On my daily commute, I travel a number of country roads. While the speed limits sit at 40 pretty much the whole way, I prefer this route over any other because I don’t have to deal with backups. I can pretty much predict within a couple of minutes when I will hit certain milestones. This makes getting to and from work much less random than folks who travel on Baltimore’s highways.
This does not mean my ride goes without any problems. The rate of speed generally fluctuates in the low 50s, but you can get stuck behind some slow people or deal with people creeping up behind you. Last Friday, I had both problems from the same person.
The guy in front of me for the first half of the ride wasn’t going that slow, but he was sitting right around the speed limit. I didn’t get road-ragey or anything, but I really hoped I could get in front of him even though not too far ahead of him sat three cars also going slower than I would normally hope.
The ride has very few passing zones, but I had the chance to pass him as I approached one. A stop sign at a significant intersection sat not too far past that so I hoped I could get in front of the first guy and maybe some of the others would turn there, giving me the chance to control my own destiny for the second half of my commute, as it were. So I got to the passing zone, pulled into the other lane and accelerated past the car in front of me. As I looked in my rear-view mirror, I noticed something weird. I hadn’t put much room between the two of us. Then, at the stop sign, I noticed something weird after I stopped.
He gunned it as I entered the intersection (squealing his tires) and almost rear-ended me. I couldn’t see his headlights behind me. Yep, the guy who drove just at and even a little below the speed limit for 20-25 minutes was now tailgating me. For a good 10-15 minutes, he kept almost no space between our cars. I only rarely had a chance to get a good view of his headlights behind me because he rode my tail so close. In fact, I didn’t notice when he eventually turned off because he had been so close.
People can get crazy when they drive, but this was one of the scarier situations I had experienced. First off, I never made any gesture or anything toward this guy (or woman – I never got a look). I didn’t flip them off or blow my horn or flash my lights, I merely passed them. Legally. Maybe they thought I revved my engine when I did it and took offense to that, but it’s not the longest passing zone in the world. I needed to act quickly.
But even if they thought I was being too hasty, they totally changed their driving tactics when I passed them. Not only did they go a lot faster, but they drove dangerously close to my car. I admit I was tempted to hit my breaks hard to try and back them off, but they were so close, I worried that would end up working out worse for me.
I felt really stressed as I drove with them behind me and thought that if they had only gone five miles an hour faster, I might not have even considered passing them. Instead, they added 10-15 mph (I admit i was speeding, but nothing out of the ordinary for that road at that time) and tailgated me.
Other than helping me vent, I don’t know my point except that people need to chill out. This all happened the day of the Sandy Hook massacre and, while I’m not even trying to pretend I went through anything really bad, the thought of the guy behind me with a gun did cross my mind. If someone passes you, they are just trying to get moving a little faster. They aren’t challenging you.