BMW and Prius drivers are the worst...officially

_HighVoltage_

Captain Volvo
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1998 Volvo S70 T5M
A study from the University of California at Berkeley supports all the jokes and our worst suspicions.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/the-rich-drive-differently-a-study-suggests/?_r=1

Jokes about BMW drivers being, on average, somewhat less than courteous are fairly common. They often run along the lines of, ?Despite its good brakes, a BMW will usually stop with a jerk.? Sometimes the language is more colorful.

Now scientific research supports the unwritten and broadly circulated theory that people in BMWs are lacking in road manners. Paul K. Piff, a researcher at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley, has conducted a study linking bad driving habits with wealth.

The traffic study, part of a larger body of research relating behavior and wealth, pitted pedestrians against passing motorists. It was published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

In California, where the study was conducted, state law requires motorists to stop at crosswalks when pedestrians are present, allowing them to cross the road. Mr. Piff said his team selected a specific crosswalk to observe, then had a pedestrian appear on the edge of the curb as a car approached. As the pedestrian stepped into the road, a researcher marked down the driver?s reaction to the pedestrian. This was done with 152 drivers.

The team also watched a four-way-stop intersection over a week, noting how likely drivers were to cut in front of others when it was not their turn to go. In their observation of 274 cars, the researchers found that the more expensive ones were more likely to jump their turns in the four-way rotation, Mr. Piff said.

In addition to describing drivers? behavior in both locations, the researcher was to indicate the sex and age of each driver as well as the age and appearance of the cars, with a ?1? signifying beat-up, low-value cars and a ?5? given to top-of-the-line models from the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Mr. Piff said about eight of every 10 cars ?did the right thing.?

?But you see this huge boost in a driver?s likelihood to commit infractions in more expensive cars,? he said. ?In our crosswalk study, none of the cars in the beater-car category drove through the crosswalk. They always stopped for pedestrians.?

The study also found that male drivers were less likely to stop for pedestrians than were women, and that drivers of both sexes were more likely to stop for a female pedestrian than a male one.

?One of the most significant trends was that fancy cars were less likely to stop,? said Mr. Piff, adding, ?BMW drivers were the worst.?

In the San Francisco Bay Area, where the hybrid gas-and-electric-powered Toyota Prius is considered a status symbol among the environmentally conscious, the researchers classified it as a premium model.

?In our higher-status vehicle category, Prius drivers had a higher tendency to commit infractions than most,? Mr. Piff said.
 
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Thanks for finding the study. Frankly, I'm a little disappointed. After reading it, I find it highly questionable. It pretends to be objective quantitative research, yet a great number of parameters can only be determined subjectively. How does a researcher perceive and determine which is a premium vehicle or not?

I question this because so many non-car people have commented on my car - they see it as an expensive vehicle, and before I tell them its age, they think it is much newer than it actually is. Even more so, they presume that I must be rich to be driving such a car, yet in reality my income as a graduate student is well below the national average.

And I'm sure a lot of people who drive around in "premium" vehicles such as older E32, E39 etc. are not all rich, high-class individuals.

So if I drive like an asshole, that has nothing to do with my social class. Do I drive like an asshole because I drive a Volvo? Maybe. But all of this is just conjecture and can't be objectively quantified.
 
Thanks for finding the study. Frankly, I'm a little disappointed. After reading it, I find it highly questionable. It pretends to be objective quantitative research, yet a great number of parameters can only be determined subjectively. How does a researcher perceive and determine which is a premium vehicle or not?

I question this because so many non-car people have commented on my car - they see it as an expensive vehicle, and before I tell them its age, they think it is much newer than it actually is. Even more so, they presume that I must be rich to be driving such a car, yet in reality my income as a graduate student is well below the national average.

And I'm sure a lot of people who drive around in "premium" vehicles such as older E32, E39 etc. are not all rich, high-class individuals.

So if I drive like an asshole, that has nothing to do with my social class. Do I drive like an asshole because I drive a Volvo? Maybe. But all of this is just conjecture and can't be objectively quantified.

The flip side of the question is important as well: 'Or do you drive a Volvo because you are an asshole?' :mrgreen:

Either way, the guy did respond to me. His response wasn't exactly confidence inspiring.

Doctor, recently I read an article in the New York Times blog wherein you were quoted as saying ?BMW drivers were the worst.? I tracked down your paper in the Procedings Of The National Academy of Sciences, but I did not find an actual breakdown of vehicles by make or model. I am curious as to where certain other brands, such as Jaguar and Volvo, scored on the ?inconsiderate driver? study, if they even appeared at all. Thank you for your time.

Thanks for getting in touch. You're right, the original paper did not break vehicles down by make or model (for those studies, doing so was not necessary). But we did record those data and were able to determine, for instance, that BMW drivers were more likely than most to violate traffic laws. Unfortunately, I don't have the specific data on Jaguar or Volvo drivers on hand (it would require some time to go over the data again).

Thanks,

Paul

Thank you for the reply. Would you be revisiting, or perhaps even publishing that data in the near future? Thanks again.

probably not publishing it again, no. i can revisit it when time allows, but at the moment, i'm traveling and unable to get to it.

Hm. Well, we will see what he has to say in future.
 
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One of the major issues I have with the study is guessing age. I'm told daily that I look like I'm in my mid to late 20's and since I drive sports cars and modded cars does that make me look younger? How would they have seen my age?
 
One of the major issues I have with the study is guessing age. I'm told daily that I look like I'm in my mid to late 20's and since I drive sports cars and modded cars does that make me look younger? How would they have seen my age?
People often guess I am in my mid to late 20s, which is at least 5 years above my actual age. Also depends on how much the person doing the study knows about car values, most non-car people think my 1850 is worth 2k+, in it's pre-crashed state it was worth about ?800-?1000. :lol:
 
That's exactly what's wrong with the study I guess

That and sample size. They claimed that "about eight of every 10 cars 'did the right thing.'", which means even in the larger study, about 55 cars went out of turn. With 5 price categories, that only leaves 11 cars per category, and was probably even lower for the more expensive cars, so now they're making a claim of behavior based on what is most likely fewer than 10 people.
 
...a ?1? signifying beat-up, low-value cars and a ?5? given to top-of-the-line models from the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz...

Sooo I've got a beat-up, low-value Mercedes Benz - how many points do I get for that? :D
 
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