We may be zipping down the highway, trapped in our own steel bubbles, but we’re influenced by the behavior of the residents of the bubbles next to ours.
The "steel bubble" comment here is so important. The design of American (and Canadian!) cities and towns being reliant on automobiles for everything is fundamentally socially distancing. If you were going for a walk you wouldn't be frustrated and an asshole to other walkers because they're right there next to you and it would be incredibly impolite. In a car it's distancing, and so people in those other cars become non-persons, cars, not persons, and so one has free reign to not treat those car drivers as who they really are, your neighbours that live in your town along with you.
The "steel bubble" comment here is so important. The design of American (and Canadian!) cities and towns being reliant on automobiles for everything is fundamentally socially distancing. If you were going for a walk you wouldn't be frustrated and an asshole to other walkers because they're right there next to you and it would be incredibly impolite. In a car it's distancing, and so people in those other cars become non-persons, cars, not persons, and so one has free reign to not treat those car drivers as who they really are, your neighbours that live in your town along with you.