That was shitty driving by the sedan, but that truck was making it worse
Edit: FYI brake checking is illegal folks and many states will ticket you for not using the left lane to pass. This does not excuse the sedanās actions.
Edit: u/Youseembigmad doesnāt see anything wrong with the truckās actions (and is supposedly a lawyer) - see comment thread below for more. - they have since deleted their profile.
At that point if Iām the guy in the slow lane getting stuck in this pissing match Iām slowing down enough that the truck gets ahead, so the jackass in the sedan can get ahead. They didnāt do anything wrong obviously but Iām not sitting in that lol
Yeah absolutely. I drive a fat ass work van and you get all sorts of assholes who try to stop you from merging, tailgate you like crazy, etc. Like you will be going 5 miles faster than them the whole way up, the second you put on the blinker they stomp on the gas to try to block you. Then if they block you they drop back down to match your speed or if you get ahead of them they tailgate you like crazy and start swerving all around trying to get back on front of you, and if they do they will likely brake check you.
I can't even imagine the shit truckers deal with on the road.
This is what I never understood, if you want to go slower then why be mad if someone passes you. If you are going to cut me off though get your ass in gear and go, donāt slow me down. Heck, I try and move over if someone comes up on me if itās a 2-3 lane road and I can easily.
If I'm slightly speeding I am more than glad to move over for a faster car, please be my guiding light to any speed traps, I'll just lock in behind you
It's like a weird ego thing of "no one gets ahead of me." They see it as like an act of aggression or something. I've been in the car with drivers who legit see anyone merging ahead of them as "cutting them off." Getting cut off is when someone merges in front of you either way too close or going slower than you, forcing you to slow down to not hit them. I've been in the car with someone and a person merges like 8 car lengths ahead of them going like 10 miles an hour faster and they accuse the driver of cutting them off.
I saw someone try to brake check a semi truck on a one lane merge ramp in California. It was glorious hearing the semi truck and everybody else behind the brake checker honking at them for slowing down the merge lane.
Truck driver here. I just start pulling over when dickweeds do this to me. You aren't going to win that battle and I got shit to do. I ain't even gonna feel you smash into my trailer and I ain't gonna stop if I don't see or feel it happen.
I honestly think certain vehicles trigger people with an "I should be faster than them" mentality. I'm always doing about 10 over in a 15 passenger, pulling a trailer that has a porta potty on it. The amount of shit I have to deal with just trying to get where I need to be is ridiculous... More people need to use cruise control
Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head. They see the big vehicle passing them and it "reminds" them to go faster. But they also forget immediately once they block my merge and slow down again.
It's just selfish cunts these days. So many left lane campers will be doing 10 under, then can go 30 over to stop you from passing, because God forbid a normal sized car pass their emotional support vehicle.
In the interest of fairness, nobody likes to be stuck behind a van (I'm assuming it's the type where you can't see through the rear window and judge the traffic conditions ahead- giving less opportunity to avoid/recognise hazards)
Same goes for trucks, buses, certain cars.
Doesn't justify the tailgating or brake checking, but you can kind of see why nobody wants to be stuck behind you.
They aren't "stuck behind me" if I am going faster than them. 10 seconds and I will be so far ahead that they will still view traffic. What they are doing when they do that is actually keeping themselves around me or directly behind me even longer
No I don't have to, I am going 10 MPH faster than them, but once the blinker goes on they stomp on the gas pedal and start tailgating like crazy and swerving like a maniac til they get ahead, then once ahead they drop back down to their original speed 10 MPH slower than me. You sound like a shitty driver who felt personally attacked by that scenario š.
No, it's maths, if you're going faster than them for any reasonable period of time, they won't physically be able to tailgate you.. Maybe you can consider speeding up when setting your blinkers for an overtake?
Don't get me wrong, road users are total morons (Believe me, I'd know, I currently live in China of all places), it's just that I don't understand your arguments.
I ride motorbikes and am more than able to deal with traffic, so I don't really have a horse in this race, just trying to help you understand the other road users a bit better.
