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People perceive me as being an impediment to traffic in my Prius, but that's only because they only think 20 ft ahead of their bumper. One instance where people get angry at me is an on-ramp to a highway that has 2 lanes that merge into 1. I accelerate slowly up the on-ramp knowing that people will be slamming on their brakes because they don't merge smoothly. Everyone behind me gets angry that I didn't follow everyone ahead in the accelerate -> brake ritual.
Another thing I do in the Prius to preserve the kinetic energy of all the drivers behind me is to drive the average speed in stop and go city traffic. Sometimes an increasing gap forms ahead of me, which annoys some drivers behind me, and other times I'm coasting and closing that gap. Everyone behind me ends up utilizing their brakes less frequently, and we end up arriving at our destination within seconds of when we would have arrived by tailgating.
My useless anecdotal evidence today had a Ford F250 take an eternity to make a right turn, causing a disruption in the flow of traffic. He came to a dead stop before making the turn, even though a stop was not warranted.
The other car doing 35 MPH in a 40 was a Honda Accord.
I will not delude myself into saying this worthless anecdotal evidence is scientifically rigorous research.
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