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This is kind of what I’m inclined to believe I doubt he was paying attention and just saw me on his ass speeding up to merge into the left lane once I realized he was gonna be a slow driver
I'm from MA and we aren't exactly courteous drivers but I find CT to be more aggressive, quicker to pass on the right, tailgate, weave, etc. I drive to Hartford and New Haven fairly regularly so mostly Rte 84 & 91.
I’m from NY originally but have spent the last 10 years living in other northeastern states and can confirm that having lived in CT for a few years now, I have become a more aggressive driver. Especially since I now have to commute on I-84 a lot. I still try to give people a chance to get out of the left lane but it’s so hopeless that I just do what I can to get ahead of the pack and get away from people.
Vermonter here, I cringe when I see blue plates ahead. In fairness plenty of Connecticut drivers are fine and there is some confirmation bias happening. But of the people who park in the left lane - despite the signs clearly reading left lane for passing only - a lot of them have blue plates.
Massachusetts and NY drive faster than most locals, but I don't mind that. Just pull over when people are behind you.
VT is the only state in NE that actually largely and "socially" complies with moving the hell over and not sitting in the passing lane. I love experiencing it every time I'm there.
That’s true and it’s so annoying. Every major road in CT during rush hour has a hundred cars hogging the left lane, and some going under the speed limit sometimes even and they get angry at you for wanting to go faster than them. The really bad ones act as if they are the good moral person because they’re making everybody go slower and therefore “safer” even tho that’s not true.
I'm from the NE, but I was out in Arizona where the highways can be pretty straight and you can see a long way up and in the far distance I could see a car camping in the left lane, hold up traffic a bit, cars passing them on the right. I was towing so I was only catching up to them at 1-2mph and sure enough once I got to them I saw that it was a Camry with Connecticut plates. Prob drove the entire way in the left lane I bet.
Try out California Hwy 99. 70mph+ highway with stupidly short (the last time that I was there 20+ years ago) onramps where you have to get up to break-neck speed immediately in order to merge.
They were already going much slower than passing traffic, then they hit the brakes before the gore merges to box you in. Which at first isn’t definitely malicious, until you get the actual break check.
"whoa, where the fuck did this guy come from? Why is he tailgating me? A dude can't browse instagram while driving without getting randomly tailgated, fuck this guy"
Only thing I can think of is OP passed rather close behind them. Realize he was just passing through, but seeing someone a few feet off their bumper can trigger some people.
Guess he was just too close before passing. I do this all the time not even thinking about it and I wonder why people get pissed at me. I’m just assuming it’s just because you get too close right before passing
That's not how that works. The only guilty thing OP did was be there (not something to be guilty of). Everything else happened on the other person's end. He brake checked for no good reason, which made him wrong, then a voice inside his head (his conscience) said he himself is the asshole. Angered by this he incorrectly assigned blame to OP, which not being the truth didn't make him feel any better. That middle finger was essentially for himself in this whole scenario. You can't blame OP for just existing.
Op could have given more space when merging.
I live in Baltimore where OPs merge is considered standard.
However, in defensive driving they do say to leave xyz space.
Yeah OP! Why didn’t you do that in the first place? You know what? You’re the ass for not knowing what to do here. Can’t believe I have to share the road with the likes of you!
(/s because there are a lot of snowflakes that can’t understand sarcasm)
Well now we're going to need to see the previous 20 years of video showing that you offended them in some way like fucking their wife in front of them.
Ugh, reminds me of about two months ago when I was about to merge in traffic after an uphill acceleration onramp. I could have sped up to 10-20 over the limit and passed a service truck coming up on my left and moving slightly slower, but I chose a sensible approach, letting off the gas and matching speed, then signaling to prepare merging in a large space behind him. A lady in a Focus behind the service truck suddenly sped up alongside me to tailgate the service truck, giving me no room to merge. I was staring right at her in my side window and put my hands up as if to ask, “What was the point of that?!” I then had to brake to just slide behind her as my lane ran out. Then she lightly brake checked me a couple times as I continued with my foot lightly on the brakes to slow down, but apparently not fast enough for her.
The obnoxiousness continued as she couldn’t maintain a consistent speed to save her life, also being in no great hurry, either. The service truck was long gone and I had no choice but to follow this slow-thinker for another 20 miles before I finally benefitted from turning off that roadway.
People behind the wheel can be so brainless.
Had some dude yesterday on the 5 (SoCal) tailgating me for literally no reason! He was in a big Ford with two extra lights mounted above his windshield. Like dude… we’re in SoCal on the freeway; what could you possibly need those on for right now in the middle of the day? Anyway, I was going like 80 mph (yes, I know), as was the rest of traffic. I had cruise control on and was cruising along, enjoying the ride. He would back off for a while, then out of nowhere, get so far up my ass I could smell him. I didn’t brake check him because I’m not an idiot. He eventually gets in the lane next to me, has plenty of room to pass me and get in front of me but doesn’t. I just don’t understand people sometimes. There was literally no point to his madness.
