Every morning (or almost every morning) I witness what is to me, a strange and dangerous behavior amongst my fellow drivers.
My route takes me through a section of road wherein three lanes are reduced to two, with the innermost lane becoming a merge-right lane. I normally travel in the middle lane, meaning my lane is the one into which traffic will be merging. Traffic is usually light, and there is ample space behind me, but the point-of-merge is shortly before a stoplight, so traffic in front of me is usually stopped. Almost every morning I find that there will be a car in the left lane, one or two carlengths behind me, and ample room behind me as well. But for some reason these drivers feel the need to shift into high gear and cut in front of me just before their lane ceases to exist.
Its not as though the merge is a surprise, the lane is marked for quite some length. And it bewilders me why they wouldn’t just switch over one lane and pull in behind me, they’re already lined up to do just that. But 4 days out of 5 I will encounter a driver that barrels right in front of me, only to have to come to a stop at the light in about 20 feet. Why do they do this? Has no one ever read their driver’s handbook before?
I’ve given up on becoming angry at stupid and dangerous driving, and now I’m honestly seeking to understand the behavior behind it.
I do it because the road is one place where you can get away with cutting in line, and it saves me a quite a few minutes or seconds depending on the traffic situation. I also do it because a lot of other drivers do it and it pisses me off when people do it to me. In Atlanta it’s part of life.
Right. And I’m sure you’ll feel it’s worth the time you saved when you cause yourself or someone else to destroy their vehicle. It’ll be worth it to see someone spinning out of control in your rearview mirror, or when you taste the blood you’re spitting into your cell phone as you try to call 911 with the stench of airbag propellant hanging in the air.
Don’t even talk to me about brain dead Atlanta drivers or their police force. I’ve got a story and you don’t want to get me started. It would head straight to the pit, I tell you. Straight to the pit.
I just don’t understand the line of thought that dictates people should do things to other people because they hate it when people do those things to them. Isn’t that how the whole mess perpetuates itself?
If they didn’t do that, they’d arrive to their destination 0.0004 seconds later than if they hadn’t. Shoot, do the math, if you do that 2-3 times per trip, you save almost one-thousandth of a second!
Just a note, bright headlights behind them may give them an idea of how ignorant they are. Or it might get you shot, depending on the ignoramus.
Unfortunately people do this because they are idiots. The danger they cause to others makes the others want apparently safer vehicles (more likely to survive the damage of a crash) so they buy SUV’s even though they don’t need the extra capacity of such a vehicle. The first lot of idiots now either buy SUVs or start complaining that SUVs are the scurge of the road and cause all danger on the highways.
Arghghgh I know exactly what you mean. This happens in pretty much any merge scenario. What’s the worst is when a merge is occurring on a busy highway and traffic is stopped for miles – then you see some flaming assholes in their SUV’s or picky-up trucks go into the emergency lane, whiz to the front of the pack, and cut their ways back into traffic just before the merge. And what’s even more aggravating than these people are the idiots who wave them in, thinking they are being polite, helpful citizens; failing to realize that they’re encouraging the very behavior which causes the delay for everybody else in the first place.
Whenever I can, I purposely prevent people from making last second merges. I love watching somebody roar up beside me then have to wait while I (and hopefully 7 or 8 cars behind me) keep them waiting at the end of the merge lane.
I would be willing to bet that I cut off unwashed brain in traffic this morning. Of course, I am sure the reverse will happen on the way home.
There is something about Atlanta roadways that takes a bunch of normal, sane, intelligent people and turns us into idiotic, snarling beasts needing to get to a spot 20 feet up the road 1 second quicker than the car of pure evil directly next to you.
Drex, let’s stick to the OP’s question. She’s not asking if it’s right or wrong, or for your opinion of people who do it. She’s asking why people do it.
I am a safety-conscious driver, and I hardly do anything that would cause any sort of accident when performing the last-minute lane change maneuver. I use my turn signals generously (a rarity in Atlanta), and I don’t actually think there’s anything illegal about doing it - the lane I’m driving in still exists and has a dashed line. Also, my car is small (VW GTI), so it doesn’t require much space in which to fit. It’s basically just percieved as rude because I’m not waiting in line like everybody else.
