Road Moron

[user removed]

I was driving home from a show, 25 miles west on I64. I have driven this road since they built it in the late 1960s and there is not much that surprises me anymore. I know where the potholes are on this road.
The exit to my house is the only exit, in at least 100 miles, where you have to be in the left lane for the exit. I try to get in the left lane well before the exit, because traffic can get so heavy and people follow each other so closely that sometimes if you wait too long you just can't get into the left lane safely.
This was not one of those days. Speed limit is 65, but if you go that slow you have people all over your arse, but today the traffic was actually moving along a just a couple of MPH over the 65 limit.
I moved over to the left lane a little over than a mile from the exit, speed up to 72 MPH to match my speed to the left lane traffic, everything looks fine, maybe another 60 seconds to my exit. A single car is leaving the crowd 100 yards behind me. This guy is closing fast, has to be going 90+ to close at that rate. Even though there is no other car within over 100 yards of me front and rear, this clown pulls up 2 feet behind me. The right lane is clear but no, he wants to tailgate me 6 feet from my rear end and I am going 100 feet per second.
I move over in the lane to the left edge, which usually gets the idiot to just go around me, but not this clown, he pulls up beside me and gives me the finger. I return the favor, so his next move is to run me off the road. The crazy thing is as he is pulling into my lane with his left rear tire next to my right front,
HE HAS HIS TURN SIGNAL ON!
Finally he pulls away, rolls his sunroof back and gives me the bird with both hands out the sunroof. A few seconds later this absolute genius sees me hit my left turn signal and get off the road using the left exit. By now he has closed on the group of cars in front and is tailgating someone else again.
I can only wonder what the idiot thought when he saw me exiting to the left when is the only way for me to get off the road without going several miles past my house and coming back. Probably cussing the driver in front of him for slowing him down.

regards
Mech

[MetroMPG]

Too bad civility isn't a pre-requisite for getting a driver's licence!

[landsailor]

Had nearly the same thing happen to me. Small suburban 2 lane..me going the speed limit and the psychotic plague infested guy in a BMW crossover instantly pulled up within 10 ' of my bumper....could see him doing the "Italian" both hands in the air....so started off a volley of salutes...I started having "the finger" cramps...got bored....pulled over to "meekly" let him by....got his lic. plate.....and as a good concerned citizen called it in.
Passed him stopped by the State Police 6 miles down the road and to his credit his was communicating the same way with the officer as he had with me. Passed them and waved real friendly....you'all all come back soon..ye hear?

[Christ]

I had a guy try to run me off the road recently in the Golf. I don't necessarily care about my cars, and when it's just me in the car, I don't worry too much about safety, either. I "stand my ground" and let them get as close as they wish to me. The second they touch my car, my intention is to steer directly into their car to control the situation as best as I can and get them stopped. Then, if they're lucky, I won't beat them to within an inch of their life and steal their wallet and insurance card.

In my case, I carry a handgun in plain view while in my car (unless it's holstered still), and the average person is looking at you while they're trying to intimidate you to see how you react (bad idea, if anyone reading is "that guy"), so they usually see it there and back off immediately. The worst part is, I'd never even think of using it in that situation because of the potential risk to others.

[Thymeclock]

Do you really want to know where you went wrong or how you can improve your driving psychology? If you can withstand some criticism, I’ll offer it. (If not, please don’t read this and don’t offer a defensive argument.)

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

.
The exit to my house is the only exit, in at least 100 miles, where you have to be in the left lane for the exit. I try to get in the left lane well before the exit, because traffic can get so heavy and people follow each other so closely that sometimes if you wait too long you just can't get into the left lane safely.

Yes, what you describe is a poorly planned interstate highway like many others in the Northeast with the 'left lane exit only' foolishness of design.

This was not one of those days. Speed limit is 65, but if you go that slow you have people all over your arse, but today the traffic was actually moving along a just a couple of MPH over the 65 limit.
I moved over to the left lane a little over than a mile from the exit…

IMHO that is way too soon, but I’m a NY’er. No one needs a full mile to exit any highway.

…speed up to 72 MPH to match my speed to the left lane traffic, everything looks fine, maybe another 60 seconds to my exit.

At that speed we are talking about a mile, right? That gives lots of time to do lots of things, no?