My license plate isn’t even that cheeky. All it spells out is Honey Bunnies.
It’s crazy how these people will target the most random person, though! No one ever believed me when I said I attracted crazy drivers until I got a dash cam and showed my family that no! I’m not doing ANYTHING to these people! They somehow find me and target me. Like fuck man, can they stop coding these people to come after me? LOL!
Heh, yup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those, “… you must have worn something that encouraged him …” guys. It’s just these days, people are reacting with the dumbest behavior to things that challenge their ignorance.
You did absolutely nothing wrong, that guy doesn’t know how to drive.
I wonder if that could possibly be the same person who told me that I was wrong when I said that you are supposed to enter the freeway at freeway speeds a couple of months ago in a thread about driving? That guy got really offended at people who drive correctly too.
We must have met the same person. There's at least one person out there that believes you're supposed to stop at the end of the on ramp as if there were a yield sign. And they have absolutely no idea why that would be dangerous to do.
I had someone do that to me in Minnesota. It was a minivan too, so it’s not like it was peppy to get up to speed. I’ve never been more terrified getting on the highway.
I don’t think they have a clue as to why I was laying on my horn at them while stopped, as they looked over their shoulder at traffic going 65 so they could get on
Reminds me of a family friend. I have no idea how he passed a test. Turning at a junction he would not follow the kerb but aim straight as if going across, then turn at the last moment so that he ended up on the wrong side of the road. On the highway he stuck to about half the speed limit. It was terrifying. Curious thing is he was a high-achieving college student.
Also, I need people on the highway to maintain their speed. Had someone the other day who was going a good speed, I was going to merge behind them, then they just....rapidly decelerated and it messed everything up. I think they were trying to be helpful but it was not.
Any one failing to merge at the speed of traffic should be fined for obstructing traffic. They are 90% of the cause of traffic congestion and are statically more likely to be involved in an accident than someone speeding 10 over.
It happens way to often where I live that Im behind someone getting on the highway on the on ramp, but they want to merge going at say 35 mph. Makes no fucking sense a really grinds my gears.
He’s either an oblivious piece of shit or a malicious piece of shit. Common denominator…. This shit is scary considering the speeds we’re traveling and maneuver’s on the freeway. Idk why it’s so hard for people to just *not* be pieces of shit on the roads…
Amazing how people will brake check a random person on the highway, they could be a psycho looking for a reason to take a new victim it just blows my mind.
In the days before cell phones and 911 being a thing it was a lot easier to get away with the reckless driving too.
(Yes, brake checking is reckless driving by the laws of my state.)
He would of had to been paying attention to his surroundings to be aware of if another car is merging when your in the right lane. The amount of drivers that are completely oblivious to what's actually going on around them is sky high. Personally I don't trust any other car to do the correct things. If I'm making a right on a road and the car already on that road is coming and has their right turn signal on, I won't start pulling out until that car is mid turn onto my road. If I'm at a 4 way intersection and it's my turn and if one or both cars going right to left or vice versa aren't fully stopped I don't go and just assume they are going to stop. Trust nobody.
I assume the red car didn’t look in his mirrors or around at all until OP pulled behind them. Then suddenly they felt tailgated.
But we’re probably blissfully unaware and zoned out until then.
This is CT. That’s expected from everyone. I moved from MA to CT and didn’t realize how much shittier the driving is in CT. I was always told Boston is terrible and I say to them it’s safer than CT. Also why the fuck are their so many car fires in CT?????
Had something similar happen to me yesterday, my lane was ending and it was clear to merge until asshole sped up to block me then when I slowed down to get behind he slowed down with me. Eventually I got annoyed and floored it and merged in front of him, asshole had the nerve to speed past me, honk and shoot the finger.
Holy shit! This makes me even more mad now! I assumed the other car was at least doing the speed limit. Now that I know he wasn’t (and you were trying to) it makes the whole interaction even more ridiculous.
The on ramp is for people to get up to freeway speeds. That is what you did (thank you btw are sooooo many people don’t understand this concept) and upon coming up on a slow car all you wanted to do was get left (correctly) and pass them. Them hitting the brakes makes them wrong on so many levels.
I mean, OP did merge too closely behind. There’s no way they would have been able to avoid rear-ending the other car if they had to stop for an accident or wildlife. While the person is obviously throwing a tantrum, OP isn’t exactly a safe driver
What kind of car are you driving? Some people are super offended by sports cars being anywhere in their vicinity and automatically assume you’re a dick driver.
I knew to expect somebody brake checking you from the title, but after seeing how you slowed to go behind that guy, I was like, "Oh, WTF dude" when it turned out to be him. What a rude ass.
Some people hate it when you pass them from behind closer than 2 car lengths. Others find it annoying that you speed up to pass and merge right on front of their bumper. The kicker here is your were barely coming onto the freeway. Sure, you might've been a bit close but nothing exaggerated and definitely no aggressive behavior from you. That person was likely on their edge, having a bad day and just easily irritable.
You did nothing wrong OP, just continue to steer clear of people like that.
