Drivers who cut less than 1 car length in front of you ?

It has always made me wonder, so I think I'll ask the question. You are driving at the speed limit or higher, a car passes on your side of a four lane highway, and for as far as the eye can see there is no other car in the passing lane ahead of the passing driver, and no one overtaking him. Why do so many people think its SOP to cut back within a car length, or two immediately in front of me ?

These drivers could drive for ten minutes in the passing lane and hinder no one, or overtake no one, so why the obsession with cutting back in front at a distance that immediately makes me an unwilling Tailgater. Sometimes these genius's even slow down, forcing me to pass if I want to maintain my speed.

Is this a mental disorder of which I am unaware ? Can anyone suggest some valid reason for such behavior ?

The Presence of a Prius seems to trigger 'Their Need to Exceed', so cars you may have passed will often speed up so they can now pass you. The Cruise Control makes this aberrant behavior very noticable.

This is one of my pet peeves driving to work every day. I do not know that it has anything to do with the Prius as I had this happen just as often in my Jeep GC.

Nah, it is simply people being rude / lack of compassion for anyone else. Wasn't too long ago that people used to wave for forgiveness if they accidentally cut you off, not much anymore.

There's another unexplained mental disorder. Suppose I have my turn signal on waiting to change lane, but the the car in the lane I want to get to speeds up to prevent me from cutting in.

This is why is why I no longer use my turn signal until immediately before passing.

i always feel like these people are distracted, on the phone or whatever. they aren't on cruise and they speed up and slow down while you maintain a steady speed. i hate to think they're doing it on purpose, but who knows?

They are giving you an "opportunity" to ride in their draft and increase your gas mileage for a short stretch of roadway.

They are being very kind, considerate

If you pay attention to other drivers and their driving you see how incompetent most of them are. They signal after their car is already entering your lane, as if the turn signal is there to explain what they already did, and not warn others of what they intend to do. They also believe that a signal is a courtesy you extend to others. It is not, it is a warning designed to keep you and yours safe when another car you don't see is also changing lanes, entering the highway, invisible in your blind spot, or drunk. Make yourself and your vehicle as visible to the other, usually distracted, drivers as you can. Turn signals is just one way of doing that.

When these people drive and text, yenta on their cell phones, and fiddle around with gadgets like radios, DVD's, Nav systems, I-Pods, they often fail to even see you and your car, especially at night in the rain or fog. Being seen and noticed can keep you safe. So turn on your signal well in advance, because it's that car you didn't see that needs to know what you are about to do, not just the moron who speeds up.

We never witnessed this behavior on the 2-lane, backroads of many western states (eg. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho) while we were touring on our motorcycle. The citizens out there always gave us extra space at the beginning and end of their passes. They seemed to respect everyone's individuality and space. It's too bad all all of us don't demonstrate the same respect and courtesy.

Maybe if Jeff Gordon is ahead of you, but the average driver has lousy judgement, drives erratically, is easily distracted, slows to rubber neck at every flashing light he sees, and is about as considerate as Jeff Gordon approaching the finish line. The average driver rarely checks the pressure in his tires, or adequately maintains his vehicles. I can't tell you how many times I see cars bouncing rhythmically after going over a bump in the road, indicating shock absorbers that died long ago, so watch out when that bozo changes lanes, he 'fishtails'. The other guy is by far your greatest hazard, so be sure he sees you coming, and you see him.

Nah, if they rear-end me, they're automatically at fault anyway. I'm tired of disrespectful drivers physically closing in to prevent me from passing into their lane, and there are way more of them than distracted drivers yapping on their phones.

When they do that, don't honk, just turn your brights on. It sends a signal that you aren't pissed, but apparently they didn't see you.

This is a broad generalization but I think drivers in the West are typically more courteous and considerate than those on the East Coast, California, etc. In the NW it sometimes goes to the opposite extreme; people will slam on their brakes for a pedestrian or car crossing traffic without a crosswalk or traffic light, regardless of right-of-way, etc. I was at a four-way stop this morning and ran into the "No, after you; no, I insist, after you" reverse right-of-way dance... they even made a car insurance commercial about this ridiculous degree of politeness in which no one wants to go first. Of course we have rude inconsiderate drivers too, but nothing like what I hear about from NY, Boston or LA...

Having grown up in that region, I think it is not as much a matter of respect and courtesy, as it is a completely different concept of personal space, combined with not having to deal with the serious congestion that necessitates many urban folks to compress into fractional-second following distances.

I've seen plenty of urban drivers so thoroughly habituated to very short following distances that they've completely forgotten how dangerous it is, and keep doing it even in rural areas where it is absolutely unnecessary. These unwanted prostate exams create significant anger among the rural natives.

If it's any consolation, this is one of the biggest complaints of the big rig tractor trailer drivers. Cars come back into the lane way too close, sometimes clipping their left front bumper while cutting in. So it's not a Prius thing, it's just grossly incompetent drivers.

Make sure you can see the entire front of the vehicle you pass in your right outside mirror before you come back into the lane.

Based on the states you mention, I might repeat that old adage: "An armed society is a polite society."

The same might apply in South Florida, or maybe it was worse when we were in the Scarface days. I made it a point not to cut anyone off in traffic, even by mistake. And I was authorized to carry, but didn't want to get in a fire fight just to get to work.

Just imagine 50 years from now. All cars will have
an automatic driver. People will laugh about people
who in the olden days had drive "manually," including
having to parallel park on their own. A side benefit
of the automatic driver is that we will no longer
be tormented by idiots and rude boobs.

50 years...you can make it.

50 years ago they said we'd be in flying cars by now....LOL

I want my flying car!

Bo

Many people forget that at uncontrolled intersections, stopping for pedestrians is legally required, whether or not the crosswalk is marked. At least out here in multiple PNW states, crosswalks ring all intersections unless otherwise indicated, and lack of crosswalk markings doesn't mean cars don't need to stop.

In my hometown, this was so well drilled in by the driver education instructors, with their secondary brake pedal when necessary, that little enforcement was needed by the local police.

But enforcement here in Western Washington is nearly nonexistent. Special emphasis patrols come out only when city employees are slaughtered, and last only briefly.

After having been sprawled on the hood of a car, with the walk light after I thought I made eye contact with the stopped driver (the kid was probably distracted by the cop who witnessed the whole thing), and after my mother was struck from behind and thrown thirty feet while crossing with the walk light, being left with permanent knee injury, I have become an aggressive pedestrian.

Best explanation...now, i can put my shotgun back down on the passenger seat....

My experience is similar. I travel a 4 lane open highway with decent traffic. What ticks me off and even scares me a bit is what I call "SpeedWeavers" People who are in such a rush, and or running late that they will jeopardize their life and the lives of the other drivers, by weaving back and forth in lanes at high speeds, trying to get an opening and further ahead of everyone else. And this is with very little space inbetween cars travling at normal the normal pace. I am not sure how they manage not to hit anyone and stay alive, but I fear that their luck will run out. And I hope it is not with me.