I see this sort of thing quite often, and always wonder why they do it. It’s dangerous, and there’s so little to gain. Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) I was driving in the right hand lane, 45 mph, 2 lanes in each direction, road has a 45 mph speed limit. All of a sudden another driver in a white Lexus pulls out from a grocery store parking lot right in front of me, forcing me to brake & slow to 25 mph to avoid a collision. This sort of thing might be ok in rush hour traffic, but there was very little traffic at the time. In fact there wasn’t another vehicle behind mine for at least 5000 feet. So why would a driver pull out in front of me like that when they could wait for 10 seconds to let me pass by, then they’d have all the time in the world to pull into the lane? Isn’t this sort of weird driving behavior?
I see it all the time, people are just impatient to get on the road. But so often these same people take forever to get up to the speed limit. Along with the people on the acceleration ramps that want to merge onto an interstate at 35 MPH.
I guess it is just a “Me, Me, Me” thing.
I sometimes see the opposite, people at a complete stop on an on ramp waiting for a supersize gap to merge.
Even better, they usually make a right turn into a different store parking lot almost immediately after, or like Purebred said they then travel below the speed limit. Like, why were they in such a hurry to take their time getting somewhere?
Keep seeing drivers changing lanes, let’s say from left to right at the last minute to make a right hand turn, or beat 1 person to a stoplight, no road rage for me but I think why? Maybe too many forget where they are going in advance. The worst are the ones that block the left lane of traffic while trying to get into the left turn lane late.
Body shops see this behavior as a cash cow probably … lol … they aren’t complaining.
Why because they are impatient idiots !
I could understand if a gambler bet $10 on a 100-1 odds bet, b/c if they win they win big, $1000. But a gambler – if they were rational – wouldn’t bet with 100-1 odds if it only offered a $12 payout to a winner. That’s what’s weird about this behavior, not that they do it, but that the gain is so disproportionate to the risk. It’s like they are driving totally mindless.
Not saying that’s the case but they may just not have seen you until it’s too late, then they gotta go. I think that windshield pillar does it sometimes if they are at an angle. It’s happened a few times to me wondering where the h that car came from.
- The guy in the Lexus is a few payments behind and wants you to get him out from under his loan. Hit him and save the day.
2, It’s his road, and you are in the way.
There’s more possibilities, but you get the idea.
Here’s another possibility . . .
They didn’t think you were moving at a good clip, and thought they could safely pull out in front of you and get up to speed quickly, all without having you slam on the brakes
Not everybody is good at estimating how fast others are driving
Translation . . . they may have thought you were driving slowly
The thing I don’t get is this and it happened to me 2 weeks ago for the second time in 2 years. I’m on my way home on a divided 4 lane and see a pickup coming towards me; moving south in the northbound lanes.
I pull over to the shoulder and start flashing my headlamps at the guy who seemed oblivious and kept coming.
The funky part is that 4 cars behind me all maintained their speed and sailed by this guy door to door and were also either oblivious or downright stupid.
There has been several fatal head-ons with this road. Why those people behind me don’t head for the shoulder is beyond me. Seems it would be better than risking a combined 130 MPH collision; one in which I tried to help extract a couple of crash victims who were mangled up pretty badly because of a drunk driver. That scene certainly made me realize just how tough an EMT’s job can be.
Some people are jerks behind the wheel, but many times someone makes a mistake. We all make mistakes once in awhile. Even if I make one mistake a year, figure that’s not too bad. If I allow one mistake per year for every driver I encounter I would probably see many honest mistakes in a short time. This helps me keep things in perspective. Then there is stupid, and you just can’t fix that.
The answer is very obvious @George_San_Jose1… It is because they are the only person who matters…in the entire world.
Its a common condition from what I understand.
Also a somewhat related phenomenon common amongst people afflicted with this condition is the “Turn Signal while in the midst of actually turning” move that they seem to favor…that is IF they signal at all. What I mean is that instead of signalling their intent using the signals…they signal when they are in the act of turning the wheel and not one moment prior.
I have named this move “Inflagrante Signalicto” (not sure I used that correctly, but it sounds funny)
To signal prior to turning would mean that they have to actually acknowledge your existence and that does not fit within their life’s paradigm. Gotta love it…No?
George, I wish I had a dollar for every time this had happened to me.
What really gets me, is that once they cut me off and pull out in front of me, they tend to drive like tortoises. What’s their hurry?
Yes, but I see it ALL the time. Very common where I live to pull into traffic right at the same time as the cross traffic gets the green light. The assumption, I guess, is that we will hesitate before we move and accelerate very slowly. Which is how most of my area drives.
Without a stop light… I think people are very poor at judging oncoming traffic’s speed.
Great point on keeping things in perspective.
I tend to sort it into 3 buckets:
- the honest mistakes, which are clearly honest from how the situation unfolds
- the clear ignorant behavior
- the ignorant behavior mimicking to honest mistakes
I’m not at all irritated by #1
I stay away from #2 and observe they as acts of god, mostly getting amused at the act of stupidity
I’m really irritated by #3, as these guys tend to transition from “making mistake” to really aggressive “I will get in here NOW” very fast
It’s a way of life here driving around Boston. Been living here now for over 35 years and I’m still not use to it. Even here in Southern NH (suburb of Boston) it happens far too often. I see it all the time. And people here are confused that as to why their insurance rates are among the highest in the country???
Because then you’d be ahead of them and they can’t let that happen. It’s called maturity (or lack there-of).
I chalk-up these behaviors to simply being oblivious to what is taking place around them.
We have always had some people who are oblivious to their surroundings, but with the advent of distracting electronic devices, the number of oblivious people seems to have increased geometrically.
And, it’s not just a factor related to driving. I can’t be the only person who frequently encounters people in the aisles of stores who are gabbing on a cellphone while simultaneously blocking the aisle.
Polite recitations of “excuse me” rarely seem to work with these people, and after one of those attempts, I “accidentally” collide–gently–with them and their shopping carts.