[masraum]

Originally Posted by T77911S

ha,
just yesterday i goto pass someone in the left and the Ahole speeds up as i get along side him.
once i pass he slows back down. fair amount of traffic so he was holding up others as well.

i figure either people are Aholes or just stupid and "sidel". thats what i call someone that unintentionally matches the speed of the person next to them.


so this morning i jump into a "turn" lane that is very very long to go straight. everyone uses it to go straight and change lanes later.
i was going to get behind the guy next to me but he "hovers next to me, even as i slow a little. . so i put the pedal down and he did too. i start to run out of lane so i just moved over anyway. i was about a car length ahead. by this time im doing 70 in a 55. he then of course slows down.

I've observed the same behavior. I think that 99% of the time you're running into "sidel" people. You pull along side and they match your speed (may or may not even realize). If you are passing really slowly most will do that. Often if you give it a bit more juice, they don't match a higher rate of acceleration and give up once you are past. Although I have had folks that would accelerate more, probably more consciously trying to keep from being passed, but my experience is that they also won't "really" commit to it (again, give it a bit more juice and get past them and they drop back down (give up). I do remember one specific guy many years ago, that was willing to completely commit, but I think it was more him having "fun."

I drive on the Interstate frequently these days, and I almost always use cruise. This is another reason why I think most of the folks that you run into are "sidel" folks. While I'm on cruise, there are folks that might be going 3-5mph faster, they'll come along side, and then while along side or 1/2-1 car length ahead, they then slow down and match speed. And I really hate that, if we're on the Interstate and it's not bumper to bumper traffic then we shouldn't be that close together. Most of the time I'll either try to accelerate or slow down a bit to increase distance. If I do that and they still end up yo-yoing back and forth so that they keep coming along side, I'll eventually pull into the left lane and camp ahead of them. Those folks that aren't paying attention will often then just hand behind you forever. I hate that, but I can eventually get away from them by passing another car which has the effect of switching them from being stuck to me to stuck to someone else.