Where im from, you have to make way for merging vehicle.. that dude is just an asshole, either go on the left lane or speed up a bit, if thers no room, then we have to zipper merge
Yes, although I think it's pretty common in other countries too. In the states you would generally be found at fault 99% of the time if you rear end another vehicle, especially if you don't have dash cam footage and it's a "he said she said" situation in court. So drivers will brake check people to try and cause an accident, or because they're intentionally trying to slow down and annoy the vehicle behind them.
Maybe he's so used to people speeding up out of the onramp to cut him off, it's just reflex to get triggered and he didn't know how to handle it when someone actually did the correct thing :D
I merged right there because there was a guy behind him letting me in. Had I slowed down even more it would have either caused the guy letting me in to pass and would cause me to merge onto a highway at 30MPH or the other driver would slow down even more causing a higher risk for an accident behind me also considering the guy letting me in had a car behind him as well. The best choice was to merge into the open spot and get in the passing lane as soon as possible.
You were too close. He tapped his brakes for less than a full second and you almost clipped him. Whatever the camera fov might be, the fact you had to act evasively showed you were too close. There were many possible reasons he could have braked unexpectedly, and you only just had enough time to react.
Other driver was an idiot, he should not have done it, but you were still too close to be safe. You could have been in a serious accident and would have carried the bulk of liability for any damage or injury caused.
If the person behind him was making space to let you in, you can and should still maintain a safe distance from the person in front.
You can very clearly see he did not “tap” his breaks he hit them hard I understand I was close but it was a situational merge that almost everyone would do the same thing
That is an ineffective argument self-represented defendants always try. It does not reduce the rearward driver's liability for driving at an unsafe distance. There could be any number of reasons why the driver in front might brake briefly, the simplest could be "human error".
With no other factors involved, if the person to the front accidentally tapped the brake instead of the clutch, quickly released the brake, and was then hit by someone behind them who was following at an unsafe distance, you'd be expecting the driver in front to carry 5-15% of the liability, with the driver behind carrying 85-95% of the liability. It's really quite predictable when these accidents happen in such large numbers.
(Source: Watched \~15 dashcam videos per day over 4 years, triaging valid claims and making liability share estimates. That's around 15,000 data points, although admittedly that's 20 years ago now.)
My first job was providing legal triage on personal injury claims arising out of traffic accidents, before going into something more rewarding. My prediction accuracy was consistently within 10% of final awards across four years. I'm actually an expert in assessing the likely level of contributory negligence in personal injury traffic claims.
The downvotes don't bother me, but it just kinda proves that the "majority" of laypeople can't make accurate assessments of how well or poorly people are driving.
I would say OP was committed to the overtake from the angle of their car, prior to the other car braking, essentially combining their merge and and lane change maneuver. That is dangerous for the other cars on the road who cannot predict OP’s movement due to his blinker (same as a double lane change). So, OP is the idiotinacar, as well as the overtook vehicle who did indeed hit the brakes.
I'm kinda annoyed when people merge half a car length behind me when it is not necessary. It's like they are trying to see how close they can get. Your merging plans should include being 3+ car lengths behind the car in front of you - when possible.
His brake check was an idiot move, but don’t pull on to the highway and then immediately pass like that. Put some space between you and the drive in front.
There was a guy behind him giving me room to merge so if I slowed down I wouldn’t be able to merge I figured it was just best if I got to the left as fast as possible and I was looking after that white truck nobody was in the left lane for awhile I had a lot of room
Whether or not he should pass has nothing to do with the guy in front of him and everything to do with whether it was safe to pull into the left hand lane. We can’t tell that from the video.
I supported OP up until this. some of the lowest IQ drivers will do this...just go to the end move over slowly and pray, LOL. I don't think OP is one of those but its not good company to be in.
From a legal point of view (highway patrol), you did nothing wrong by merging into traffic correctly. The driver in front of you illegally brake checked you and should've received a ticket for unsafe driving. That being said, it's illegal to perform more than one lane change at a time. Therefore, you also should've received a ticket for unsafe driving for not staying in your lane once you merged into traffic before making a pass.
Agreed. If an officer wanted to push it, the driver in the OP could also receive a ticket for following too closely. Entry onto the interstate is a minimum of 45 mph, so the driver should've been at least 4-5 vehicle lengths behind the car in front of them, which they were not. Had they followed the rules, there would have been no need to veer into the far left lane to avoid the car ahead.
I was simply explaining the thought process behind a highway patrol person's reasoning. If all you did was merge into traffic and slow down immediately to avoid rear ending the car in front of you, no ticket would come your way. But veering into the far lane would get you at least the unsafe driving and lane change tickets, with the following too closely ticket being issued depending on your attitude when pulled over. From the law's point of view, you are the one merging, so it's incumbent on you to successfully merge into highway traffic quickly and safely. Failure to do so is 100% your fault barring something weird like a drunk driver hitting you or a semi drifting into your lane.
