has anyone noticed this phenomenon?

[Our House]

The ABSOLUTE WORST, single most annoying driving encounter is this:

You're going 40-45 on a normal, residential road. A car approaches from the right-hand side street about 500 feet in front of you. He doesn't turn immediately, but instead, waits until the very last second to whip out into your lane...and then proceeds to drive at 15 MPH in front of you.

Standard.

[Layzie]

he probably realized how slow he was going when he noticed you trying to pass. I used to have this problem when I was young and stoned.

[27offsuit]

No one likes to get passed is my 2 cents.

I do 495 daily and find this to be the case when it goes from 2 lanes to 3.

I've thought about this same occurance before and found that as I was pulling over from 3rd lane to middle to move over for a car behind me, I was speeding up as I did it.

You can't not factor in the 'tool' factor though. Some people are literally offended by your passing.


In your situation, I have a standard play.
When it breaks into 2 lanes and the guy stays in the right lane but speeds up dramatically as you pass, I pull up along side of them and just stay there (sometimes for miles) until we come upon a car in the right lane, at which point the other car has to slow down, pull behind me, pass car with me, then pull over again.

The very best is when you are driving 2 wide, and you approach the next car in the right lane, they step on the gas in an attempt to squeeze in front of you(which I f*cking hate). I never let this happen and look over and laugh at them as I close their passing window down.

I am a MAsshole. I enjoy this.

Edit: Kind of botched your original question. You weren't necessarily passing.

[The DaveR]

Your speed is perceived in part by the width of the road and the amount of open space around you. For example, go 80 down an empty 5 lane highway and it won't feel particularly fast. Maybe he was just spacing out and thought, "Crap! I'm going to slow," and it was a bad coincidence.

Or maybe he's a douchebag.

jason_pee would have capped his ass because that kid suffers from serious road rage.

[Phaedrus]

[ QUOTE ]
i want to mention that i'm not tailgating the guy. i hate that [censored]. i'm about 30 feet behind him.

[/ QUOTE ]
30 ft? That's about two car lengths. You can't get by him for 8 miles, why do you need to be close at all? You should be almost 200 ft back for a 2 second following distance.

Ever notice this phenomenon? You're driving a bit over the speed limit, there's no possibility of passing for miles, and some [censored] is riding your bumper...

[daryn]

i definitely wasn't riding his bumper. maybe 30 ft is a poor estimation on my part, but i know how to drive, and i don't tailgate.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe when there is oncoming traffic going by you on the left, people are more scared to go fast?

[/ QUOTE ]


This is absolutely correct.

I think it's also a combination of possible day-dreaming.

But lots of drivers, particularly older ones, get really nervous on the skinnier 2-lane roads.

Some of them just can't bring themselves to go faster than 40 in a 55 or something ridiculous (I witnessed this recently). Older drivers might do this instinctively if they grew up in rural areas with bad roads where skinny-road = extra caution required.

My GF's dad was doing 40 in a 55 on our way down to Fla via a 2-lane road in Ala. He isn't from the U.S. and just isn't used to 2-lane roads and cars actually being reasonably safe.
I had to get us to pull-over and switch drivers because it was really unsafe to go that slow when the other drivers wanted to go 60-65.
But I think he would have been okay on a wider, multi-lane type highway.