This happens to me every once in a while and pegs my rage meter. I’m driving on a divided highway, two lanes each direction. I’m in the left lane having passed some slower traffic, I notice cars coming up behind me (in the left lane) wanting to go faster than I’m willing to go so I check the the right lane to make sure I have room and signal that I’m changing lanes. As soon as I hit the signal the car in the right lane that I’ve just passed guns it to prevent me from getting in front of them. It’s almost always a junker with noisy exhaust so you can really hear them accelerating. Really? You were happily driving 65 and content to let me pass in the other lane but seeing my signal suddenly makes you decide you’d really rather drive 80?
I always do that, and around 25% of the time the people approaching in the left lane slow down to match my speed and sit there just off my left blocking the passing lane. I figure it’s people who don’t use cruise control using their positions relative to other traffic to gauge their speed. When I slow down, they think they’ve sped up and let off the accelerator. I can’t figure out how to avoid that.
Here in Kansas City we have what we call “California drivers”. Meaning former Californians who move here and you know them because if your at a red light, if you dont get moving the exact second that light turns green they start honking at you. The quick remedy is to move slow until they get the hint.
Now yes, if someone truly is oblivious to the light turning green after 4-5 seconds I say a friendly toot is ok but these people have their hands over the horn ready to go.
There is one behavior that happens to me fairly frequently that really grinds my gears. I’m driving along at a nice comfortable pace, at the speed limit, or slightly above. Now for the key part of the scenario: There is no one behind me at all. A car pulls out in front of me from a side street or parking lot, close enough that I have to slow down considerably to avoid hitting them. They then proceed to creep along well below the limit (and there is no passing lane for me to get around them).
So this person was in such a hurry to pull out that they couldn’t wait until I passed and they had a totally clear road, yet they aren’t in enough of a hurry to drive at a decent speed? This makes sense how?
I don’t devolve into road rage, but I get quite miffed when I’m behind a long string of lackadaisical lefties at a left arrow light. Oh, you know the type: when the arrow turns green, the first in line takes his good ol’ time moseying out of the gate (probably feels it’s necessary to finish texting some idiot friend of his about some nitwit thing he did at his muttonhead job). That’s bad enough…but the conspiracy to make me miss the light doesn’t stop there it; never does.
Car # 2 doesn’t rush to get started; either (probably thinks it’s more important to finish scratching his butt, than be courteous to drivers behind him).
Same deal with the rest of the pinhead drivers all the way down the line…all the way to the car directly in front of mine—he’s the worst of all. The light is typically yellow when it’s his turn, but that doesn’t spark him to get going quickly so we could both make the light. No, he does just the opposite. He waits till the yellow turns stale, and then guns it, leaving me with nothing but red!
I don’t flip drivers off, or honk my horn, or anything pedestrian like that. But, if any of those ninnies happened to look back at me when they’ve completed their turn, they would see me mouthing, “you, sir, are a royal butthead.” I just hope they can read lips.
What they don’t realize is that I’m the first in line when the arrow turns green again. Now, I’m in charge. I get revenge by proxy being Mr. Slowpoke, now.
I also get irked by those nincompoops in front of me in right lanes who stop short and let more than one car exiting from a parking lot get in front of him. You’re supposed to let one and only one car cut in front of you in that situation. It’s all about their bloated egos. They want that little rear view mirror smile and hand wave. And, if they can get more than one, even better…driver behind, be damned. The more they tally, the more they feel like the “let-em-cut-in heroes of the highway.” Yeah, well maybe I was planning to let #2 exiting car in front of me! I like getting smiles and hand waves too, dammit.
**Monstera **- that makes me crazy, too. Especially here in the boonies where it’s mostly country roads. I guess they do it so they can be “first” or some such silliness. Who knows…
Never heard the term. Also never had it happen to me in KC.
I used to hear the term, and have the experience in Denver some years ago. There was an influx of California drivers who tended to jump the green and object if a local driver didn’t slam the gas on green. Of course, Denver drivers at the time had a habit of two or three cars running the red light, and it was only sensible to wait until they had finished. Those opposing driving habits didn’t mix very well.
Interesting. I live in California and trust me, people here take their time getting going at intersections when the light turns green. Rarely does anyone honk unless it’s been a while or they see the person is talking on the phone or something.
That’s my experience in Southern California as well.
This is especially the case with the “lackadaisical lefties,” so well described by Tibby or Not Tibby a few posts up. There’s a left turn onto the freeway on-ramp that i have to make on my way home from the gym, and there are times when maybe two or three cars make it through the light, rather than the six or seven that should have made it, just because one or two selfish assholes can’t keep an eye on the signals.
What’s even worse, in cases like this, is that on busy streets at rush hour, that lack of attention can have a domino effect that runs backwards for quite a few blocks. The people who fail to pay attention at lights often respond, “Well, it was only a few seconds. What are you worried about.” But if your delay means that other people can’t get through, that sometimes causes longer delays as people further back miss the light, and have to wait, further clogging up the block.