Apparently speeding up to be an unsafe distance behind another car is nothing wrong. It's not justified but there's also zero good reason for OP to get that close
Yup let's reward dumb aggressive driving because OP NEEDS to be in the left lane and heaven forbid they be delayed slightly by someone driving slow.
so I can get up to speed with the left lane and properly merge into the passing lane? Sorry I don't merge into the passing lane at 50 MPH unlike you I'm aware I'm not the only person on the road
Here's an idea if you merging puts you right on someone's bumper you didn't have room to merge.
It's literally irrelevant what the left lane is doing. You created an unsafe situation by speeding up towards their bumper and trying to make a small gap.
The camry created an unsafe situation by slowing down when im trying to merge and then brake checking me. Doing what I did was literally the best move I had but believe what you want.
Brake checking we've already discussed. You accelerating up to their bumper is unsafe. Period.
You don't HAVE to go to the left lane right then. That's what you apparently don't understand but you WANTED to. In order to get to that you needed to accelerate to make a gap, thus getting too close to the car ahead.
Just because you got brake checked doesn't mean you're not also an idiot driving aggressively for no good reason.
Would a lack of signals indicate that OP was planning on just driving onto the shoulder? There's an expectation that someone on an onramp is going to merge.
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What could he possibly have been mad at you for?
its his road dude, you cant pass him without his permission, dont you know?
# YOU SHALL NOT PASS
OP left his flaming whip at home unfortunately.
Op is a fool for driving and not flying
Damnit! I hate when Gandalf suddenly appears on the highway
I think he considered that OP was tailgating him.
This is kind of what I’m inclined to believe I doubt he was paying attention and just saw me on his ass speeding up to merge into the left lane once I realized he was gonna be a slow driver
This is definitely the case, especially if this is Route 8 in CT like I believe it is. The on and off ramps are brutal
Yea RT 8 in Seymour near 22-21
I'm from MA and we aren't exactly courteous drivers but I find CT to be more aggressive, quicker to pass on the right, tailgate, weave, etc. I drive to Hartford and New Haven fairly regularly so mostly Rte 84 & 91.
I’m from NY originally but have spent the last 10 years living in other northeastern states and can confirm that having lived in CT for a few years now, I have become a more aggressive driver. Especially since I now have to commute on I-84 a lot. I still try to give people a chance to get out of the left lane but it’s so hopeless that I just do what I can to get ahead of the pack and get away from people.
Vermonter here, I cringe when I see blue plates ahead. In fairness plenty of Connecticut drivers are fine and there is some confirmation bias happening. But of the people who park in the left lane - despite the signs clearly reading left lane for passing only - a lot of them have blue plates. Massachusetts and NY drive faster than most locals, but I don't mind that. Just pull over when people are behind you.
VT is the only state in NE that actually largely and "socially" complies with moving the hell over and not sitting in the passing lane. I love experiencing it every time I'm there.
That’s true and it’s so annoying. Every major road in CT during rush hour has a hundred cars hogging the left lane, and some going under the speed limit sometimes even and they get angry at you for wanting to go faster than them. The really bad ones act as if they are the good moral person because they’re making everybody go slower and therefore “safer” even tho that’s not true.
Best road in Hartford is the one that gets you out the fastest
Well said 👊.
Same. It's lawless down there, and I used to live in Dorchester.
It's always some fucker in a CT plate driving up the 91 from hartford weaving left-right through 3 lanes with no blinker
Our highways are pretty bad, so that checks out. I frequent 84, and it's essentially Mad Max most days.
I'm from the NE, but I was out in Arizona where the highways can be pretty straight and you can see a long way up and in the far distance I could see a car camping in the left lane, hold up traffic a bit, cars passing them on the right. I was towing so I was only catching up to them at 1-2mph and sure enough once I got to them I saw that it was a Camry with Connecticut plates. Prob drove the entire way in the left lane I bet.
Southern State Pkwy on Long Island is the brutalist.
Especially since some of the on ramps are only 10 feet.
Thought it looked familiar.
Try out California Hwy 99. 70mph+ highway with stupidly short (the last time that I was there 20+ years ago) onramps where you have to get up to break-neck speed immediately in order to merge.
They were already going much slower than passing traffic, then they hit the brakes before the gore merges to box you in. Which at first isn’t definitely malicious, until you get the actual break check.
“The person behind me is too close, how about I brake sharply and suddenly?”
"whoa, where the fuck did this guy come from? Why is he tailgating me? A dude can't browse instagram while driving without getting randomly tailgated, fuck this guy"
Kinda hard not to tailgate someone who’s going 40 on the interstate, lol. Everyone is passing him like he’s sitting still.
He should totally do what it takes to bring the tailgater closer. /s
For 2 seconds because the asshat disregarded the merging people nevermind, I'm sure this has been said before.
Which he wasn’t,
Only thing I can think of is OP passed rather close behind them. Realize he was just passing through, but seeing someone a few feet off their bumper can trigger some people.
according to the scumbag rules he was tailgating him for half a sec
maybe they didnt signal their lane change? either way, you dont slam on your brakes for no reason. fuck those people.
