No doubt they are. A couple of things I've noticed over the year
- driving speed is a good way to differentiate locals from non-locals. Locals drive at or slightly above the speed limit. Non-locals drive way below and way above the speed limit. If you see someone going 50mph in a 35 zone, there's a good chance they have a tell-tale parking sticker or some such from the Bay Area. If you are behind someone doing 21 in a 35 zone, there's a strong chance they have plates from Florida or a midwestern state.
- people on vacation are often super stressed. Sometimes to near the breaking point. Research shows that on average people are happier when planning a vacation than when *on* vacation. I think this is especially true for families (or just generally as group size increases).
- the more people spend, the less happy they tend to be. Once they've spent a lot (whatever that means for them), they start asking whether or not they are really getting "value" for their vacation. Once they start looking at their vacation in terms of value, they start thinking about how many hours of work or sales calls it takes to pay for that, what else they could have bought for that price, etc, etc. And down that road lies unhappiness, more stress and sometimes anger... which I've seen come out in road rage and even in pedestrian rage*
*Pedestrian rage - I saw someone who was held for about three minutes by a ranger who was holding pedestrians and letting cars through (and then changing) and doing a great job maximizing efficiency. This one guy just walked, stopping all traffic, and when the ranger told him to get back on the sidewalk, he started dropping F-bombs and screaming at the ranger with spit coming out of his mouth and screamed that he had waited "for five minutes." And to dispel whatever stereotype that might conjure, this was a mid-50s, well-dressed man who looked like out in the real world he was a doctor or an engineer.
