On my way to my internship this week (clear on the other side of Denver), I suddenly noticed that the car that had been following me a comfortable distance back had mysteriously been replaced my the grill of an SUV that was probably centimeters from my back bumper. Traffic was pretty decent, and we were all doing about 5 mph over the speed limit (because who puts a 55 mph limit on an open, 3-lane highway?), so I wasn't really sure why I was being gestured and shouted at as if I were a snail on the Autobahn.
Since there was a car about 5 feet ahead of me in the middle lane, I didn't really want to slide over to get out of crazy lady's way, just to have to slam on the breaks when I got there. Instead, I figured I'd keep going til there was a clearing, and then get out of her way. Mind you, I have a bit of a wide following distance, but I was keeping pace with the car in front of me, so it's not like I was holding things up.
Before I can go anywhere, however, the SUV swerves into the slow lane (two lanes over, remember), guns it long enough to pass the car I hadn't wanted to rear-end, cuts in front of him, and plunges back into the fast lane just in time to slam on her breaks... exactly one car length ahead of me.
For the next 7 miles- wherein the highway narrowed down to 2 lanes, and we all slowed down a bit- she proceeded to gun it, swerve into the right-hand lane and pass anyone she could... and was totally unable to do so. When we finally all fed into one lane and merged onto another highway, she was still right in front of me (I had kept my long following distance, not wanting to inadvertently rear-end her on a swerve).
Now perhaps this is rude of me, but I was laughing the entire time. Not rudely, but just in disbelief that I used to do something very similar not even 7 years ago. While she fumed and fretted and put her lives (and everyone's around her) in danger, I have finally learned to just back off, let it go, and calm down. I still get frustrated now and then, but for the most part, I don't arrive any later than I used to, and I get there in a good mood. Seems worth it to me. Cheers!
Since there was a car about 5 feet ahead of me in the middle lane, I didn't really want to slide over to get out of crazy lady's way, just to have to slam on the breaks when I got there. Instead, I figured I'd keep going til there was a clearing, and then get out of her way. Mind you, I have a bit of a wide following distance, but I was keeping pace with the car in front of me, so it's not like I was holding things up.
Before I can go anywhere, however, the SUV swerves into the slow lane (two lanes over, remember), guns it long enough to pass the car I hadn't wanted to rear-end, cuts in front of him, and plunges back into the fast lane just in time to slam on her breaks... exactly one car length ahead of me.
For the next 7 miles- wherein the highway narrowed down to 2 lanes, and we all slowed down a bit- she proceeded to gun it, swerve into the right-hand lane and pass anyone she could... and was totally unable to do so. When we finally all fed into one lane and merged onto another highway, she was still right in front of me (I had kept my long following distance, not wanting to inadvertently rear-end her on a swerve).
Now perhaps this is rude of me, but I was laughing the entire time. Not rudely, but just in disbelief that I used to do something very similar not even 7 years ago. While she fumed and fretted and put her lives (and everyone's around her) in danger, I have finally learned to just back off, let it go, and calm down. I still get frustrated now and then, but for the most part, I don't arrive any later than I used to, and I get there in a good mood. Seems worth it to me. Cheers!
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