Driving to work today, I ws one of three cars caught behind this very slow mini-van. Because it was slightly icy I did not pass when the BMW behind me did (on a turn) instead chose to wait for the straight part. As soon as it happened, both the Geo Tracker and myself came from behind the mini-van. THE VAN SPED UP! The tracker barely made it, I chose to go back, the roads aren’t great and this van was up to 70 (kms that it) on this windey street. My point is, what the fuck was this chick’s problem? (it was a female driver) Now I have been on the highway before and not really paying attention to my speed and slowed down. When someone passes me I notice I’ve slowed and speed up, but not while someone is passing! I mean geez, what a bitch! When will these people realize it is not a personal thing, I am not insulting you, I don’t know you, I am passing your car, get over it!
ugh…i know that feeling. and also the feeling when a car which is behind me passes me just to be that car in front of me for the next 10 km. pointless as hell i say!
First time ever in the pit for me, and I’m not surprised it was this topic that brought me here. There is nothing I get more pissed off about than this!
It’s just common courtesy! If the person who is behind you is driving faster, then you should merge into a slower lane(if there is more than one lane) or slow down and give them the chance to pass on at first available opportunity (if there is only one lane).
People who don’t follow this rule really burn me up!
One time I did get a bit of insight as to why people speed up, though. See if you can follow this pretzel logic. I was riding with my uncle in Indiana when a car who was going MUCH faster than us came up behind us. We finally got to a place where the car could pass us. The car put on his signal and began passing us. During this, my uncle floors the car and begins speeding up! Luckily, the other car was a lot nicer (and faster) than my uncle’s and the car managed to get by. This disappointed my uncle. He said, “Well, I was trying to speed up so he wouldn’t have to pass me, but I guess he just wanted to get by.” WHAT?!? Is passing really that much of a hassle, unc? I think it’s dangerous when the car being passed speeds up like an idiot. ARRGGHH!!!
I once was driving home on the state highway, and it was ICY. It was the only time driving I felt completely not in control. Anyways, I was in the fast lane, but no one is going real fast to begin with. This prick gets up behind me real close and puts his brights on to tell me to move over to the other lane. The road wasn’t that busy, why didn’t this loser change lanes himself and cut in front of me like he wanted to??? Ah pissed me off.
“The idea of a walk-in closet sounds frightening. If I’m ever sittin’ at home and a closet walks in, I’m gettin’ outta there.” ~George Carlin
That’s a result of people getting way too personally involved in driving. I was riding with a woman I know when she sped up and refused to let someone pass. When I asked her why, she said possessively “Because it’s MY lane”. She honestly felt she owned the piece of road immeadiately in front of her.
Of course, this was in New Mexico, home of the world’s worst drivers.
Sylence and Scoop - about New Mexico, I’m right there with you. All of the above - happens on a daily basis while driving around Albuquerque and the surrounding.
…especially the ones who pull out in front of you with no time and there isn’t a single car BEHIND you. My wife encouraged me to take yoga or meditate to learn to control my rage.
Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.
– a Celtic motto
Actually, at least here, I hate it when people pass. And I only hate it because it’s the people playing ping pong with the lanes.
They give you exactly three seconds to slam on your breaks before flipping to the next lane cause the person in front of YOU is going too damn slow for them. Then they whip back into the other lane and then back and forth and back and forth…and they end up going no faster than you. Some people, I will allow to pass. As long as they’re nice about it. But if someone gets behind me and starts giving me a hard time and starts speeding up next to me, I speed up too. Screw them. They don’t deserve to have their lives made easier by me if they have to ride my ass and honk their horn and things like that. But, those that are polite about it and use their turn signal and stuff, get to pass. I’m a stickler for politeness on things like that. Oh, btw, never come to Chicago or the area surrounding it. The people here are maniacs who can’t drive for shit.
When are you going to realize being normal isn’t necessarily a good thing?
I agree - if someone is polite about wanting to pass, I will let them pass. I don’t think I own the fast lane, and I only drive in it if I am going a reasonably fast anyway. But if I am going too slow for someone behind me, and they are not being a tailgating, headlight-flashing idiot - hey - I’ll get out of the way. No skin off my nose.
One thing that pisses me off is when I am going quite fast in the fast lane. In front of me in the fast lane, evenly spaced, are many, many other cars, all going quite fast. For miles up the road, evenly spaced, fast drivers in the fast lane. Fast fast fast. Many many cars.
