That type of behavior kinda gets to me. I’m generally fine w/ someone driving fast/aggressively, so long as they continue in that manner and speed away from me. I DOES cork me, tho, when someone will make an aggressive maneuver - changing lanes unnecessarily, making a point of getting to the merge before me - and then they SLOW DOWN. If you weren’t in a hurry, then why didn’t you just go with the flow?
Your use of the words in the OP, “‘cuts’ in front of me” imply that you have a rule definition of what cuts in front is, and that the driver violated that rule.
It seems that the discussion hinges on what your definition is. Could you elaborate on what you consider cutting in front of you?
I say this because I have found some people use the term in any case where another driver changes lanes into their lane in front of them, no matter how far ahead they are. It’s as if they feel that their lane must remain open into infinity in case they want to hit their rocket boosters and shoot forward at warp speed. Anyone moving into their lane that would prevent that would be “cutting in”. But I don’t think that is what you are suggesting?
I’m not sure what etiquette rule you think is being broken. He’s making a legal lane change - end of story. His motivation for doing that really doesn’t enter into it. What specific rule of etiquette should allow you to pass drivers who were otherwise ahead of you because of a traffic light?
This.
As a related minor annoyance, what about the person who plods along at 35 in a 45 zone for five miles in front of you, then when the road passes through a town and the limit drops to 25, that same person keeps on at 35. I don’t know why they do that–perhaps they just lock it in cruise all day long.
I think driving triggers something primal in a lot of people. It’s like as soon as they get in the car, they see every other car as a threat, competitor, or hostile obstacle. If there is a deviation from expected behavior on the road–no matter how mundane-- these people usually infer adversarial intent is involved and the emotional parts of their brain light up.
And then there are people like me who see cars as amoral, inanimate objects that are neither friend nor foe; they are just one of many collection of things that I have to be mindful of as I journey from Point A to Point B. I get every bit as angry at the driver who cuts me off as I get if I’m playing a one-player video game and an easy to dodge or kill monster jumps in my path. Which is to say not angry at all. With this mindset you don’t take anything that happens on the road personally because you assume all drivers as just like yourself: just a regular schmoe who doesn’t mean any harm and just wants to get to their destination.
I honestly don’t know if you can change your mindset; for all I know, all of this is a product of biological hardwiring. But maybe it would help if you paid more attention to what is going on in your brain when you feel your emotions rising in situations like this one. If you find yourself thinking with your amygdala instead of your frontal cortex, do some self-talk. It’s just a guy in a car just trying to get home. He’s not out to get you; he’s not trying to take what is yours. You are playing a one-player video game and the objective of that game is to get to your destination without wrecking into anything. Then try to focus on the music playing on your radio. That’s what that guy is doing too.
With more cars, I can see maybe doing this, so you don’t end up with six cars in one lane and only one in the other. When it’s only two and one, though, my inclination is that you probably have a reason for being in whichever lane you’re in (probably related to what direction your next turn will be, and how soon), and that reason still holds when you’re stopped at a light.
On the other hand, there likewise might be good, sensible reasons for changing your lane at about that point that have nothing to do with how many other cars are in what lanes: Maybe that car was in the left lane because he got onto the road by a left turn, and now he’s going to have to make a right turn soon. Or maybe at a previous intersection the right lane was turn only, and he knows there’s an intersection coming up soon where the left lane is turn only.
I definitely notice it. If I don’t have to apply more brakes (because my speed was aiming at stopping at the line, not one car length back), this I tend to find it more silly than annoying. I usually see it at places where it makes no difference at all which lane you are in and you save only a few seconds. You know, when the road is pretty empty and they could have gotten over any time? If it’s crowded and might be an only chance to get over, I don’t tend to think anything of it. If I have to slam on brakes, it’s irritating.
Or someone going the speed limit in a single lane direction, and when it opens up to two lanes, they speed up. This isn’t just some “why do people sometimes do this?”, this happens at least half the time if not more. I think part of it is psychologically seeming to have more open space with two lanes, part of it is thinking you can match their speed and not get caught speeding since the other car obviously knows what you can get away with, and part of it is they don’t want the other car to “win” by getting ahead of them.
Thankfully, in formal passing lanes on long stretches of highway, it seems to happen less often. What annoys me about those are people who tailgate me when I am going slightly over the limit on the single lane section, and then refuse to pass me in the passing zone.
How far ahead of you is this? Or, is it done safely? Do you have to brake sharply?
As just a driving thing, it doesn’t bug me.
As a symptom of ego, it bugs me. When I perceive the driver is doing it because he has to be “first”, it “irks” me a bit. Like we’re all keeping score, dude. When they don’t drive away smartly when the light changes it advances to “pisses me off”. When I want to turn right on red and they pull over and block me, and then again don’t move out smartly, it advances into “throw something at their car, if I had Superman’s arm”.
but whaddya gonna do?
In truth, I am one of the calmest drivers I know. Maybe I overstated my reaction in the OP; I am mostly curious if anyone else even makes note of this behavior.
No sharp braking. It’s more like the other driver sees an opportunity to be first and eases on over in front of me.
I feel the need to repeat: I do not own the road. I know no laws have been broken. I do not want the lane changers sentenced to life without parole.
mmm
Yep, I’m mellow about most driving antics, and I’m puzzled by road rage. If you know people are idiots, why are you outraged when they act like idiots? Everyday I see all sorts of ridiculous, unsafe antics by drivers wanting to get one car-length ahead, so the situation in the OP is typical.
Aye; that’s usually my take on it too. Unless it’s the right hand lane and I was gonna make a right-hand turn, then I might be annoyed enough to mutter “great; thanks” as I wait for sometimes up to 90 seconds to continue my journey. 
Am I the only one amused by this EDS (Everyday Driving Scenario)? Same road, same intersection as the OP, but one lane has eight cars in it and the other lane is empty. I’ll change lanes to be the first at the light and laugh at all the conformists/sheep(le)/suckers that I just passed.
I take the OP as an example of the biggest problem we have on our roads: there’s too little in the way of a shared understanding of what the rules of the road are. We all have different rules of driving etiquette in our heads.
One of the things I appreciated about driving in Europe was that on the limited-access roads, at least, almost everybody seemed to operate under the same implicit rules: you stay to the right except to pass, and when you pass, you pass fast (like 20 mph/30kph faster than the car you’re passing), then get the hell back over to the right, so that you don’t slow someone down who might want to pass you.
I didn’t like having to speed up that fast when passing, but it was a small price to pay for a consistent understanding of how to share the highway.
That doesn’t really bug me, as I usually allow plenty of space between me and the car in front in case of sudden stops.
What I hate is when I’m coming off a merging lane from one interstate to another and there’s another junction just ahead. If I don’t move over to the left, I’ll get trapped in the turnoff lane. There’s usually more traffic in the lane to the left of me, so I wait for the vehicle behind me on the left to pass before I move over to the left. There’s always somebody behind me who will scoot over before I can, and I have to wait for them to pass as well. IT’S NOT LIKE I PREFER BEING IN THE SLOW LANE, YOU BUNCHA BASTIDS!
Life is too short and fragile to get upset at the way other people drive, unless they are actually endangering others. As they used to say at the hippie farm, mellow out your energy, man.
I understand. Just giving you a suggestion on how to achieve a more zen mindset while driving, since you said that that’s what you want. :shrug:
With a signal, it doesn’t bother me, but I am driven mad by all the non-signaling I see everyday. I really wish I could not notice it.
I tend to move into the right lane at signals (if I’m not there already) in case emergency vehicles show up and need to navigate the intersection. Sometimes this makes me the person who annoys the OP.
My sentiments exactly.