So, I live in a suburban countryside kind of hybrid place. A lot of the intersections are two lanes but right before and after the intersection it’s one lane in each direction. So, I’m at a red light, I’m first in line, and there are 2 or 3 cars behind me. Some guy pulls up next to me in the lane that is going to end just past the light. Kind of annoying because he’s the 4th guy to get to the light and doesn’t just go to the back of the line, and instead gets in the right hand lane that is going to have to merge with our lane just past the light. It’s not a big deal, I don’t sweat it, but it does bother me if they accelerate fairly aggressively in order to get in front of me before the merge, AND THEN GO SLOWLY once they are in front of me. If you want to get in front, fine, but don’t go slowly, especially when you were the 4th car to arrive at the light and you’re going out of your way to get in front of people that were there before you.
So, the light turns green and buddy accelerates really aggressively and gets in front of me. I accelerated moderately to try to be in proportion with what would be my eventual driving speed such that if he’s slow, I end up in front, and if he’s genuinely faster than me, then he can go in front. He does 5 over the limit once he’s in front of me which is fine because that’s all I want to do anyway, but it does seem a bit dumb to go through all that effort to get in front of everyone if you’re only going to go 5 over. Whatever, I’m good.
So, down the road he makes a left hand turn and it’s where I need to go so I turn behind him. Now he’s doing the literal speed limit on a road that can definitely handle 10 over. I start to tailgate him and he sticks his arm out the window and starts surfing the air with his arm, up and down, like he doesn’t have a care in the world. I think there’s a decent chance he’s trolling me. So, after waiting a minute to see if he’s going to change his speed (he doesn’t), I pull out to the right and gun it. The road has a massive shoulder, it’s even painted with diagonal white lines on it. No sooner do I pull out and gun it, this guy absolutely floors it. He responded so quickly that I think he was probably ready for it. Anyway, once I’m doing 20mph over the limit he finally backs off and I pull in front and away from him. I gain a lot of separation from him as I drive down the road at about 10 over. He flashes his high beams at me when I’m probably 60 feet in front of him, and it’s broad daylight. The flashing of the high beams being the last gasp of a defeated man - sort of a shaking his hand at the sky and yelling, “I’ll see you in hell!”.
Buddy, Imma need you to cut this down to maybe 2 paragraphs of 3 sentences each. Someone cut you off? Stole your right of way? Why is this story as long as Ulyssus.
Look I took the time to read it so I can cliffs notes it for everyone.
OP was at a red light and someone pulled up into an endlane lane rather than get in line. They passed him and eventually turned left, op followed him then illegaly tried to pass on the right and the guy sped up.
OP continued to recklessly accelerate and the other guy showed at least one of them had sense as he slowed down and OP blew on down the road.
See that didnt take 3 huge blocks of texts ya jerk!
Back in Queens, that’s a common thing. Just different positioning.
One lane comes up to a red light. If the parking lane to the right is clear, people will use it as a second lane and then gun it past you once the light turns green.
I appreciate the FRAT version but one correction: I’m not sure the guy slowed down because he was sensible, I think I was probably just overtaking him against his wishes and he recognized he was going to lose anyway so he packed it in. Or he got anxiety about doing 55 in a 35 and pussied out. But I don’t think he was high minded or mature. Quite the opposite.
Nothing wrong with going the speed limit, but it is wrong to go out of your way to get in front of a pack of cars that were there before you if you’re going to do the speed limit. That’s asshole behavior.
I don’t even care if the guy is a self-identified fast driver. If you know you’re faster than 90% of the traffic then I don’t care if you maneuver to get in front. If you do it when you’re going to do 5 over and then the speed limit, then you’re being an ignorant dick.
He’s definitely an asshole. He was aggressive to get in front of people who were lined up before he got there and then he went slowly once he was in front.
The guy was annoying but I do feel like justice prevailed in the form of me busting out of his prison and passing him. He didn’t like that - but it happened.