The make way mentality is not something that you come upon; it comes upon you.
Riding a bicylce gives a better vantage point for viewing the absurdity of your fellows who share the streets; this is one of them: A fellow is minding his business and proceeding, with every legal right, out of a driveway from, say, a fast-food joint. Mybe he is making a right turn or a left -- actually it doesn't matter, as you will see. Because along comes someone in an SUV, from that driver's left, trying to turn into the drive. Of course, he cannot, because the other car is there, and while the drive way was designed to accomodate two cars, perhaps, the SUV is way bigger than a "car" -- even the massive old school Lincoln variety.
The S"U"V driver could wait for car that is already there to turn out, then proceed through the drive with little trouble. But, as with so many drivers of these machines, he is thinking "Seize thew day! The road is mine!" and proceeds to turn. The driver of the car can't go because there is no way to see around the behemouth; he waits until the SUV is halfway turned and then he can just barely peek around it's great hulking @ss end, so he goes.
As he turns on his way, the SUV driver who nearly hit him glares or maybe shouts a remark. The SUV driver never realizes that the only reason the car was in HIS way is because HE cut the car off! Because this move, whilst unintrusive in another autmobile, is dangerous in an SUV, which often cannot fit thru a drivewya is a car is already there. The driveway may be two lanes, one in and one out -- but they are car-sized lanes. The SUV driver doesn't realize this.
Part of the blame isn't the drivers. Government fuel economy standards make it harder to find big cars any more, so if someone wants a large vehicle, either for comfort or safety [collison]] reasons, they are more likely to get sold what amounts to a truck.
The problem is that unlike a large sedan, SUV's are designed for OFF-ROAD use, which results in them being bigger, taller, and otherwise not constrained by many of the size limits of conventional automobiles. When designing a vehicle for fording rivers in the outback, you will not worry if, say, the vehicle will fit into a Bank drive thru without causing a collision with oncoming vehicles -- because in the outbakc the only concoming traffic would be, say, kangaroos. It is different in New Jersey, however, where the hills and winter snow have caused SUV's to proliferate.
Of course, people should be free to buy hatever is on the market. You want a hummer, or a Grand Cherokee, or a Ford Expedition? Great! Go buy one -- but don't expect the rest of us on the road to modify our conduct in order to accomodate the possibly unforseen consequences of your transportation choice.
You bought it, now live with the results. Those results may be positive, such as better traction in winter -- 0r negative, like having to wait until nobody is coming the other way to fit thru a two-way driveway. Your vehicle may be too big to pass by -- but it's up to you to wait until you have a chance to go thru, don't expect those of us coming the other way to pull over and let you zoom through.
Yet, amazingly enough, that is what many of these people expect. When the rest of use fail to yield to their sudden, wide, swinging turns, cut-offs, and accelerations, they cast us the evil eye as if we are in the wrong. Yes, poor blighted SUV driver, we are conspiring against you, who have done nothing -- Geez, gimme a brake! I'm a proud member of the vast right wing conspiracy. and the anti-SUV conspiracy. Why is it those in the wrong always see themselves as "victims" of something or other?
And just as misgovernment isn't just about a difference of ideas when bad policy puts lives at risk or neglects national security [as during the Clinton years] -- so, too, SUV drivers' antics are not just about "rudeness" -- not when that rudeness breaks traffic laws and risks lives. This isn't about a hoard of motorists being jerks -- it is about our roads being invaded by massive vehicles not really designed for them, steered by people whose inconsideration of the damage they risk inflicting on others borders on psycopathological.
The other day on a bike ride I stopped and bought a bottle of Bawls, a highly caffinated drink. It said on the side: "Warning: contains high levels of caffiene". Perhaps new SUV's should come with a cautionary bumper sticker to warn of the "make way mentality" they seem to feed:
"Warning, driver contains illegal levels of inconsideration".
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