I love these kinds of topics and have my own theories about the cause. Here is my totally-not-an-expert idea about traffic and driving in the area. Based on decades of driving and reading the responses of people replying to post/comments that relate to driving.
I believe there are a few types of drivers on the road (each with varying levels of characteristics from mild to extreme) and on any given day, many of us can be in one or more of these categories:
- The "Average driver": not offensive, doesn't do anything particularly good/bad, not particularly annoying or ingratiating. They're basically NPC of the driving world.
- The Oblivious driver: does not recognize that their driving affects other people, sometimes doesn't understand that there are other people on the road. The people lane change recklessly, don't merge at the proper speeds, and doesn't look at what's going on around them. Often these are the left lane campers... they'll look at you, bewildered if you angrily pass them on the right when, in their mind, they're "just going the speed limit in the left lane... it's the maximum speed, I can go, right??". These people are every bit as dangerous as reckless drivers b/c their obliviousness means they really don't see bikes... ever
- The Active drivers: Typically prefer to drive faster than average. Likes to be in the fast lane but moves over if being overtaken. Can be considered an aggressive driver b/c they don't have patience to wait for oblivious drivers to make a decision or safely participate in the current driving conditions (eg, the oblivious driver is often the one pulling out of a lane doing 15mph into a lane doing 50mph without looking for much faster cars behind them)
- The Crazy driver: a scary mix of the last 2. Drives fast/aggressively but is oblivious to what others are doing around them or how their driving affects those around them. These people rage the most and rage easily. They'll camp in the left lane doing 66mph and make sure you can't pass them or will rage when you do. They often drive erratically.
I think what's going on is the result of what happens when you don't do a good job of teaching people proper road etiquette and Active drivers become sick of dealing with Passive and Crazy drivers. Active drivers may not be "better" drivers but they're most likely (IMO) the safest drivers. They know they'e breaking the law so they pay the most attention and are respectful to other drivers when possible, so as not to draw attention to themselves. Over many years, the growing number of Oblivious drivers has pushed Active drivers into Crazy driver territory. Increasing overall average speed and decreasing the politeness of traffic in general.
/Half-baked, quarter-serious rambling about the state of traffic.