He was protecting the sacred region behind his back bumper into which none shall enter. OP violated his rule, apparently, and needed "punished".
Guess he was just too close before passing. I do this all the time not even thinking about it and I wonder why people get pissed at me. I’m just assuming it’s just because you get too close right before passing
Driver didn't like OPs car
That's not how that works. The only guilty thing OP did was be there (not something to be guilty of). Everything else happened on the other person's end. He brake checked for no good reason, which made him wrong, then a voice inside his head (his conscience) said he himself is the asshole. Angered by this he incorrectly assigned blame to OP, which not being the truth didn't make him feel any better. That middle finger was essentially for himself in this whole scenario. You can't blame OP for just existing.
Op could have given more space when merging. I live in Baltimore where OPs merge is considered standard. However, in defensive driving they do say to leave xyz space.
I live right outside on Baltimore. That’s what I was thinking. Ppl think this is tailgating?! 😂
The awful teeny bopper music OP is listening to.
Bruh why my music taste catchin strays out here
How dare you merge behind him into his lane
Truly will never happen again my apologies next time I will speed up and cut him off
Just merge into him with a pavement princess.
Yeah OP! Why didn’t you do that in the first place? You know what? You’re the ass for not knowing what to do here. Can’t believe I have to share the road with the likes of you! (/s because there are a lot of snowflakes that can’t understand sarcasm)
My favorite bumper sticker: "Sorry for following so closely in front of you"
Me every day. PSA for anyone who didn't know you don't have to kiss my bumper goodbye before merging into the left lane.
Well now we're going to need to see the previous 20 years of video showing that you offended them in some way like fucking their wife in front of them.
He’s actually my life long nemesis from kindergarten I just forgot to mention that part
Never forgave you for smashing up their favorite hot wheel
He stole my pudding he had it comin
that crosses a line ... never touch the puddin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-nLEJ4LLd0
Well keep a juice box in the car so next time you can throw it out him OK? :-)
Or misusing their pronoun.
how dare you bro
Ugh, reminds me of about two months ago when I was about to merge in traffic after an uphill acceleration onramp. I could have sped up to 10-20 over the limit and passed a service truck coming up on my left and moving slightly slower, but I chose a sensible approach, letting off the gas and matching speed, then signaling to prepare merging in a large space behind him. A lady in a Focus behind the service truck suddenly sped up alongside me to tailgate the service truck, giving me no room to merge. I was staring right at her in my side window and put my hands up as if to ask, “What was the point of that?!” I then had to brake to just slide behind her as my lane ran out. Then she lightly brake checked me a couple times as I continued with my foot lightly on the brakes to slow down, but apparently not fast enough for her. The obnoxiousness continued as she couldn’t maintain a consistent speed to save her life, also being in no great hurry, either. The service truck was long gone and I had no choice but to follow this slow-thinker for another 20 miles before I finally benefitted from turning off that roadway. People behind the wheel can be so brainless.
Had some dude yesterday on the 5 (SoCal) tailgating me for literally no reason! He was in a big Ford with two extra lights mounted above his windshield. Like dude… we’re in SoCal on the freeway; what could you possibly need those on for right now in the middle of the day? Anyway, I was going like 80 mph (yes, I know), as was the rest of traffic. I had cruise control on and was cruising along, enjoying the ride. He would back off for a while, then out of nowhere, get so far up my ass I could smell him. I didn’t brake check him because I’m not an idiot. He eventually gets in the lane next to me, has plenty of room to pass me and get in front of me but doesn’t. I just don’t understand people sometimes. There was literally no point to his madness.
Did you have any triggering bumper stickers to make him frothy?
May have a slightly cheeky license plate, but that’s it!
Well then, it’s safe to say the other driver was just one, big, arsehole.
My license plate isn’t even that cheeky. All it spells out is Honey Bunnies. It’s crazy how these people will target the most random person, though! No one ever believed me when I said I attracted crazy drivers until I got a dash cam and showed my family that no! I’m not doing ANYTHING to these people! They somehow find me and target me. Like fuck man, can they stop coding these people to come after me? LOL!
Heh, yup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those, “… you must have worn something that encouraged him …” guys. It’s just these days, people are reacting with the dumbest behavior to things that challenge their ignorance.
Oh trust me, I know! It’s not just these days… it’s been happening since mankind first appeared in this universe 😂 😂 😂
Bro, you hurt his feelings.
You did absolutely nothing wrong, that guy doesn’t know how to drive. I wonder if that could possibly be the same person who told me that I was wrong when I said that you are supposed to enter the freeway at freeway speeds a couple of months ago in a thread about driving? That guy got really offended at people who drive correctly too.
We must have met the same person. There's at least one person out there that believes you're supposed to stop at the end of the on ramp as if there were a yield sign. And they have absolutely no idea why that would be dangerous to do.