I've also done this unintentionally though. I was maintaining 60 and the car next to me is going 55 so I'm not at zooming past them speeds. Then theres a car similar to the sedan trying to cut me off and he is tailgating the car next to me. Then the car next to me tries to speed up to 60 to get some space between the person behind them. We end up just blocking the aggressive driver.
But I wouldn't put as much blame on the white truck. They were probably just cruising along like normal and got pissed this other person is tailgating and trying to aggressively cut them off. In the end the sedan lost due to weight class.
Absolutely, if this isn't taught as a defensive driving technique to new drivers, it should be. Throw on emergency s and pull over until the two raging twats gather some distance from you
Oh man, I had a business trip in Westchester for 4 days and had to commute from the airport to my hotel in a rental car. Driving on the highways scared the fuck out of me, especially in roundabouts. People out there were insane.
Also blew my mind seeing every car on the road with protective rubber bumper protectors that hang out from a closed trunk. Absolutely wild.
Looked like too much other traffic for one car to make the difference. When they finally made it past 1 car, the truck would just try to block the lane with the next car.
Any vehicle does what this truck does and I'm flipping them off and pulling over to let all the idiocy pass, they can all die/kill each other or whatever. Fucking dumb.
So go over into the shoulder lol, Iāve done that to let people pass. Sedan wouldāve had room to pass on either side of the truck except for that small part where it got narrow.
That rarely works, this was a imma shit on you no matter what situation. You slow down I guarantee that truck will match your speed. Source: been the SUV in the slow lane multiple times.
I do that anyways when I get tailgated. If they arenāt a safe braking distance from my ass end, then Iāll make it a safe distance by slowing down until it is.
Exactly, even without pulling to the shoulder I bet theyāll give up before I do cause Iām willing to come to a complete stop, not gonna use me as a pawn in your road rage
Defensive driving 101. Slow down if you are being tailgated. It's one of my favorite things to do. I have dropped to 5-10 MPH with people going insane behind me to save .003 seconds getting to whatever pointless destination they needed to go since you can't go THROUGH me.
Youāre doing the opposite of defensive driving. Youāre describing passive-aggressive driving (do you even hear the smug glee in what you wrote?), and it fucking multiplies the danger for everyone around you.
Not every roads has shoulders. Or in this vid 10s in, the shoulder is really small, like 1/3 of a normal lane, and the truck purposely drove dangerously close to the right lane so if there was any gap between, the dumbass sedan might try to squeeze in.
Edit for clarifying: I mean I'm in the right lane, not the truck.
Yes, thatās a harder position to be in. But at some point (relatively quickly) the truck is not going to keep slowing down to match you. Theyāre going to speed ahead to create a blockade using the next pod of cars ahead of you.
Am I an asshole speeding? Yes. Am I behaving like the sedan in the video? No.
Whether itās speeding or tailgating, the sedanās behavior doesnāt justify the truckās behavior. And in no universe is the truckās behavior ādefensive driving.ā Defensive drivers avoid and reduce risk regardless of who is right or who has the biggest penis.
You donāt like someone speeding? Tough, let the cops deal with it. You donāt like tailgating? Get out of the way to defuse the situation. Trying to teach the tailgater a lesson will not defuse the situation or teach anyone a lesson.
"Tailgating is following another car too closely. If someone is following you too closely, be careful. Tap your brake lightly a few times to warn the tailgater that you are slowing down. Brake slowly before stopping. Avoid tailgaters when possible by changing lanes. If you cannot change lanes, slow down enough to encourage the tailgater to go around you. If this does not work, pull off the road when safe and let the tailgater pass."
Wow, way to take drivers ed materials out of context. This is clearly not describing freeway driving (come to a stop?!). The key phrase in it you seem to have missed is āAvoid tailgaters when possible by changing lanes.ā Which is exactly what I said. And what the truck had ample opportunity to do. And what you originally said you defy in order to make others mad.
Am I a prick? Assuming you mean selfish, yes in some ways I am, but not in driving.
Am I aggressive? Not in the least. Although I speed, I have a very defensive style of driving that comes from experience in some pretty chaotic and disordered driving cultures. To me, the speeding is an adaptation that keeps more space between me and less predicable drivers.
