Do Bad Drivers Prefer Red Pickups?
So they're looking for a red pickup that apparently cut off the car NJ governor Jon Corzine was riding in, causing the accident that put Corzine in the hospital.
Now, I know all about the human penchant for hasty generalization, selection bias and so forth...but I'm going to fess up and admit that I've had a hypothesis for a couple of years that bad, reckless drivers have a penchant for shiny red pickup trucks. Anybody else notice this, or is it all in my head?
So they're looking for a red pickup that apparently cut off the car NJ governor Jon Corzine was riding in, causing the accident that put Corzine in the hospital.
Now, I know all about the human penchant for hasty generalization, selection bias and so forth...but I'm going to fess up and admit that I've had a hypothesis for a couple of years that bad, reckless drivers have a penchant for shiny red pickup trucks. Anybody else notice this, or is it all in my head?
posted by Winston Smith at
10:16 AM
4 Comments:
Along with *any* pickup comes an a$$#0|3 license. Red ones are not really measurably worse than white behemoths.
Get a truck and leave your manners behind for good.
Some people need pick-ups. As for the rest, just look how they're sold. Tough is the main word, and that fills a need for lots of suburban nerd-boys.
But if you really want annoying driving habits, watch northern European sedans. (I'm slamming my own group, btw, since I drive a Passat.) Volvos are the worst. Either they feel invincible, so they ram their grilles up your butt, or they have to have a Volvo to feel safe enough to even consider driving, and they won't get out of the freaking way.
I used to borrow a friend's shiny red Nissan pickup. And I think I behaved quite well. Your draft-level generalization should have a ceterubus paribus clause for trucks that are smaller than the average station wagon.
I don't think it's just pick-up trucks.
A good friend of mine used to have a red jeep (a real jeep: you could take the top off, it was jacked up for mud and snow, and had a steel bar for the front bumper [He lived in rural West (by God) Virginia, so it was necessary.]).
One day we got cut off in traffic and I said, "Hey look! It's another a$$hole in a red jeep."
After his reaction, I kept saying this whenever someone in a red jeep would do something stupid, just because I'm evil. After awhile it became a habit.
Over the years I've discovered that there are in fact quite a number of occasions in which the phrase "Hey look! It's another a$$hole in a red jeep!" can be used.
Almost as many as the phrase, "would you drive any better if I shoved that cell phone up your tail pipe?"
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