(Crosswalks) Don’t stop me now
lechatnoir/E+
There’s always that one guy. You’re stuck in a long line behind a big slow tractor trailer going 10 under the speed limit, and there’s a flashy BMW practically living inside your trunk. A brief passing zone approaches, but there’s no point ... oh, of course they swerve around and cut you off, what did they even gain from doing that?
Point is, people who drive expensive cars have a bit of a reputation for being less than courteous behind the wheel, and thanks to a study published in the Journal of Transport & Health, there’s some science to back that up.
A group of four presumably well-paid volunteers were sent out to crosswalks and crossed in front of cars to see how many would yield. Results were less than encouraging: Only 28% of 461 cars yielded. The only factor that significantly predicted whether or not a car would yield was how expensive it was; for every $1,000 increase in the value of the car, the driver was 3% less likely to stop.
It’s not looking good for owners of expensive cars, especially when even the study authors suggest that these drivers were displaying increased entitlement and narcissism through their lack of yielding behavior.
Our suggestion? Clearly rich people are sick and need intensive psychotherapy, and the offending vehicles should be removed and redistributed to the rest of us. We wouldn’t mind a nice slightly used Corvette, in red preferably. Nope, no ulterior motive here.
