Opinion: People don’t respect small car drivers

Having driven everything under the sun, we’ve become aware of a shocking change in the way some drivers treat fellow motorists.

COMMENT: People treat you like crap if you drive a small car – and the worst offenders are often blokes in big utes.

I’m lucky enough to have driven more than 1000 cars as a professional road tester – everything from the “bambino” Fiat 500 to V12-powered Ferraris and the massive Ford F-150.

Time in the MG3 hatch suggests people have less respect for small cars.

And I’m ashamed to say Aussies drivers change the way they treat you based on the car you choose.

My experience is that tailgating, verbal abuse and intimidating postures from other cars are far more likely to occur when driving a compact hatchback.

I’ve even been called a “bitch” while driving them, which doesn’t usually happen to six-foot-tall blokes walking down the street.

Motoring writer David McCowen has driven more than 1000 cars.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a homophobic tirade when driving a cute three-door in a pastel shade of “mint milkshake”, have had fistfuls of coins chucked at me while driving a dainty hatchback, and experienced drivers following so closely that you can’t see anything more than an enormous mirrored grille of a “MAR” through a tiny rear window.

V8-powered RAM pick-up trucks are growing in popularity – and size.

This shit doesn’t happen when I drive a RAM or Raptor.

Myriad surveys and studies explore the results of road rage.

One suggested that almost 75 per cent of Aussie motorists have experienced road rage – often in the form of tailgating and intimidation.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that the worst offenders are men, often in large four-wheel-drives and utes. And that the effect is magnified when you’re driving a tiny hatchback.

Fiat’s 500 Cabriolet is not a traditionally masculine choice.

Could it be that I’m more aware of the size disparity when behind the wheel of little cars?

Or are people less kind – even more aggressive – toward compact vehicles?

My work as a road tester put me behind the wheel of little cars like the Skoda Kamiq, MG3, Suzuki Swift, Mazda2 and Mini Cooper in recent weeks.

People are buying conventional sedans and hatchbacks in smaller numbers, instead choosing high-riding utes and SUVs.

I have no doubt there is a link between vehicle size and driver aggression, and the suspicion is backed up by empirical evidence.

One European study examined what researchers call “The Car Cushion Hypothesis”, which is a theory that bigger cars lead to more risk taking, because “bigger cars make people feel more secure, which affects their behaviour”.

Even in the sterile environment of a driving simulator housed in a laboratory removed from the real world, people adopted “more intense and risky driving behaviour” when driving big cars.

Dual-cab utes are some of Australia’s best-selling vehicles. Photo: Mark Bean

Researchers in New Zealand found there is evidence “to support the belief that SUV drivers over-estimate their driving ability and safety, and are more likely to perform high risk behaviours when driving”.

An American study reported on how drivers of big cars are more likely to have an “illusory sense of control, which in turn intensifies risk taking”.

Another discusses the results of an “arms race” putting people behind the wheel of ever taller, weightier and more powerful vehicles.

Yes, big cars like the Ford F-150 are incredible to tow with.

“While larger, heavier vehicles have been shown to benefit the safety of users in the event of a car crash, it is likely that consumers’ experience of this increased safety will lead to behavioural adaptation towards more risky driving behaviour,” it said.

As Business Insider reporter Adam Rogers so exquisitely put it, “ if you’re driving a Hummer, everything looks like a nail”.

Though I’ve never deliberately attempted to intimidate other drivers based on the size of my vehicle, I bet it has happened subconsciously from time to time.

You feel on top of the world when driving a three-tonne car that towers over lesser vehicles.

There’s a sense of superiority from being in control of a big and powerful machine.

Which is tragic.

Because bigger cars do more damage to the environment, pose a greater risk to other road users and put more strain on road infrastructure than smaller machines.

If only us blokes were big enough to choose smaller cars.

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Originally published as Opinion: People don’t respect small car drivers