Another thing i hate is people on freeways who can’t maintain some semblance of a constant speed when there’s very little traffic about. I’ve noticed this most often on freeways like the 5 in California’s Central Valley. It’s two lanes in each direction for most of the way, and i’ll be sitting in the right lane with my cruise control set comfortably at about 76 mph. Some guy will slowly come up behind me, then pull out to pass, then pull back into the right lane. And then slow down by about 5 miles an hour, so that i’m forced either to pull out and overtake him, or hit the brakes. These people annoy the fuck out of me.
Not sure how “The Cut-Off Passer” knows that vehicles in the center/right lanes “have been in that formation for miles and miles”, unless he’s psychic.
There are drivers who roar up the left lane at 25 mph over the speed limit, and someone a mile or two ahead of them may decide they would like to pass slower vehicles and pull out into the passing lane without realizing that His Majesty is going to arrive shortly and cannot bear the thought of slowing down to 70 for a minute.*
*and who probably thinks his sheriff friends will sympathize with his road rage at drivers who “impede the flow of traffic”. 
People who zip to the head of the line when lanes merge and expect to be let in at the very last moment.
People who don’t give me a thank-you wave when I let them come in ahead of me.
People who don’t signal turns (esp. when they’re coming from some distance and I would’ve had time to make a turn myself, if I knew they would be turning before they reached me) or lane changes.
People who run obviously red lights.
I haven’t freaked out or shot anybody over these driving sins, but do find them annoying.
My turn signals are FYI. They are not a request.
If you’re moving into another lane, where there are already cars, then your turn signals might not exactly be a request, but they need to be more than a simple FYI. It’s your responsibility, when changing lanes, to do so only when it’s clear, and if someone else is there, it’s up to you, as the lane-changer, to make sure that you wait until there’s a safe opportunity.
Admittedly, there seem to be an unfortunate number of people on the road who think that, as long as they hit the indicator, they can do whatever the fuck they please, but that’s not how the road is supposed to work.
On the other side of the misfortune with signaling lane changes, in my area, a lot of “drivers” take that signal as meaning “yes, do speed up to cut me off from making my lane change, I’d LOVE to be forced to take this surprise exit and I’d LOVE for you to push me off the road or collide with me to keep me from doing something so crazy as being in front of you!”
Yes, it is unfortunately the case that some assholes see turn signals as a short of challenge, and do their best to make life difficult for the person trying to change lanes. Even so, the person changing lanes has the first responsibility to make sure that it’s safe.
One of the biggest problems around here is people who refuse to use their damn accelerator when entering the freeway. They don’t seem to understand that it’s easier to merge with traffic traveling at 65 mph if you are also going 65 mph, rather than, say, 45. They won’t step on the gas, and then they wonder why they have trouble entering the flow of traffic.
I understand if they have a really old car, or if it’s a really short or tight entry, but most of the freeway entrances around here are long enough to give plenty of room to get up to speed. My 1.8 liter Honda Civic can do it without a problem, so a 3-series BMW or a V6 Altima or a V8 Dodge Ram truck should have no trouble at all, and yet cars like that constantly dawdle onto the freeway and make life difficult not only for the people already on the freeway, but also for those trying to enter the freeway behind the slowpokes.
I do a lot of highway driving. Two things really chap my butt.
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I’ll be passing someone and a third person is riding my rear bumper. I won’t move back into the right lane until I can see both the passed car’s headlights in my right rear-view mirror. That way, I won’t be cutting him off. But that’s not fast enough for the wart on my ass, who now proceeds to honk and flash high beams at me to get out of his way.
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I’m in the right lane, solid traffic in both lanes, but it’s moving. Asshat behind me in the right lane starts flashing high beams at me so I’ll get out of his way. WTF, dude? Where do you think my car is going to go? Maybe up on stilts like a cartoon so you can slide under me? I’ll push my cruise control down 1-2 mph in your honor.
I’d prefer that to what I experienced driving through the Central Valley on I-5 a few years ago (several times, so it’s probably not just a fluke.)
I was approaching two tractor-trailers who were in the right hand lane, and we were probably the only vehicles in sight on the whole entire road. Just as I got almost within tailgating distance, the back truck would pull out in front of me so I’d have to step on my brakes. It was like it was perfectly timed so I couldn’t accelerate past it before it took up my lane, but yet still had to brake to avoid collision. Either a couple seconds earlier or a couple seconds later was evidently too burdensome on the driver.
At least they passed and moved back over fairly quickly, as opposed to the ones in the Carolinas on I-95 that stay astride with the other truck for miles.
Traffic flows more efficiently if traffic uses both lanes up to the merge, rather than merging into a single lane early.
I have learned to use my turning signals early when passing slow traffic. It makes everyone speed up and get out of my way so I can pass safely.
I hates people who have to pull out in front of me and then slow down when there is nobody behind me. If you are in such a hurry, speed up!