I’ve been trying to think of a subject for a new article, and then it hit me, or it nearly did, driving down 17th street.
Is it just me, or has there been a rise in the aggressive driving in Idaho Falls?
I realize that it is spring (or at least it’s trying to be) and when the roads clear, and sheets of ice subside, people go a little happy-crazy. I also realize that I may just be noticing it more because I’m paying more attention.
I noticed that there was a blurb in the PR regarding a planned crackdown on aggressive drivers during one week in April (I can’t remember which). Shortly after that, my boyfriend and I were driving along 17th when a very large pickup, spewing black smoke sped up behind a car to our left (on 17th), and changed lanes in front of our car, missing us by inches. This was after the pickup had started to change lanes, noticed that we were there, and we had touched the brakes to avoid being hit. This person then continued speeding up to other drivers’ bumpers and dangerously switching lanes till I lost site of the pickup.
That was when I decided to start paying attention.
I’m guessing that if the police are announcing a crackdown it must not just be my imagination, but has anyone else noticed this, and is there realistically anything that can be done about it?
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not sure if there’s been an increase of aggressive drivers, or it just seems that way to some of us. Certainly, with warmer weather, more people are impatient to be out and active.
As for doing anything about it, the obvious start is by not being aggressive drivers ourselves, and to practice driving defensively to reduce the chance of getting involved in a collision.
If there’s a particular area that seems to have a high incidence of it occurring regularly, let that area’s law enforcement department know.
What about the red light runners? This is a common occurance here in any location around IF. You are sitting in your lane waiting for the light to turn green. You notice the other light for oposing traffic changes yellow, then red. Your light changes, and then you slowly ease out into the intersection. Then you have to slam on your brakes cause some idiot decides that he can make it since the light just barely turned red.
I have lived in a lot of places including PA, which has some of the most aggressive drivers out there. I am more terrified to drive here than I was there. At least there you can see it coming. Here, it literally out of the blue.
So, yes. I think that we have a problem with aggressive drivers. What to do about it? The only thing that I can think of is to have police waiting at those intersections. But the problem is, there are more idiots than cops.
I’m sorry but I’m just not seeing all the red light runners that you seem to be coming across my4sons. I’ve lived in a number of cities on the east coast (both north & south) as well as the central part of the country and I’d have to say the most agressive drivers come from the east coast or California. You learn to drive agressively there or risk getting into an accident for driving too slowly or impeding the flow of traffic. Moving here I had to reprogram my driving habits, as people over all drive much slower here and are much less likely to run red lights as opposed to other cities. Especially larger metropolitan areas. One thing I did notice here is people rarely use their turn signals in this state and that can be quite frustrating at times, but overall most people in Idaho are far from “aggressive drivers” IMO. I think Find Humor said it right in regards to driving defensively. If more people would do that, we’d all be alot better off.
I definitely agree that driving defensively is a good defense for yourself, but that doesn’t do a thing to alleviate the problem.
And I do have to say that I have noticed the red light runners. I make it a habit to make sure I check both ways before proceeding at a green light, because I’ve had too many close calls. I guess that falls under the category of driving defensively.
The IFPD announces every other month they are going to crack down on aggressive driving, and seat belt violations as well. I live on 2nd street, and have had many issue with people speeding down the road as a shortcut, as well as the bar rush from DB’s speeding by. I have reported it many time WITH license plate #’s only to be told they are busy with “more important things” so during the day ive just been throwing crap at the cars as they speed by, it phases them for a second, but the other night a speeding drunk driver finally took out 4 cars in one shots, and the police were “SOO shocked this could happen”
Quit hanging out at Toms Gyro and get to work IFPD!!
Throwing things at peoples cars? Yeah, that’s real mature, not to mention dangerous. Keep up the good work their snappy.
Alice – was that large truck by any chance a white diesel with a toolbox in the bed? If so, I’ve been trying to get a plate number on him for months but he’s always screaming through traffic so fast I can’t catch the number. He drives like a total lunatic. This guy was in our neighborhood last year doing long burnouts and spinning cookies around midnight. Of course by the time the cops got there he was long gone.
LMAO at the obvious lies in post #5. If the cars were actually speeding by so quickly how did you get a license plate? Unless of course you sit on the sidewalk armed with a pen and paper all day so you can be ready to get it the second a car flashes by. Otherwise by the time you got out of your house or to the sidewalk to try and read the plate the vehicle would be too far away to read the plate.
No doubt there are the occasional speeders on 2nd street just like there are on 1st st, 3rd st, 4th st, 5th st, 6th st, 7th, st, etc, etc, etc. In fact I’d daresay that there are speeders on most every street excluding perhaps culdesacs and the people on 2nd are no more no less important than the citizens on every other street. Depending on the time of day the police may have anywhere from 5 to 15 officers on duty and chances are the most of the time when the speeding is occurring they do have more important things to do like handle domestics, bar fights, traffic accidents, wanted persons, burglaries, etc. I know a cop very personally and he typically tells me that except very early in the morning (before 9am) and very late at night (after 2 am) he frequently is running call to call with no time for traffic enforcement or followup investigation on the calls he’s already handled. He doesn’t expect it to get any better seeing as the city is on a hiring freeze despite the fact the department is down officers due to recent retirements.
#8, it’s not hard to get plates if you’re standing right there, especially vanity plates, if you keep your head and look and your eyesight is ok (which mine is not). I do agree, tho, that the police cannot be everywhere all the time.
Cafe, I don’t remember for sure if there was a toolbox, I think there was, but it was definitely a diesel. It left that lovely black diesel-cloud every time it zoomed in front of someone. It also had very distinct matching white decals on both sides of the rear window.