Passing etiquette and dickishness

In My Humble Opinion
1

Need an opinion as to whether I am being an unreasonable dick.

Two lane rural road, 70mph. I am following a guy who is running 65~70, too complacent to bother to pass him, keeping several car lengths gap. This is a road that I have done 85~90 on in the past: the highway patrol in this area mostly have better things to do than harry speeders.

So this semi pulls out to pass, which is fine, but I do not need him filling the space ahead of me, thus pushing me back, so I close the gap: if he can pass both of us, he should do that.

He runs out of space and drops back until he can see another spot to pass – which happens to be 700’ before a hill with a passing lane. When we reach the hill, the semi is right beside me, about to enter the passing lane; the guy in front speeds up to 75, I speed up with him, and the semi is left behind, moving into the right lane as it grinds up the short hill.

I try to envision what would have happened if I had let the semi pass the first time, or how long he would have been in the passing lane if we had not sped up. None of it looks very pretty.

The semi was a tanker truck with two trailers (3 tanks), which turned on the same road as I did shortly thereafter and was out of sight behind me within four miles. If he had passed me, I would have had to pass him at some point, perhaps on that second road, finding space to clear 100’ of trailers and tractor. Probably a minor inconvenience for me, but a pointless one.

My ultimate question is: what are the rules regarding when you must allow someone to pass? Is it always wrong to deny another driver the opportunity to get past you? (I do not mean the actual law, per se, as the law may be of minimal consequence on the wide open road.)

2

I would say that you are not obligated to make it easier for someone to pass, but the minute you take any action to make it more difficult to pass, you are being a dick.

3

^ This.

What the heck is wrong with you letting him occupy the space between you and the other car? Why are you playing these games with a vehicle much less maneuverable and much more massive than yours? Why are you doing this to a guy who is, presumably, at work at his job? How would you feel if some jerk made your day at work more annoying/difficult/whatever?

4

I would have ended up having to pass him later on. In other words, he was grasping for 20 seconds of gain that would have later cost me fifteen to twenty minutes to find an opportunity to get back around him.

5

For this particular situation-- if the truck can’t pass both cars, eschereal is going to be stuck behind the truck. None of the three vehicles will be going any faster or getting anywhere sooner, so the only effective difference will be to limit eschereal’s visibility, which marginally increases his risk. Also to slow him down on the hills, until he passes back in turn–and then what was the point?

If the truck driver can’t clear both cars and pull away, there’s no reason for him to try passing at all. It’s really him that’s the dick here.

6

How was he “pushing you back” by passing you? Was he going to get the silver medal and leave you with the bronze?

If he was going faster than you, let him pass. Don’t worry if he was ahead of you or behind you. There are always going to be cars ahead of you; you can’t be in first place.

Now if he was normally driving slower than you and was speeding up just to pass you before slowing down again, then he’s the one being a dick.

7

He wanted to get going faster so he could get up that hill faster. When someone wants to pass me I let them. You don’t have to do that but I agree that you shouldn’t make it more difficult for him to do.

8

It’s my understanding that it’s not only jerkish, but ILLEGAL to speed up when another vehicle is in the process of overtaking you.

That said, any trucker driving over 70mph is also by definition a jerk, especially if he knows he’ll just be obstructing the traffic he passes later.

9

The truck driver was trying to maximize his gas mileage and overall trip time at the expense of the two cars. Once in front of them and hitting the next hill, he’d likely have slowed due to gravity to 35 mph or so and they’d have been stuck behind him on a hilly and possibly curvy road for who knows how long.

The truck driver knew this, as they all do, yet he was perfectly willing to subject the auto drivers to slow-downs in order to affect whatever minimal gains he could affect by building up speed as much as he could when approaching hills, passing cars along the way, and then moving back in front of said cars and trapping them behind once gravity began to slow him down.

