we got closer to the red light at Bigelow. He again almost rear-ended me.

Polish Hill is a nightmare of aggressive drivers during the evening rush. People come up the hill from the Strip, see that Paulowna/30th is backed up to West Penn Park, so they'll then either GUN IT up Brereton Street or Phelan Way to hopefully get let out into traffic on Herron and then hit the first green light before the folks on Paulowna Street get the second green light cycle it would take to clear them.

The guy looked to be late-20's or maybe early-30's. I'm really learning to hate my generation. I thank God I now have a job within walking distance of my home and never have to deliver food on these mean streets ever again! I was five seconds away from getting out of my car and getting into a shouting match. Bill Peduto really needs to raise taxes so we can get more cops out on the street to calm these jagoffs down!

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

So yesterday I was involved in a road-rage incident...

i'm sorry you have to deal with this in your own neighborhood.

you might not understand this, but you may eventually come to think that in a situation like that, you might pull to the right, and wave him on....

...and you won't feel emasculated at all. You might realize a sense of victory - that you didn't let that douchebag have control over you by causing you anger. That you showed something totally foreign to him: maturity.

I am not picking on you or telling you what to do. There were times in the now distant past I could have murdered someone in similar situations.

It's just a relief to reach some level of...i don't know...inner calm? that you can let sh*heads like that just roll on by and wage their own personal little wars elsewhere...hopefully where he ends up getting his Subaru pelted with beautifully placed dents.

Trust me, 10 minutes in a rare zipcar rental, and I've cursed like a sailor...but I let the idiots go on ahead of me when possible. I just want to enjoy driving.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

SCR, I feel your pain. My street in L'ville serves as a cut-through for people who can't spare the time to get on the 40th St bridge, oh I don't know, via 40th St? I am involved with a similar incident approximately every other time I drive. I'm not quite to szug-bot levels of maturity, but I do drive intentionally slow at or below the speed limit and, at worst, smile and wave at them in hopes that it will calm them down.

Now that I am mere hours away from bringing my newborn baby boy home, I am reconsidering my approach to be even more defensive and just pulling off. It isn't worth the risk of someone flying off their handle and swerving around, especially given the pedestrian traffic on the street. I am hoping that in the long run we can get speed humps on our residential streets that should not be used as shortcuts, but I think we are a long ways away from that. Our dogs have almost been hit numerous times by speeders who run stop signs and I fear the same for my baby boy. I wish this was treated like the serious issue that it is. Money can fix it and we don't even need cops. Speed humps save lives.

[erieguy]

Speed humps and cul de sacs save lives.

Not sure why one wouldn't just let them go around so as not to have an issue.

[tyovan4]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

SCR, I feel your pain. My street in L'ville serves as a cut-through for people who can't spare the time to get on the 40th St bridge, oh I don't know, via 40th St? I am involved with a similar incident approximately every other time I drive. I'm not quite to szug-bot levels of maturity, but I do drive intentionally slow at or below the speed limit and, at worst, smile and wave at them in hopes that it will calm them down.

Now that I am mere hours away from bringing my newborn baby boy home, I am reconsidering my approach to be even more defensive and just pulling off. It isn't worth the risk of someone flying off their handle and swerving around, especially given the pedestrian traffic on the street. I am hoping that in the long run we can get speed humps on our residential streets that should not be used as shortcuts, but I think we are a long ways away from that. Our dogs have almost been hit numerous times by speeders who run stop signs and I fear the same for my baby boy. I wish this was treated like the serious issue that it is. Money can fix it and we don't even need cops. Speed humps save lives.

39th St?

40th St is Hell to drive down during rush-hour. It can take 15 minutes just to get down that street - the onstreet parking for the houses means there can't be two lanes, the Get-Go doesn't help, and it seems the bottom of 40th St where it intersects with Butler St is always screwed up/sunken which makes people go very slowly over it.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by tyovan4

39th St?

40th St is Hell to drive down during rush-hour. It can take 15 minutes just to get down that street...

That, and the entrance at the Giant Eagle on Centre Avenue. Do they use their head down at city hall when they issue these driveway permits, or permits for various uses???

but hey, its a city, and not every thing can be perfect. there have been streets and intersections where traffic flow has improved over the years.