Most of us are guilty of this problem, but I will say it: when you are in traffic, what is the rush?
On my way to work yesterday, I was in steady 30mph traffic on a 55mph road, route 74. Naturally, I eased into to an informal cruise control. This way, I don't have to worry about slamming on the breaks are stomping on the accelerator to pace traffic.
At one point, the space between the car ahead of me and my own car was probably 4 car lengths. I looked ahead and saw that the traffic was not abating. The space between the cars solely stemmed from two cars switching lanes to exit the road. In sum, I did not see any reason to change my cruise control approach. But, I noticed the driver in the car behind me. She caught my attention because she was yelling at me (with her hands), and the movement caught my eye in the rear view mirror. She was waiving her arms so much that I initially thought she was dancing to a song. She was not. She was pointing at me and essentially telling me to speed up.
I ignored her. As soon as she had the opportunity, she switched lanes in effort to get next to, then in front of, me. It took her a couple of speed up and slow down cycles. First she was was on my rear right bumper, then she made her way up to my front quarter. She glared at me. I looked at her and then turned back towards the road ahead. After another few minutes of her tailgating so she could get space, she was able to get ahead of me enough to switch into my lane. To be helpful, I slowed just a little so that she could squeeze over.
Awesome. She did it. She got in front of me. She gave me a sarcastic thumbs up sign. But, she was still moving at 30mph, just like me. Her win? She was now in front of me, but with less spacing between her car and the car in front of her. My only question is: what did she accomplish?