A single car is leaving the crowd 100 yards behind me. This guy is closing fast, has to be going 90+ to close at that rate. Even though there is no other car within over 100 yards of me front and rear, this clown pulls up 2 feet behind me. The right lane is clear but no, he wants to tailgate me 6 feet from my rear end and I am going 100 feet per second.

I move over in the lane to the left edge, which usually gets the idiot to just go around me…

Why didn’t you just ignore him? When you moved over and acted deferential, you invited him to bully you.

….but not this clown, he pulls up beside me and gives me the finger. I return the favor.

Oh, that was smart. First you acted passive, then you act aggressive. Can you see how you exacerbated this situation?

…so his next move is to run me off the road. The crazy thing is as he is pulling into my lane with his left rear tire next to my right front,
HE HAS HIS TURN SIGNAL ON!

Well, DUH - at least give him some credit. If you had ignored him from the start none of this would have happened. Either he would have sped up and cut in front of you or been relegated to sitting behind you. Next time someone flips you the bird, smile and wave back at him. It’s disarming. It’s really hard to get angry and escalate a situation when you are perceived as being friendly or carefree rather than angry. But you “returned the favor” by giving him the finger in return. Bad strategy.

Finally he pulls away, rolls his sunroof back and gives me the bird with both hands out the sunroof. A few seconds later this absolute genius sees me hit my left turn signal and get off the road using the left exit. By now he has closed on the group of cars in front and is tailgating someone else again.
I can only wonder what the idiot thought when he saw me exiting to the left when is the only way for me to get off the road without going several miles past my house and coming back. Probably cussing the driver in front of him for slowing him down.

Look – you knew what his mentality was, but you got suckered into playing his game. The best way to deal with people like that is to let them go! Let them cut in and out of traffic. Let them speed. Ironically people that drive that way usually don’t get anywhere any faster than by keeping a steady pace. And often you might pass them further down the road – because they will have done you the favor of being more attractive to the cop that pulled them over.

[sgtlethargic]

Road rage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Machismo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I could only find this in Spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veBiy-NlpNE

[larrybuck]

Avoid eye contact if all possible! Don't let anyone GET to your head!

I understand that you didn't want to get boxed out of your turnoff, but since you were traveling at the speeds you stated; a little later might have been better.

You mentioned seeing this guy in your mirror leaving the group behind, and closing very fast. Upon THAT detection, I would have immediately changed to the right lane; let him blow by, and you still would have had time to re-enter the left lane.

Thereby no fracus would have happened at all! No exchanges, nor you getting upset!

When you find a wild tiger, don't aggravate it further. The guy might have gone postal, and starting ramming you in the rear.

If he would have arrived JUST before your turnoff, I might have faked a tourist needs map time, and turned off on the left shoulder if there was an adequate one.

When they are that intense; totally ignoring ANY thing they do, or doing all you can
to get RID of them seems to be a safer way to go.

Happy you did get the satisfaction of seeing them pulled over.

Since you shared this with all of us, and maybe expected comments; we ALL can learn to handle a situation better the next time IF we can keep those emotions in check!

If we are turtles; we come with shells!!!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

Yes, what you describe is a poorly planned interstate highway like many others in the Northeast with the 'left lane exit only' foolishness of design.

Exactly! What sort of idiots design exits on the left? I know most Americans are too dumb and/or inconsiderate to have mastered the "slower traffic keep right" thing, but still, traffic engineers ought to know better.

PS: I know, "ought to". As if there weren't dozens of entrance & exit ramps around here that are banked the wrong way. And the 300 ft high bridge built in an area that regularly sees 80+ mph crosswinds...

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Christ

I had a guy try to run me off the road recently in the Golf. I don't necessarily care about my cars, and when it's just me in the car, I don't worry too much about safety, either. I "stand my ground" and let them get as close as they wish to me. The second they touch my car, my intention is to steer directly into their car to control the situation as best as I can and get them stopped. Then, if they're lucky, I won't beat them to within an inch of their life and steal their wallet and insurance card.

In my case, I carry a handgun in plain view while in my car (unless it's holstered still), and the average person is looking at you while they're trying to intimidate you to see how you react (bad idea, if anyone reading is "that guy"), so they usually see it there and back off immediately. The worst part is, I'd never even think of using it in that situation because of the potential risk to others.