So some asshole comes up behind me, tailgates, flashes their brights, wants me to rush right over to get out of their way. Why? So they can tailgate the next fast driver ahead of me? And the next? And the next? Like the whole frigging fast lane is CRAMMED with fast drivers, (evenly and safely spaced) so what is the bloody POINT?!?!? Surely this moron doesn’t think that several miles of fast drivers in the fast lane are all going to get out of the way, like the Parting of the Red Sea, for them!
So in such a case, I just stay put. Or drive a little slower.
I always enjoy the lug nuts who go careering around my car in an all-fired hurry only to wind up being the car directly in front of me at the red light.
“Congratulations, anus, you’re now 30 feet closer to the stopped traffic!”
The Dave-Guy
“since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx
In these circumstances, I like to turn on my hazard lights. Driving at 70mph with your flashers on unsettles the idiot behind you; he figures maybe there’s something wrong with your car and backs off or passes on the right (which is illegal here, but then so’s tailgating, so that never stopped anyone).
Never attribute to malice anything that can be attributed to stupidity.
– Unknown
Okay, confession time: I was an idiot the other day.
I came home early from work because I was horribly sick and had a fever. I drove home in more or less a haze, but it was uneventful. My exit is the product of purely STUPID design–you exit into an intersection in a third far right lane, and have about 15 feet to get over as that lane immediately merges. I have to get all the way over into the left lane as my apartment complex is a nearly immediate left turn.
Got the image in your head? Okay, so I’ve exited and come to the intersection. Fortunately, the light turns green just as I start to brake, so I have enough momentum to fly by the other cars in the left lanes that are stopped. At least I thought. The car stopped to the immediate left of me floored it–he seriously was just off my shoulder the entire trip, knowing (because my signal was flashing) I needed to get over into his lane and refusing my entry.
I, being sick (and stupid), just floored it, finally passed him going about 60mph (in a 40) with only a few feet to go to the entry of my apartment. I took that turn ridiculously fast, with no harm done (except maybe to that guy’s temper and ego), but I felt so stupid for doing that.
Normally, I would just slow down and let this loser pass. But I wanted home and took an idiotic risk to get there. All this because we both felt a need to be in front of the other.
Unless I misunderstand TripleAnt this is also dangerous behavior.
There is nothing worse than being in the left lane and coming up to a slower car who refuses to move to the right. Then when you try to pass them on the right, that is when they decide to move over and cut you off. AGGGH!
It is impossible to tell if and when the slower person will move over, so I try to avoid passing on the right.
“It’s like banging your head against a wall because it feels so good when you stop.”
Yeah I realize that, but there were cars close in front of me as well. Like I already said, no one was going fast in the fast lane. I know what you are talking about, and when it is normal driving conditions I stay out of the fast lane if I don’t plan on driving too far over the limit. Okay, but the conditions were horrible. This prick had to prove something to his kid or something. But I was not in the fault okay. It wasn’t dangerous for me to drive in this lane when I was maybe going 10 miles under the speed limit and the road was pure ice.
Another story here. We were stopped at a red light in town and I was the second car in the row at the light. Apparently the light was too slow changing for the guy in front of me. There were no cars in the intersection, so he takes off, running a red light. Not one minute later all the cars that were at this red light go when it is green and catch up to and pass the guy who ran the red light. I had to laugh at him as I drove pass him.
“The idea of a walk-in closet sounds frightening. If I’m ever sittin’ at home and a closet walks in, I’m gettin’ outta there.” ~George Carlin
all of us have heard of road rage and all of us are either perpetrators or victims of…
Personally, if it’s snowy and icy and the jerk behind me is in such a damn rush that he just HAS to get to that light/exit ahead of me, I say screw it, let him go. Of course, my comments to his tail lights are ALWAYS “If you were in that much of a rush you should have left 10 minutes ago, asshole!!!”
Maybe just be, but 2 tons of steel is a bit big to be playing chicken with, ya think?
Also along the road rage lines…
6" of snow in 3 hours. 10 p.m. The plows and general traffic had cleared out the right lanes but the left (passing) lanes were junk. Speed limit 65 MPH, I’m doing 70ish. One car thought I was going to slow and the semi rig behind the car definitely thought I was going to slow. So they both passed me doing 80+ MPH. Do either of those two idiots know that they caused a whiteout from snow flying around? I had to go from 70+ MPH to fucking NOTHING as quickly as possible as I couldn’t see the lines on U.S. 10, let alone the ditch
quote:
[quoIn front of me in the fast lane, evenly spaced, are many, many other cars, all going quite fast. For miles up the road, evenly spaced, fast drivers in the fast lane. Fast fast fast. Many many cars.
[/quote]