House, in Atlanta, where we endure the nation’s longest commutes at an average of 35 miles (cite: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2001/2001-01-31-atlanta-pollution.htm), such a maneuver can easily shave 5-15 minutes off of your drive, depending on how far traffic is backed up. <mostly kidding here> I’m just doing my part to help reduce pollution in Atlanta by getting my car off the road as quickly as possible</mostly kidding here>.
LOL! I do this, too. As soon as I make the last minute change into the lane, I immediately revert into part of the indignant yet civilized mass that is trying to prevent jerkoffs like me from cutting in front of everybody else. Hypocrisy??? Of course, but would you rather have me cut in front of you and then let the rest of the world cut in front of me?
A similar thing I’ve noticed is people in my lane pulling left then zooming up and passing me, only to immediatly cut in front of me to the right not one but two lanes to take an off ramp or make a turn about 3 seconds sooner than if they had just stayed in their lane behind me… and I mean they have to cut sharply over once they pass, like 30 degrees from straight forward at high speed.
But one time I had my sweet sweet revenge (even though I did nothing)… about 100’ ahead of me a big van pulled this trick on the car in front of him (zipping around and then immediatly cutting off and turning in front of that car) - and either the van’s driver was blind or just plain stupid - because the car he cut around then cut off was a marked police car that he’d been behind for at least two blocks. What was better was that he used no signals passing or turning, and he cut in front of the cop and turned with little enough room that the cop had to hit the brakes hard enough to cause his nose to dip. His lights went on immediatly and pulled the van over just as he rounded the corner. Unfortunately I was just passing them when this happened so I didn’t get to see the resulting riot act.
I think it’s just the “me first! I’ve got places to go!!!” attitude so prevelent on the road. One of my favorite lines to quote to myself when I see this is “HURRY MORON, that place you’re going to ISN’T GONNA BE THERE much longer!”
I cannot verify the veracity of the following claim: I’ve heard from others that American drivers tend to be competitive and so those people may just want to be ahead of you.
My theory might be that if you’re in the middle lane and there is no one in the right-hand lane (“light traffic”) and they’re going faster than you, then it may be reasonable to assume that you will be going more slowly than they would like once they get past the stop sign. In that regard, then, it makes sense to want to get past you while they can. Even if there is someone in the right-hand lane, they are still driving faster than you and may wish to take this last ditch opportunity to get past you and have one less car to pass later on.
If it’s any consolation, people who bop & weave in heavy traffic don’t really do themselves any favors. While they are slowing down overall traffic by disrupting the flow, and creating more risk for themselves and other drivers, they are most likely gaining nothing in terms of lowering their travel time while at the same time greatly increasing their stress levels and risk of accident, heart attack, ulcer, and probably divorce (when they come home bitching about the commute every day). See, for example: http://www.stat.duke.edu/chance/133.redelmeier.pdf
I would really like to know why people do it too. Would it not be faster and safer for everyone if reckless drivers stopped increasing the likelyhood of accidents and traffic jams? They may feel like they save a few seconds (or minutes, depending on how one looks at it) in the short run, but that time is more than eaten up sitting for a half hour or more behind (or god forbid inside of) an accident investigation scene.
It still makes no sense to me to do things to other people because the perpetrator hates it when those things are done to them.
I’ll tell you exactly why most people do it… human beings are naturally competitive. Being in front is linked to winning, so people jump at the chance to move themselves forward in line, even though they know that in most cases it won’t save them any serious amount of time. Must be some primitive instinct to be the first to the watering hole, fresh meat, etc.
Normally passive people are more aggressive behind the wheel. I think this is because the car is their own private territory, albeit a mobile one. Plus, the automobile lends a sense of power and protection (They’re big, made of metal, etc.).
So, you have normally nice people, who would never cut in front of you at the checkout counter, cutting you off in traffic. I don’t think most of them are trying to be rude jerks… its just kind of prewired into the brain.
Now, what really ticks me off is when someone goes out of their way to pass me, then slows back down to 5 mph under the speed I was originally traveling… those are the rude jerks… and the people who throw cigarette butts out their windows (I seem to collect them on the first bounce, in either my radiator or hood scoop).