Actually I was coming back from a gun show (not mentioned previously) and had my legal carry gun, a H&K P7 with two spare loaded magazines, total of 24 rounds. I also had a 1909 S&W New Century, the first gun to use the 44 special cartridge in 1908.
As I said before there was no traffic in either lane for at least 100 yards in front and behind me, until the other driver decided he was entitled to ignore the posted speed limit by at least 25 MPH and risk a reckless charge and a $500 fine. Instead he chose to come so close behind me I though he might ram me. At that point I had made no signs, signals, or reacted in any other way except to check that the loaded pistol was where I though I had put it.
Any advice about when I changed lanes is ludicrous, the act was well planned and presented no hindrance to the flow of traffic whatsoever and in fact I was going 7 over the limit and flowing with all of the traffic except one idiot.
Any move by me from my present location and speed would have potentially created one hell of a wreck, and anyone who advocates such an action is a worse driver than me.
By the time the Idiot was all over my rear end, I was less than 15 seconds from the exit. I didn't build the road gents. I could have exited on 143 West several miles earlier but that costs me a fraction of a MPG and more potential danger than the Interstate under normal conditions.
I quoted Christ's response because it seems to be similar to how I would respond, but I have a virtually perfect car, and I am older, so the thought of a physical confrontation would mean a somewhat different response.
I generally stay off this section of the Interstate on my bikes and in the future I will probably avoid the same section, since there is little benefit in the choice.
Apparently the Idiot was satisfied when I changed lanes instead of hitting his stupid arse in his old piece of junk. I guess he thought I was deserving of retribution for not matching his 10 MPH over reckless pace until I reached the exit.
One of the reasons for this thread was to show that the actions of other drives may not necessarily be due to hypermiling actions on your part. The only hypermiling action I took was to coast in neutral after I reached my exit.
The bottom line is the incident was an example of the mental state of other drivers. You never know what is going through their minds. I as actually surprised by only one action, which was why the Idiot did not just blow by me in the right lane instead of creating an incident that had no rational justification. He is very lucky he did not decide to escalate his stupidity. In order to prevent that I did not turn my signal on indicating my intentions until he had passed the exit and could not turn off in front of me. Had I signalled earlier and he exited in front of me, I would just have continued on the Interstate.
It's interesting to see the responses here , especially those that seem to think there was some contribution to the incident on my part. I have seen drivers flipping out in cars at traffic lights, when my only "mistake" was to be the car that was behind them. I have seen the same driver put his car in reverse and act like he was going to back up into me intentionally.
A good friend had this happen to her. The other driver jumped out of her car and threatened to report the "accident" unless my friend gave her several hundred dollars. Instead my friend called the police and reported the incident to her insurance company.
Further investigation showed that the other driver had been engaging in this type of willful extortion and apparently many other drivers had paid the money knowing that when they were alone and the instigator had a witness they would loose the case in court.
The other driver had 17 such "incidents" in the last 18 months. The insurance company and legal authorities pursued and arrested the driver for extortion.
thymeclock, any time you are near eastern Virginia, you are hereby entitled to one free driving lesson, Son.. Of course that means you must also prepare yourself for a serious dose of humble pie, something which the evidence here shows you may have trouble swallowing.

regards
Mech

[user removed]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Exactly! What sort of idiots design exits on the left? I know most Americans are too dumb and/or inconsiderate to have mastered the "slower traffic keep right" thing, but still, traffic engineers ought to know better.

PS: I know, "ought to". As if there weren't dozens of entrance & exit ramps around here that are banked the wrong way. And the 300 ft high bridge build in an area that regularly sees 80+ mph crosswinds...

While I could not agree with this sentiment more, we could all waste the rest of our lives trying to get those in charge to actually fix everything wrong with roads. My first priority would be a ditch that is 6 inches from the pavement, with large mature trees a couple of feet past that ditch., but then isn't that the topic of a separate thread.

While we are at it, just eliminate all intersections, make everything one way, and grade the elevation changes so we can all hypermile along to perfection without our speed changing and subjecting ourselves to those sucky increases in aero drag.

LOL post 2001, I guess this is my space odyssey.

Mech