The truck driver wasn’t really being a jerk for its own sake; he was trying to maximize his trip time and minimize his expenses. But he was being a jerk for being willing to force other drivers to be stuck behind him in order to do so. His thinking was probably that the cars stuck behind him are stuck for only a relatively short time, whereas if he were to drive his entire trip not trying to build up speed and pass cars when he could, he’d lose quite a lot of money to lost time and increased gas expense.

10

Basically, I was more or less pacing the guy in front of me. There might have been the length of his truck between us. So, if the truck driver wanted to pass me and drop into that gap, he is forcing me to slow down to let him in there. I merely moved forward to close the gap, so that he could not attempt to squeeze in. Which in no way would prevent him from passing both of us at once, if that is what he was planning.

I mean, if you are following two cars and attempt to pass the one in front of you, there had better be more than twice your length between those two cars or you are being a dick. IMHO.

My car can hold off most semis on the open road, but if I am forced to pass a 100’ rig going 70, that is pushing the limits of my car’s power, while forcing me to find half a mile of clear road to do it. If the semi is in front of me to begin with, them’s the breaks, but letting him put me in that position without good cause benefits no one.

11

I am not sure it is all that clear-cut. On one occasion, driving through a town at the speed limit, with one guy right on my tail, when we got to the faster road, he pulled out to pass me just as I was accelerating to highway speed. He dropped back behind and 60 miles later (with plenty of chances to pass) in my mirror I noticed him turning off on another road. Just because someone wants to pass you, I am not sure they automatically have that right. You are just not allowed to create a dangerous situation.

12

I don’t understand why any trucker going over 70 is a jerk? Most of the roads I drive a trucker going under 70 is the Jerk since the speed limit is 80.

13

The tuck driver knew exactly what was going to happen when he hit that hill.

Your actions ensured that the flow of traffic was maintained for all concerned.
You didn’t slow the truck down at all and nor him you. The two cars ended up safely ahead of a slower vehicle without any risky maneuvers required.

As for him occupying your safety gap, if his initial overtake relied on the option of slotting into an unsafe space then yes, he was in the wrong. Before an overtake you need to be able to complete the move safely. Either he could overtake both safely or he shouldn’t even try. It definitely wouldn’t have been safe to take that gap of yours. Under the circumstances as reported you were right to make him reconsider.

When overtaking it is primarily your responsibility to make sure you can do so safely without impeding or infringing on the other traffic. Sounds like the truck driver couldn’t do so.
Secondary to that, the vehicle being overtaken has a duty not to speed up and deny the completion of a safe move. As written it doesn’t sound like the truck was attempting a safe or wise move.

14

Um… I’m not clear on why you feel you have to get back around him later on? Were you on a deadline of some sort?

15

it’s not a race.

16

If the trucker saw an opportunity to overtake you in a 100’ rig, how come you didn’t see an opportunity to overtake the car in front?

17

I’d say that if the truck did not have space to clear both cars then it is slightly in the wrong unless there was enough of a gap that you didn’t have to slow down at all to let the truck in and still have a safe amount of space – in other words, if you weren’t really tailing the other car but simply moving along the road far back at the same speed.

The only exception I can think to this is if something unexpected happened that meant the truck could not complete its expected overtaking of the both of you, like a pack of deer hopped out or a car appeared from a hidden driveway.

ETA: OR if the first car sped up to avoid being overtaken! If that had happened during the first passing instead of the second, I also would not fault the truck for only passing one of you.

18

Anytime you play bull shit games that could very well get people killed, you’re being a dick.

19

This is the stupid part, and why you are the dick. WHY can’t he fill the space? Pushing you back? Are you in some sort of race?

If he goes to pass you, maintain the speed you are at. If you speed up to cause him to be unable to pass, you are a dick. If he forces you to slow down, then HE is the dick. But not letting a vehicle in front of you because you will be “pushed back” is stupid and dickish.

20

I don’t often agree with our buddy manson here, but in this case I have to back him 100%