Watch Out For That Prius!

At a busy intersection in the San Francisco Bay area, the team stationed “pedestrians” at crosswalks… Drivers of shiny, expensive cars were three times more likely than those of old clunkers to plow through a crosswalk, failing to yield to pedestrians as required by California state law. High-status motorists were also four times more likely than those with cheaper, older cars to cut off other drivers at a four-way stop.

Rich people behaving badly! It’s easy to imagine the kind of satisfaction the researchers from Berkeley enjoyed when their research showed that class warfare extends all the way to the concrete traffic jungle… but the other behavior they observed was probably a bit tougher to swallow.

According to Science magazine:

In an interesting twist, about one-third of Prius drivers broke crosswalk laws, putting the hybrid among the highest “unethical driving” car brands. “This is a good demonstration of the ‘moral licensing’ phenomenon, in which hybrid-car drivers who believe they’re saving the Earth may feel entitled to behave unethically in other ways,” Piff [the chief researcher — JB] says. (The Prius results were observed but not analyzed for statistical significance in the study.)

Kudos to Dr. Piff and his crew for reporting this; it’s seemingly become increasingly common for scientists to report what they want to be the case rather than what they actually find. The moral of the story? If you’re going to rely on the car coming your way to actually stop when you cross the road, it’s best to choose a car that:

• is being driven by someone employed in a “low-status” position such as a janitor, fry cook, or MotorTrend editor-in-chief;
• is not a Prius;
• does not have Ohio license plates. I’ve never met an Ohioan who understood the concept of yielding to pedestrian traffic;
• is not a club racer, because in the paddock, vehicles have the right of way.

No word yet on whether the “Prius c” will also be a pedestrian-whacker, but since our very own Alex Dykes is currently testing one, we should have the word on that any day now.