People behave better when they're sure everyone is packing.

Quote of note:

Secretly, everyone wants to believe that the shootings have been motivated by violations, however slight, of automotive honor. That would leave the rest of us on our best behavior, which is pretty much where we already are.

What we really fear is that they are genuinely unmotivated. If that is true, then suddenly we all live in a very different neighborhood.

The Psychology of Los Angeles Freeways and the Effect of Recent Shootings

...There have been at least seven attacks in the last 10 weeks, four of them fatal, the worst outbreak of apparently random freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area since 1987, when five people were killed. It has taken awhile for the news to soak in, but last Sunday's shooting seemed to tip the balance.

You could hear the descriptions - four or five men, black Honda, shaved heads - whenever you stopped to listen. What people said had everything to do with where they were. If you were northbound on the San Diego Freeway near North Hills about the time the shooting took place, you were entitled to feel you'd had a narrow escape, whether or not you heard any gunfire or saw any shaved heads.

...I've been struck by the attentiveness and skill of the drivers around me, by the fact that nearly everyone signals a change of lane and tries to keep a reasonable distance between vehicles. In three months of freeway driving here, I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard a horn sounded in anger. And now I know why.

...As a friend from Fullerton puts it, you drive politely, without challenging other drivers even implicitly, because "they're packing." No one honks because no one wants a fight. People use their turn signals to say, as innocently as possible: "Changing lanes now! Not cutting in! No disrespect intended!"