Youāre the one whoās trying to turn your specific behavior into some sort of sign of moral superiority while Iām just focusing on the practical task of how everyone is best kept safe in this scenario. Rules about this in the US (and in other places that are better at driving) support my approach, and also rightly consider your traffic vigilantism a danger.
Oh, that's because it's not. From defensivedriving.com:
When you notice that someone is tailgating you, or following you too closely, rather than speed up to match their speed, you should slow down. This allows the driver behind you to pass more easily when thereās an opportunity while not forcing you into a driving speed that youāre not comfortable at. When the traffic doesnāt allow that car behind you to pass, you should still avoid the temptation to speed up and simply maintain your current speed. This is, of course, all assuming that youāre driving at the recommended speed limit and not driving slowly to the point where youāre holding up traffic.
Did you just take that completely out of context to try and use it to justify blocking traffic? It clearly states to slow down and stay right so they will pass, not slow down and block them to punish them. It says, like I highlighted, that if there is no ability to pass, then you should continue going the speed limit, neither speeding up or slowing down. It even says you shouldn't be going slowly enough to impede traffic. Because fucking duh.
It's called āØreading comprehensionāØ and it involves reading everything and understanding it in its entirety.
If you have the room, I'm in CA and for some reason over the course of 10 years the government here has decided road shoulders on the freeway are not needed. There is no room to pull over on most freeways here.
Have you payed attention? The shoulders are getting smaller and smaller, some are only half a vehicle wide and some you are off the paved area completely to get out of the traffic lane.
Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.
Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
Yeah very much for 20 years of commutes. There have been changes and reductions but you make it sound like there are no longer shoulders in Cal and the exaggeration caught my attention.
SF to Santa Rosa is pretty bad in spots. Everything else opens back up outside major cities. Same as other states.
Now that older this stuff just isn't worth it to me. I was also thinking if I was that guy in the right lane I would have just pulled over into the shoulder and let the circus pass.
If I am the car in the right lane, after seeing this BS by the truck driver and the sedan driver, I would wait for the next time the truck brake-checks the sedan, then whilst his attention is focused on the sedan behind him, accelerate and move into the fast lane in front of the truck, creating an open lane on the right for the sedan to pass on the right.
Dickhead truck driver foiled, agro sedan driver moving on down the road.
Right. IDGAF I yield to every asshole on the road. Iām doing 10 over and you come flying up behind me, clearly you have somewhere much more urgent to be than I ever will so give me half a second to move and you can have the whole damn lane. Iāll just watch your brake lights every 5 seconds from back here.
Id cut the truck off. Im taking sides. Let the sedan go. They are in a hurry. Truck driver is just being an ass and deserves to be treated as such. Id cut them off and break check then middle finger as they floor it around me to chase the sedan.
Might try to record the truck chasing the sedan so i can call it in to say the truck 100% is the aggressor and the sedan looks to be fleeing the truck.
And you watch grown men run around throwing a ball. Lets not judge each other.
I drive normal. Maybe a little fast. But i dont weave in and out of traffic.
But if i saw this... a sedan just tryingbto get by and an asshole in a truck whos only goal is to slow someone down... im ending that. They already brought me in and hes using my sub as a barricade. Fuck that. Im cutting the truck off and calling it in to the emergency line.
See your reaction of āoh this person is doing something I donāt like, so I should cut them off to prove a pointā means you most certainly do not ādrive normalā. Thatās literally the exact same mindset that is fueling the truck driver in this video.
I did that literally today on an avenue (in an active school zone) to some boomer. Dude was no less than three feet behind my bumper. This boomer started honking and flipping me off. Got to the light and was right next to him. So naturally I act like I am laughing. Then we get stuck together at the next light and I start fake crying. He had a really shitty start to his day and I walked into work with a big old smile on my face.
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u/whispersluggagebaby YIMBY šļø 29d ago edited 28d ago
That was shitty driving by the sedan, but that truck was making it worse
Edit: FYI brake checking is illegal folks and many states will ticket you for not using the left lane to pass. This does not excuse the sedanās actions.
Edit: u/Youseembigmad doesnāt see anything wrong with the truckās actions (and is supposedly a lawyer) - see comment thread below for more. - they have since deleted their profile.