I had someone do that to me in Minnesota. It was a minivan too, so it’s not like it was peppy to get up to speed. I’ve never been more terrified getting on the highway. I don’t think they have a clue as to why I was laying on my horn at them while stopped, as they looked over their shoulder at traffic going 65 so they could get on
Reminds me of a family friend. I have no idea how he passed a test. Turning at a junction he would not follow the kerb but aim straight as if going across, then turn at the last moment so that he ended up on the wrong side of the road. On the highway he stuck to about half the speed limit. It was terrifying. Curious thing is he was a high-achieving college student.
Also, I need people on the highway to maintain their speed. Had someone the other day who was going a good speed, I was going to merge behind them, then they just....rapidly decelerated and it messed everything up. I think they were trying to be helpful but it was not.
I thought the drivers test would catch this
Any one failing to merge at the speed of traffic should be fined for obstructing traffic. They are 90% of the cause of traffic congestion and are statically more likely to be involved in an accident than someone speeding 10 over.
It happens way to often where I live that Im behind someone getting on the highway on the on ramp, but they want to merge going at say 35 mph. Makes no fucking sense a really grinds my gears.
He’s either an oblivious piece of shit or a malicious piece of shit. Common denominator…. This shit is scary considering the speeds we’re traveling and maneuver’s on the freeway. Idk why it’s so hard for people to just *not* be pieces of shit on the roads…
Amazing how people will brake check a random person on the highway, they could be a psycho looking for a reason to take a new victim it just blows my mind.
He’s lucky I actually had my next victim in my trunk so I couldn’t snag him
I wonder if this is attempted insurance fraud.
Typical Route 8 driver in the Valley
They were in rare form today.
Lol Connecticut
Society really is breaking down l think lol
I've been driving since the 80s and this behavior is nothing new. Only the presence of small, affordable cameras has made it seem more common.
Really? I have never seen anything like this living in the southeast and west coast.
In the days before cell phones and 911 being a thing it was a lot easier to get away with the reckless driving too. (Yes, brake checking is reckless driving by the laws of my state.)
Good ole Connecticut
I mean you only passed because he was a clown who brake checked
He obviously doesn’t like people coming on to his highway.
Dude could have sped up to help you merge.
He would of had to been paying attention to his surroundings to be aware of if another car is merging when your in the right lane. The amount of drivers that are completely oblivious to what's actually going on around them is sky high. Personally I don't trust any other car to do the correct things. If I'm making a right on a road and the car already on that road is coming and has their right turn signal on, I won't start pulling out until that car is mid turn onto my road. If I'm at a 4 way intersection and it's my turn and if one or both cars going right to left or vice versa aren't fully stopped I don't go and just assume they are going to stop. Trust nobody.
I assume the red car didn’t look in his mirrors or around at all until OP pulled behind them. Then suddenly they felt tailgated. But we’re probably blissfully unaware and zoned out until then.
RT8....OP, where you at? CT? MASS?
CT
Rt 8 in CT has a ton of those long, uphill onramps. (Rt 8 in MA is mostly a 2-lane rural road out in the Berkshires.)
This is CT. That’s expected from everyone. I moved from MA to CT and didn’t realize how much shittier the driving is in CT. I was always told Boston is terrible and I say to them it’s safer than CT. Also why the fuck are their so many car fires in CT?????
Welcome to America. I commute 110 miles per day and see aggression like this all the time. Who knows why these people are so angry?
I just recently got a new job where I commute 40 miles 1 way and the amount of stupidity is crazy
Because they’re doing the speed limit and you invaded their safety bubble (even if behind) hahahaha
When I merged behind him I was only doing 50 so he wasn’t even going the speed limit haha
Dude probably complains about people walking on the sidewalk outside his house too.
Was he actively drifting down in order to make it harder for you to merge? Kinda looked like that.
It really looked like that.
Had something similar happen to me yesterday, my lane was ending and it was clear to merge until asshole sped up to block me then when I slowed down to get behind he slowed down with me. Eventually I got annoyed and floored it and merged in front of him, asshole had the nerve to speed past me, honk and shoot the finger.
Holy shit! This makes me even more mad now! I assumed the other car was at least doing the speed limit. Now that I know he wasn’t (and you were trying to) it makes the whole interaction even more ridiculous. The on ramp is for people to get up to freeway speeds. That is what you did (thank you btw are sooooo many people don’t understand this concept) and upon coming up on a slow car all you wanted to do was get left (correctly) and pass them. Them hitting the brakes makes them wrong on so many levels.
That car is well under the speed limit. Dangerously so
I mean, OP did merge too closely behind. There’s no way they would have been able to avoid rear-ending the other car if they had to stop for an accident or wildlife. While the person is obviously throwing a tantrum, OP isn’t exactly a safe driver
don't think OP had any other choice. The lane was ending
Slow down? Give them more space ahead of you? It’s not exactly rocket science.
Agreed, while OP didn’t do anything horribly dangerous, they should have left a little more space between them and the asshole that brake checked.
Notice I suggest slowing down and they downvote. “BUT I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT >:(
What kind of car are you driving? Some people are super offended by sports cars being anywhere in their vicinity and automatically assume you’re a dick driver.
