Where I grew up, self serve gas was normal for decades before I moved out east 16 years ago. I was flabbergasted to find full service still in existence. Like I had been transported back in time. It’s disappearing rapidly since but still quite a few can be found.
I had the opposite experience growing up in the 1940s through the 1960s in the Midwest. All stations had attendants to pump the gas.
Are they becoming less and less rare? Or is that our perception of reality in a world with 24 hour cable news and where every smart phone is a video camera.
How many actual road rage incidences have you personally witnessed? The answer of course depends on your definition of “road rage”. Some people call being cut off by an aggressive driver “road rage”, others only call physical confrontation by two drivers “road rage”.
Speaking for myself, I have only seen two incidences of what I would consider road rage and neither resulted in physical assault. Mostly, people are polite today, but “man was polite” doesn’t make the cable news headlines.
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Far, far more than I ever witnessed many years ago. I see it all the time.
You can “slice & dice” the information to your heart’s content, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone else that doesn’t think road rage has become more commonplace. When I was young the term hadn’t even been invented. Don’t let your perception be biased by your apparently living in a rural area or a state where it isn’t a problem.
Unfortunately I have to agree with Mr. Mountainbike. We have had 3 incidents make the news in the last 2 weeks.
Most, if not all, until the 70s were full serve in the area I grew up in. Regardless, that leaves ~35 years of self serve history they had over the Boston area…
IMO, road rage is when a driver repeats aggressive behavior towards one other driver. There has to be an aggressive initiation followed by a real or perceived response. Then the road ranger focuses on the person that dared to be in his way.
I don’t doubt I guess that the severity of the incidents are greater but the reporting I think is also greater. In my million plus miles, I think I have seen two incidents that come to mind. On one the guy was jumping on the hood of a car that was following with the lights too bright. This was back in 1970 or so. I reported it to the Sheriff but it never made the papers. Due to gang activity that we have allowed to flourish, drive by shootings are more common and taking that to the highway is just a short step away.
Here is a picture of my kind of gas station.
You pay for the gas, the number of gallons purchased is pumped by hand to a marked glass tank and then gravity dispensed the gas into your gas tank.
The 18 rule is also ignored here. I have always wondered if it was enforced would the parents have to go with the kid’s every time they needed gas before they turned 18.
Now this is road rage.
The motorcyclist . . .
Was he ever caught, or did he ever turn himself in?
The car driver freaked. If he would have just continued driving straight, no crash. Was he trying to swerve to take out biker? Biker was damn lucky car did not smear him against concrete barrier.
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Yup everybody knows where the southbound 14 is. I presume California with the hills in the background. One of my pet peeves driving cross country, radio stations seldom identify what city they are in let alone the state.
No matter what your views are on the motorcyclist . . .
He WAS involved in the crash, whether he started it or not, whether he’s to blame or not
And he DID flee the scene
Does anybody know if he was identified, held for questioning, etc.
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After reading your reply, I have a few question?
Do you feel it is okay, that the motorcyclist just speed off into the distance, KNOWING what was going on?
Isn’t that “fleeing the scene of an accident” . . . ?
I wonder what he told his kids that evening?
“I kicked a car on the freeway. The driver lost control and crashed, other vehicles were involved, and there was a fire. I kept on going, and I don’t care what happened to the others. Follow my example, son”
Whether or not the car driver freaked out is not the point, as far as I’m concerned
The point for me is the motorcyclist fled the scene of the accident, and accident in which he played a part
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The biker needs to be caught and charged to the fullest extent the law allows. It’s easy to throw a car out of control by kicking it there, that’s the spot cops aim for in PIT maneuvers, and the biker is clearly responsible for the aftermath. There’s a reason the biker tore off… he knew what he’d done.
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Do not know what pissed the biker off, Yes luckily he escaped injury, do not know if he did any real damage to the car, but If I was in court and a lawyer (which I am not) given the car maneuver would go for attempted homicide,
Now to throw things in another course went up to a gas station and some guy was filling up his car while the boom boom base and and body panels were vibrateing to a probably illegal number of decibels. He came into the store while I was buying some soda, I said hey dude I am sure you appreciate your music, but not everyone loves it.
Well he got all huffy started grabbing his crotch shagging it up and down accompanied by many profanities. Did I mention I am a brown belt in Karate, so I just leaned my elbow on the counter, and watched and waited, ready to defend myself if needed, but it never came to that.
Sometimes I think I wish I had a splat gun (paintball) just to hit the boom boom cars. Renters next door, BOOM BOOM buddy comes to pick up mama and the baby, at least he turned off the massive base when the 2 year old kid was loaded into the car.
Then again, you have to consider the concept of Contributory Negligence.
Neither that scumbag, rage-filled biker, nor the over-reacting Sentra driver, is without fault.
The only real victim–IMO–is the driver of the white pickup that was hit by the Sentra.
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I guess no excuses for anyone and some people have a pretty short fuse, but I wonder what had transpired before the filming began. Normally even lunatics don’t just kick at someone’s door without some prior confrontation.
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