Agree with the “brakes” part, but there’s one other condition: If I have the left turn arrow, and the car is across from me, waiting to turn right on red, and is looking to their left and then pulling out thinking it’s “clear,” not noticing the lane of cars turning opposite them. I may not have enough speed yet to hit my brakes, but they are still idiots for not realizing that a line of cars is turning into the lane they just pulled into.
Considering most people only consider occasions when they’re forced to slam on the brakes as being cut off, what I think you don’t get is what people mean by the phrase…
Yeah, but the thread is about what we consider being cut off, and I see a whole bunch of posts that cite situations that don’t include SLAMMING breaks. Or maybe I don’t understand that word… It doesn’t mean ‘hit’ to me. And of course all the other things cited as being ‘cut off’ in this thread include swerving or going slow in front or long lines and just lots of stuff that I have noticed in real life people counting as being cut off. But just because I don’t get why it bothers people is not a judgment call. I get upset at lots of stuff on the road. I’m sure few peole understand why I can’t tolerate waiting at a green light for 2 seconds.
The thing is, on a highway you shouldn’t have to hit your brakes. To me, hitting them is slamming them (as opposed to applying them). On a highway, if I see brake lights far in front of me, I have enough time to slow without any brakes if I’m driving at an optimum distance.
Somebody signaling a lane change and then nudging over so that maybe I have to slow down? Not a cutoff. If I see them and apply my brakes first to let them in? Not a cutoff. If they pull in front of me in such a way that I’ll hit them if I don’t brake right now? A definite cutoff.
Doesn’t happen to me too much, but it doesn’t bother me. I note that the driver is a jerk and one to watch out for.
One of my rules for driving is that my actions should never cause another driver to do something - if your entry into my lane causes me to do something, you’ve used bad judgement.
Oddly, I am nearly un-piss-off-able when I’m behind the wheel of a car, but if I’m walking and someone in front of me is blocking the way or plodding slowly along, I just want to shove them. 
Hilarity and Cat, I agree, the driver should not make me hit my breaks. But when I do have to, it is just one of those things that people do that don’t bother me. Randomly, other things they do happen to bother me a lot.
Also, I am not really going by this thread. I mean in real life, I know a lot of people who complain of being cut off if someone passes them closely, and I really think what they mean is that someone was ‘rude’ to them on the highway. They’ll say, “That jerk cut me off!” And I always think, no, they just are passing. It’s not personal. No need for my sis in law to say, “Aha! You are now stuck at the same red light I am! Now what? What did cutting me off get you! Nothing!”
One word. Brakes.
As others have said, it’s a matter of a car getting in front of me, in spite of traveling at a lower speed. If I have to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him, I’ve been cut off.
Exactly. If I have to slow down unexpectedly and substantially (by more than 15 mph, say) because they’re suddenly in front of me, then they’ve ‘cut me off’ in traffic.
If someone cuts in front of me but is going either at least as fast as I am, or only a few mph slower, then it’s no biggie.
In general, if someone’s going faster than I want to go, I want them in front of me, and I’ll cheerfully let them through. And if they’re going slower than I am, I want to be in front of them, and would hope that they would want me to be in front of them too. It’s when they clearly don’t want that, that they’re a problem.
I define it as me having to do something other than what I am already doing at the moment AND its only/mostly because the OTHER driver doesnt know how to drive and/or doesnt give a rats ass if his actions negatively impact others.
Lets say I am going down a highway. Another driver is coming in from a standstill off a side street. If he pulls out and I have to slow down to avoid hitting him I was cut off IF he could have waited a few seconds and let me pass and THEN pull out because there was NOBODY behind me. Now, if the road is busy, and he’s gotta make somebody slow down to pull out, even me, thats fine.
Same sorta thing goes for lane changes, passings, merging lanes, on/off ramps blah blah blah.
Now of course there are levels of cut off too. At one end, “gee, thanks, that was “considerate” of you bub”. And at the other, “begeezus, you are gonna kill someone and hopefully its only you when you finally cause the totally avoidable accident”.
Driving should be a beautiful dance of precision, consideration and forward thinking, not an everyman for himself death match.
Either close distance, or a combination of moderate distance with a speed well below the posted and/or prevailing.
That being said, I recall about 15 years ago, I was driving down I-35 in the Minneapolis area (suburban), driving the posted speed in the left lane. The right lane was driving about 5 mph slower. I needed to get into the right lane to exit in about 1/2 mile. I got to where I could see this pickup in the right lane in my rear view mirror, which should have been more than sufficient distance, and then merged right, about 3 car lengths in front of him in heavy traffic. Guy starts honking, screaming and gesturing wildly, his pickup swerving all over the road while he does so. We both get off at the next exit, I get in the right turn lane, he gets in the left turn lane (two lanes over from me). Then, with us both surrounded by vehicles, he gets out of his truck and starts walking around screaming at me - about how I nearly hit him, how I tried to run him off the road, how dangerous I was, blah blah blah.
Then he had people yelling and honking at him, because he’s still carrying on like this when the lights change and we start going.
I merged over, in heavy traffic, three full car lengths ahead of him. He should have considered that to be courteous driving for the conditions, but he went berzerk.
There’s an intermediate step, which is rude without really rising to the level of “cutting me off.” When I am at my minimum safe following distance – usually because traffic is dense, and if I were to stay well back, people would just keep cutting over assuming it’s an “opening,” so I stay as close to the car in front of me as I feel is safe – and someone then darts into THAT space (almost always without signaling). Now that person is inside my minimum following distance and I have to slow down to open up a safe distance again – running the risk of ANOTHER driver cutting in, making me slow down again. If that were to continue indefinitely, I’d wind up driving backwards to make room for everyone.
If they signal and hesitate, I’m usually more than happy to let them in, even if I have to slow down a bit. But it’s people who suddenly (without signaling) dart into my following distance when I’m already being careful not to rear-end the guy in front who irritate me.
How fast is traffic moving? Where I drive this happens to people leaving four car lengths of room in front of them when the traffic is moving 10 - 20 mph. I never consider drivers moving into that space cutting anyone off. Now, if you are going 70, it is a different story.
I saw an example this morning four or five cars in front of me. One road I go on has a merge from the right and a car pool lane on the left. Some car poolers think that it is a crime against humanity if they do not move into the car pool lane 200 feet from the merge. (Traffic here is very heavy.) This one guy tried to ram his way from the right lane to the middle lane where there wasn’t enough room, and wound up blocking both. That is cutting off.
It should be, but it happens so rarely here that I notice it when it does happen; “Hey, everyone merged properly, everyone went through the four-way stop properly, everyone turned properly - that was awesome!” I blame extremely low standards for driver training.
Where’s the fun in that? 
I’m with the “if I have to hit the brakes to keep from hitting them” school of thought.
Also, if someone cuts in front of me without using a signal (as in, no warning), even if I don’t have to hit the brakes hard, I get pissed. If they’re 5 car lengths ahead of me and there’s no traffic, then fine, whatever. But if you try to slide in between me and another car and don’t have the courtesy to trip the signal, then yes, you’re an ass.
How about if they’re upset you’re not in as big a hurry as they are and, attempting to show you a lesson, cream the front corner of your car with the back corner of their pickup? That’s what happened this morning and I think it fell into the “cut off” category. Bonus points if they attempt to flee the scene and then lie to the police and insurance companies about who did what.
It never ceases to amaze me how some experience you have will be the subject of an ongoing thread. Hope nobody starts one on “When were you last murdered?”
If you move into my lane and I have to brake at all you just cut me off. Why not wait until it’s safe to do it without impeding traffic?