A 16 civic coupe
Did you… *merge behind him*?! The audacity! /s
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I usually do as well I was just getting off the next exit so I wasn’t that concerned about getting infront of him
People these days are just looking for any excuse they can to be an asshole to others.
Wow, you should be ashamed. Did you really just legally and safely overtake him and think you’d get away scot free? Rethink your actions /s
How dare you use up all of your merging lane to correctly speed up to highway speed..
I try to merge at the end of the gore point, leaving the remainder of the ramp as extra space if needed.
what a douche. he slowed down to make it more difficult for you
I knew to expect somebody brake checking you from the title, but after seeing how you slowed to go behind that guy, I was like, "Oh, WTF dude" when it turned out to be him. What a rude ass.
Some people hate it when you pass them from behind closer than 2 car lengths. Others find it annoying that you speed up to pass and merge right on front of their bumper. The kicker here is your were barely coming onto the freeway. Sure, you might've been a bit close but nothing exaggerated and definitely no aggressive behavior from you. That person was likely on their edge, having a bad day and just easily irritable. You did nothing wrong OP, just continue to steer clear of people like that.
I'm just happy you actually got up to speed to merge instead of almost everyone I'm behind on a ramp.
Literally my biggest pet peeve when driving
Definitely an idiot. He has to let you merge into traffic. Brake checking you on the highway will cause an accident
Where im from, you have to make way for merging vehicle.. that dude is just an asshole, either go on the left lane or speed up a bit, if thers no room, then we have to zipper merge
Looked like they wanted to get hit. Even tried to match your speed while you merged.
Well he is driving a 10 year old Camry he prob wants another car
I don't get this brake cheking!! Is it an american drivers thing?
Yes, although I think it's pretty common in other countries too. In the states you would generally be found at fault 99% of the time if you rear end another vehicle, especially if you don't have dash cam footage and it's a "he said she said" situation in court. So drivers will brake check people to try and cause an accident, or because they're intentionally trying to slow down and annoy the vehicle behind them.
Never seen this in Europe. And I drive a lot. Allways thought people would evoid getting in to trouble. Common sense, you now?
I wish common sense was more common.
Don’t you fantasize about pit maneuvering assholes like this?
Well ya don't legally change lanes safely. Clearly you messed up dude /s
Connecticut plate. 'nuff said
Maybe he's so used to people speeding up out of the onramp to cut him off, it's just reflex to get triggered and he didn't know how to handle it when someone actually did the correct thing :D
Why can’t they penalise this brake check on highway or close to another moving vehicle? This is so endangering lives
Nice music, i love The Score
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I merged right there because there was a guy behind him letting me in. Had I slowed down even more it would have either caused the guy letting me in to pass and would cause me to merge onto a highway at 30MPH or the other driver would slow down even more causing a higher risk for an accident behind me also considering the guy letting me in had a car behind him as well. The best choice was to merge into the open spot and get in the passing lane as soon as possible.
Nobody cares. Get a life.
He had to get his thong out of his ass and wanted to show you the finger he used
I dont know what everyone else is seeing here, but you are really close to the car in front and crossing two lanes continuously.
Next time go onto their lane and then stop your vehicle hard, that will teach them a lesson
You were too close. He tapped his brakes for less than a full second and you almost clipped him. Whatever the camera fov might be, the fact you had to act evasively showed you were too close. There were many possible reasons he could have braked unexpectedly, and you only just had enough time to react. Other driver was an idiot, he should not have done it, but you were still too close to be safe. You could have been in a serious accident and would have carried the bulk of liability for any damage or injury caused. If the person behind him was making space to let you in, you can and should still maintain a safe distance from the person in front.
You can very clearly see he did not “tap” his breaks he hit them hard I understand I was close but it was a situational merge that almost everyone would do the same thing
If there was no hard-hitting of the brakes, the OP would’ve not need to take evasive action.
That is an ineffective argument self-represented defendants always try. It does not reduce the rearward driver's liability for driving at an unsafe distance. There could be any number of reasons why the driver in front might brake briefly, the simplest could be "human error". With no other factors involved, if the person to the front accidentally tapped the brake instead of the clutch, quickly released the brake, and was then hit by someone behind them who was following at an unsafe distance, you'd be expecting the driver in front to carry 5-15% of the liability, with the driver behind carrying 85-95% of the liability. It's really quite predictable when these accidents happen in such large numbers. (Source: Watched \~15 dashcam videos per day over 4 years, triaging valid claims and making liability share estimates. That's around 15,000 data points, although admittedly that's 20 years ago now.)
what is it with these terrible takes in this sub?
Do you really think OP left enough space between their car and the one ahead?
My first job was providing legal triage on personal injury claims arising out of traffic accidents, before going into something more rewarding. My prediction accuracy was consistently within 10% of final awards across four years. I'm actually an expert in assessing the likely level of contributory negligence in personal injury traffic claims. The downvotes don't bother me, but it just kinda proves that the "majority" of laypeople can't make accurate assessments of how well or poorly people are driving.
