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Originally Posted by spdfreak
This could certainly be the "winning" mentality as someone mentioned. But that's assuming they're being intentionally malicious.
I think, at least around chicagoland, obliviousness is more likely the case. I call it parasitic speed control. Whatever the car next to them is doing, they do.
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This is definitely true in many parts of the country. People do unconsciously speed up to match the speed of vehicles around them. (They do it while walking, also. Go to a place where there are lots of people walking around and test it out.)
The difference in Texas is that it's not subconscious, or if it starts out subconscious, it doesn't stay that way. In other places people matching your speed subconsciously will slow down once they realized they sped up, especially if you speed up a little more. Not in Texas. They will actively pace you, waiting for an opportunity to zip ahead of you and then box you in. There's absolutely no way the bullshit I see here every day is obliviousness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by spdfreak
Drivers ed is certainly lacking in the states. Improvement there could help things a bit. I'd honestly push for a standardized autocross test to be mandatory for your license. Same car, same cone layout, same time limit. Nothing crazy, just something that proves you can maneuver a car in an emergency situation.
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When I worked in television, we went out to cover a driver's ed course for teenagers sponsored by a motorsports company. The kids started the day in the classroom learning about how contact patches behaved under acceleration and braking. Then they moved to a cone course to put what they had learned in action. Finally they had upset training in a skid car on a wet surface, recovering from spins and slides triggered by the driving instructor. This company was trying to convince school boards to contract with them for driver's ed training instead of just relying on PE coaches who didn't know a lick about driving.
So why not hire them? Because: 1. It costs too much, and 2. School administrators are scared shitless of liability issues. "This is the way we've always done it" will hold up in court as a defense if a kid crashes after taking the course. "The skills course is better" is not a defense when some kid accelerates through a turn, ends up in the hospital and says, "But that's how they taught us to drive at school."