# Passing etiquette and dickishness **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525 "2016-08-12T03:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/61 "2016-08-14T02:58:53Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I get the point. But if you’re close behind, the value of your attention is substantially circumscribed. You can’t react to what you literally cannot see. That is why you shouldn’t follow a truck too closely. Or anyone else too closely for that matter. If you’re following at the distance you _should_ this becomes much less of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/62 "2016-08-14T08:21:43Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > 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. I agree, but I think people often do it for reasons that aren’t consciously jerkish. I’ve noticed that people tend to speed up when they are being overtaken, not because they’re trying to prevent it, but for two other reasons: [ul] [li]They are responding to the same road conditions that make it safe to overtake (straight, wide road with lots of visibility = safe to speed up)[/li][li]They are subconsciously responding to having seen the overtaking vehicle appraching them in their rear view mirror - (something approaching from behind = speed up and get away from it)[/li][/ul] Drivers need to develop a consciousness that they are doing this, then the behaviour can be modified so as not to appear jerkish, ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/63 "2016-08-14T15:12:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > They are subconsciously responding to having seen the overtaking vehicle appraching them in their rear view mirror - (something approaching from behind = speed up and get away from it) Being overtaken may be interpreted as a sign that you’ve allowed your own speed to fall inappropriately. If you’re not in a controlled cruise, it may be the correct interpretation. If you’re being rapidly overtaken, you might also reasonably read that as a sign that the overtaker intends to pass. Compressing the gap with another vehicle at your own speed could be intended to facilitate that. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/64 "2016-08-14T18:34:02Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I get the point. But if you’re close behind, the value of your attention is substantially circumscribed. You can’t react to what you literally cannot see. > > Honestly, given the truck and behavior described, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere around him. If you are so close behind that your vision is proscribed, you are the problem. The signs on the backs and sides of trucks about seeing the mirrors and blindspot locations are there for a reason. But people ignore them. > [@Broomstick](#): > > That is why you shouldn’t follow a truck too closely. Or anyone else too closely for that matter. If you’re following at the distance you _should_ this becomes much less of a problem. And good luck getting people to do that. Our company policy where I work is to slow down when sometime is following to closely until they back off or pass. (Speeding up just results in them being just as close at a more dangerous speed.) I’ve had people, on the interstate, so close I only knew they were there because of reflections on the road under my trailer. And they’ll stay there until I get down to 40 or 45, even with a clear passing lane. The worst was a guy that just stayed there until I got down to 25, with my flashers going, and I pulled over to the shoulder. This is on interstate highways on clear days, with a speed limit of 65 or 70, and I’m only doing 60. People are idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/65 "2016-08-14T19:43:52Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > When I was 20 and driving cross-country at night by myself, at some point near Milwaukee (I think) I tried to pass a tractor trailer on the left. It sped up when I was beside it. What I didn’t know was that the lane I was in was about to end, with concrete guard rails forcing the lane closure. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to a fatal car crash. > > I’m not impressed with any reason at all for speeding up when someone’s trying to pass. I haven’t read every post in this thread, but I agree with this. Even if the truck driver was being a total dick, and even if you were going to be inconvenienced down the track by his dickish behavior, there is never, ever, ever a good excuse for speeding up when someone is trying to pass you. I once did a civil trial where a guy did it to a woman who was trying to pass him on a rural road at speeds considerably slower than the ones you referenced. His actions caused her to panic, she lost control of her vehicle and wrapped her car around the only tree in the vicinity. She was rendered a quadriplegic for life. He paid her a lot of money for his dickish move, but somehow, I imagine the compensation was inadequate to her way of thinking. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/66 "2016-08-15T15:26:03Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I get the point. But if you’re close behind, the value of your attention is substantially circumscribed. You can’t react to what you literally cannot see. > > Honestly, given the truck and behavior described,\*\* I wouldn’t want to be anywhere around him\*\*. (Bolding mine) You’re talking about the OP, right?🆒 ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/67 "2016-08-15T15:35:03Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Compressing the gap with another vehicle at your own speed could be intended to facilitate that. I disagree, it is much easier, and in my opinion safer, to pass a single car than it is multiple cars. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/68 "2016-08-15T16:01:36Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > I disagree, it is much easier, and in my opinion safer, to pass a single car than it is multiple cars. This is especially true when driving an 18 wheeler. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/69 "2016-08-15T16:02:46Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > I noticed this too. East coast, blinker on, everyone around you kind of adjusts their speed to let you move over. West and middle parts, they flat-out ignore your signal. I think it’s kind of rude. Plus it can make for some frenetic and not terribly safe driving if you’ve never been there before and didn’t realize your exit was coming up in time to smoothly move over. > I hate driving behind trucks. They do indeed block your visibility even if you have a nice safe following distance. I’m from the NY area and in dense traffic here in my long experience some people will make a reasonable effort to allow you to make a lane change (I do if the situation is reversed\*) and some people are real dicks about it. But I haven’t noticed it that much different in other dense traffic area in cities, LA where I lived for awhile didn’t seem that much different or other metro areas I’ve passed through on road trips. Often when people speak of friendlier/better driving they are talking about areas with less traffic and/or a different demographic profile of drivers (race, class, born in the US or not), which definitely also matters. On the highway in 99% of cases (not rushing to the hospital or something) I don’t care about passing dynamics that leave me a couple of car (or truck) lengths behind where I’d be if I were more aggressive. If a truck pulls into a gap between me and next car ahead leaving the truck closer than I’d like, I drop back. If I want to pass the truck later, I do. I like two lane road passing in my current car anyway, good excuse to get into triple digits in the interests of safety, passing as quickly as possible, doesn’t take long 🙂 . I don’t speed otherwise, few mph above posted, max. \*obviously depends somewhat on particulars, maybe not the second person trying for the opening you made for the first, the person who zooms all the way up the empty lane you have to merge from then wants to immediately merge without even stopping, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/70 "2016-08-15T16:27:41Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > 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. OMG, are you ok? Have you been to the emergency room to get checked out? Have you talked to a therapist? This is literally the worse thing to happen to anyone since Satan was created. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/71 "2016-08-16T16:41:04Z")
The OP wants to know opinions whether he behaved as an unreasonable dick… but seems unwilling to accept that he has. IMO, you should have passed the car that was originally in front of you at the first, safe opportunity to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/72 "2016-08-16T17:59:06Z")
OP is a total dick (in this situation, possibly others, tough to say). I was actually thinking of posting about this last night (someone did it to me), because I honestly cannot fathom why people speed up when they’re getting passed. It’s such a twat thing to do. You’re happy enough lollygagging along until someone tries to pass you, but then nonono you have to be first? Screw you. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525/73 "2016-08-17T05:13:39Z")
> [@brainstall](#): > > Perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but I read that there was a space big enough for the truck to pull into between the OP and the car ahead, but when the truck attempted to pass, the OP sped up, closing that space and preventing the truck from passing. > > I don’t know about anyone else, but if two cars are spaced out far enough for me to safely get between them, I will pass one, and then slide back into the lane, and when it is safe to do so, I will pull out again and pass the next one. Having the car in front speed up when I try to pass, closing that gap and forcing me into the oncoming lane for longer is definitely a dick move. > > If I’m the car being passed, I generally back off on the gas just a little to allow them to get past me quicker, because that’s the nice thing to do. This, so much this. Let the truck pass one of you, and then the other. Don’t play chicken with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-etiquette-and-dickishness/762525.md?page=3)