Across the board, I think drivers have gradually gotten worse. But I remember complaining of bad drivers 20 years ago. I do, however, think they are worse. Here are the factors:
1. Doing away with drivers ed in many school systems. When I grew up, every kid got free drivers ed during the summer around 9th or 10th grade. Now, I think it's mostly expensive and privatized so many don't get it. I dated a woman who was a horrific driver, worse than you can imagine. And surprise surprise, no drivers ed (couldn't swim either, which I find bizarre).
2. More power in modern vehicles, and the vechiles just "look" more mean and aggressive which I think sets the jerk attitude. 30 years ago, the typical car had around 150hp, muscle cars had 200hp, and trucks had around 250hp. You can basically double that today. And that means effortless speed and power. Think about cars from the 80s and 90s, they looked soft and friendly generally, or business looking. Now practically every vehicle has a narrow eye and scowl look, like its having a bad day and is going to eat you.
3. Faster speed limits. Growing up, I recall 55mph was for 2 lanes and I think 60 or 65mph was for interstates and that felt very fast in my youth. Now, interstates in many states is 80mph. Considering folks routinely go 10mph over, you're looking at 65 on 2-lane roads and 90mph on highways.
4. Improvements in safety is a double edged sword so that people feel totally safe going 100mph in lifted trucks. It's crazy, but I see it every time I'm on the interstate. Improvements in braking, handling, HID lights giving farther vision, tire technology, and passenger survivability airbags, seatbelts, crumple zones, better safety designs, etc. all adds up to people feeling invincible. Taking this one step further, decades ago bad drivers met Darwin. Today, they survive and keep being bad drivers, reproduce, and teach their kids how to be bad drivers.
5. Action movies that totally defy physics, to cartoon levels, have tricked youth into not understanding physics. They don't understand energy, braking distances, forces, etc. When your hero in film defies gravity and physics and never gets hurt, walking away from every catastrophe unharmed and he's invincible, you get a generation of young men (and women) who literally do not understand physics and think they, too, are invincible.
6. Bias towards truck drivers, is probably because for many years now, auto companies make fewer cars and more trucks, and trucks represent the largest selling vehicle designs. So naturally trucks dominate the landscape with a typical vehicle owner profile of a younger man, 20-50 yrs old, and of course men in this age bracket are disproportionately aggressive.
Edited to add #7. Stress, anti-social behavior, and time-constraints and demands today, seems off the charts. I see this almost everywhere in society. Nearly everyone I know is stressed to the max, redlined on anxiety, has no time for themselves and is struggling in many directions with the unrealistic societal and economic demands. It's why we have seen an uptick in bizarre public behavior, random and family violence, the lack of tolerance for others, lack of respect for others, crazy demands on our time, and so forth. A myriad of socio-economic problems too. That all translates to road aggression.
The combination of this, is why we all tend to see aggressive drivers but seem to find trucks the most offensive. Plus, trucks tend to be the most offensive as they are lifted, roll coal, etc. I think a big chunk of drivers on the roads, are absolutely insane. I see so much reckless driving I simply drive as little as possible anymore.
They are not as bad as Tesla drivers.
There's Teslas on the roads? I rarely to never see them. They all must be sitting at chargers all day. I still think the company value is totally fabricated b/c practically nobody owns Teslas. It's like a unicorn. LOL.