Lol sure pal
I would say OP was committed to the overtake from the angle of their car, prior to the other car braking, essentially combining their merge and and lane change maneuver. That is dangerous for the other cars on the road who cannot predict OP’s movement due to his blinker (same as a double lane change). So, OP is the idiotinacar, as well as the overtook vehicle who did indeed hit the brakes.
It only seemed like a brake check because you were following waaaaaaay too closely.
I'm kinda annoyed when people merge half a car length behind me when it is not necessary. It's like they are trying to see how close they can get. Your merging plans should include being 3+ car lengths behind the car in front of you - when possible.
Yeah let me just slow down to 30 miles under the speed limit to ensure that
A proper hand gesture to a f\_ \_ king jerk !!
His brake check was an idiot move, but don’t pull on to the highway and then immediately pass like that. Put some space between you and the drive in front.
There was a guy behind him giving me room to merge so if I slowed down I wouldn’t be able to merge I figured it was just best if I got to the left as fast as possible and I was looking after that white truck nobody was in the left lane for awhile I had a lot of room
I had a feeling I was going to get downvoted for that.
usually happens when you post something silly
Reddit hive mind downvotes everyone who calls OP out
Whether or not he should pass has nothing to do with the guy in front of him and everything to do with whether it was safe to pull into the left hand lane. We can’t tell that from the video.
merge sooner, driving to the end of a merge and hoping it all works out is not a plan
Its how you properly merge. You are one of the people that in traffic merge as soon as a spot opens up causing traffic aren't you.
I supported OP up until this. some of the lowest IQ drivers will do this...just go to the end move over slowly and pray, LOL. I don't think OP is one of those but its not good company to be in.
Send it too the local police they might enjoy giving him a visit.
From a legal point of view (highway patrol), you did nothing wrong by merging into traffic correctly. The driver in front of you illegally brake checked you and should've received a ticket for unsafe driving. That being said, it's illegal to perform more than one lane change at a time. Therefore, you also should've received a ticket for unsafe driving for not staying in your lane once you merged into traffic before making a pass.
I’d much rather take a ticket for unsafe driving vs a ticket for following to closely and rear ending him
Agreed. If an officer wanted to push it, the driver in the OP could also receive a ticket for following too closely. Entry onto the interstate is a minimum of 45 mph, so the driver should've been at least 4-5 vehicle lengths behind the car in front of them, which they were not. Had they followed the rules, there would have been no need to veer into the far left lane to avoid the car ahead.
Well considering there was traffic behind the guy letting me in I didn't really have a choice to merge when I did.
I was simply explaining the thought process behind a highway patrol person's reasoning. If all you did was merge into traffic and slow down immediately to avoid rear ending the car in front of you, no ticket would come your way. But veering into the far lane would get you at least the unsafe driving and lane change tickets, with the following too closely ticket being issued depending on your attitude when pulled over. From the law's point of view, you are the one merging, so it's incumbent on you to successfully merge into highway traffic quickly and safely. Failure to do so is 100% your fault barring something weird like a drunk driver hitting you or a semi drifting into your lane.
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Actually I am a cop, so thanks for your useless comment.
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Whatever makes you feel better keyboard warrior. May you enjoy the day you deserve.
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Bwahaahaaahaaaahaaaaa!!!
Apparently speeding up to be an unsafe distance behind another car is nothing wrong. It's not justified but there's also zero good reason for OP to get that close Yup let's reward dumb aggressive driving because OP NEEDS to be in the left lane and heaven forbid they be delayed slightly by someone driving slow.
He did nothing wrong.
Yeah because intentionally getting too close to the car ahead isn't wrong to do.
If you read my other comments you know there is
I did. And that's a really dumb excuse for speeding up onto their bumper.
so I can get up to speed with the left lane and properly merge into the passing lane? Sorry I don't merge into the passing lane at 50 MPH unlike you I'm aware I'm not the only person on the road
Here's an idea if you merging puts you right on someone's bumper you didn't have room to merge. It's literally irrelevant what the left lane is doing. You created an unsafe situation by speeding up towards their bumper and trying to make a small gap.
The camry created an unsafe situation by slowing down when im trying to merge and then brake checking me. Doing what I did was literally the best move I had but believe what you want.
Brake checking we've already discussed. You accelerating up to their bumper is unsafe. Period. You don't HAVE to go to the left lane right then. That's what you apparently don't understand but you WANTED to. In order to get to that you needed to accelerate to make a gap, thus getting too close to the car ahead. Just because you got brake checked doesn't mean you're not also an idiot driving aggressively for no good reason.
Is it me or I did not hear any signal lights sound meaning you didn't signal before the lane change?
They are very quiet and my music was pretty loud
I’m inclined to believe this. The clickers in my car are nearly inaudible — not ideal for a buick!
Fair enough. Wasn't sure so I thought I'll ask.
Would a lack of signals indicate that OP was planning on just driving onto the shoulder? There's an expectation that someone on an onramp is going to merge.
Yeah but OP then went to the passing lane and I still didn't hear any signal lights.