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I used to do this several times a week, but let a 4 Runnner get to me. As rightmost lane goes from two lanes to one, he blasted by me and I did not care for it, so I started to do my aggressive drive act. After a bit of restless weaving, almost blasted by him. He was only on the tollway another mile before he exited and had an outraged look. Isn't it wonderful to always feel self-rightous when you are narcissistic? :rolleyes:

I've ranted many times about being in the rightmost lane and people passing to the right anyway. I've known so many Yuppies or professional types that are uptight and/or talk about how they are sooo busy - plenty of them in north Dallas. There have been articles written about how people in the office that talk about being overextended are actually bragging about their importance. Real or not, being busy is a rationalization for being rude and a bully. :mad:

I'm not going to justify my actions. If I had to do it again, I'd been alert and not let him do his little right blast to begin with and let him tailgate a mile. At least it's months, not days between these discretions.

When I lived in the DFW area what used to get under my skin every time were the people that blatantly ignored merging/lane closed/accident ahead signs - even when warning was given up to a mile ahead - and would ride in the closing lane right to its termination point at full throttle and then behave as if I had a constitutional responsibility to let them back into traffic ahead of me.

My own self-righteous a-holeness would come bubbling right up and I would do everything I could to keep them blocked at a dead stop in the closed lane no matter how aggressively they tried to push into my lane. if they flipped me off or honked at me it just gave me that much more pleasure.

Now that I'm a little older and calming down a bit I just don't have the time or energy to dedicate to things like that. The world, and the U.S. in particular, is just full of people that think they're special, that the rules exist for everyone but them, and that they truly are the center of the universe. Anything that does not fit into that world view is explained away, ignored or otherwise deflected, including our traffic antics.

The only thing that really pulls people like that up short is a wordless, immediate, unadvertised ass-whooping. However, no matter how badly they deserve - and need - that kind of intervention today's society puts you in jail for it and treats them as the victim, which only reinforces their feelings of superiority.

The best thing to do is just ignore them. They can't stand the lack of attention, and you can't be put in jail for it.

To be blunt, I'd love to see them either get their bling bling wheels totaled or a gas spike kick em where it hurts.

I think we are getting close to the root cause of poor fuel economy - way too many people view driving as a form of domination.

way too many people view driving as a form of domination.

Couldn't the same be said of hypermiling, though? Domination over our vehicles and what their manufacturers intended, over what the EPA says our FE should be, stealing terrorist's lunches, making some minor Arabian dignitary use Korbel champagne instead of Dom Pérignon, etc.

It's about giving our collective middle finger to the whole petroleum-based world and those that exploit both us and the planet with it.

Couldn't the same be said of hypermiling, though? Domination over our vehicles and what their manufacturers intended, over what the EPA says our FE should be, stealing terrorist's lunches, making some minor Arabian dignitary use Korbel champagne instead of Dom Pérignon, etc.

It's about giving our collective middle finger to the whole petroleum-based world and those that exploit both us and the planet with it.

I don't see hypermiling as a form or warfare, but that's what aggressive driving is. Let's remember that war involves the waste and destruction of resources.

Are we not "at war" with those that promote the waste and destruction of resources? I assure you that every prominent member of the petroleum industry sees or will see we hypermilers as their enemy once there's enough of us to noticeably hurt their cash flow.

It is or will be a conflict of ideology with tangible economic and resource impacts.

Hmm.
Aggression is in the eye of the beholder?

Today I was in the left lane, accelerating downhill. Normally I'd be in the right lane but a slow truck was there and I was pulsing, headed for 70 mph on a road with a 65 limit.

Remember I drive an 18-year-old Volvo, so everyone "knows" it's a slow car. Um, not necessarily.

A shiny newish Mercedes came up rapidly behind me in the right lane, obviously intending to pull right up behind the slow truck and then cut in front of me. However I gave it gas (downhill) while staying in top gear, accelerating so there was no room to get in front of me, and let the Mercedes driver bide their time along side me while I used my quad horns to express my opinion. Still a free country, isn't it? And this state does have a law re. passing is to be done on the left.

The poor Mercedes driver was obliged to fall in line behind me and follow while I passed the truck. After which, I pulled to the right in front of the truck, still moving briskly downhill, and we all continued on our merry ways.

Really, I prefer not to do battle with other drivers. It's better all around to wordlessly find ways for all of us to get what we want. But I don't think it's necessary to reward illegal rudeness with accommodation.

Glad you did not let the Mercedes fly by.

Hi All:

___I had a little of this happen today. Usually I just let it ride but in this case, I gained some FE on the payback …

___A young lady in a Mitsubishi something or other was merging onto I-55 Northbound at the Des Plaines River Bridge. She was a little slow which was great given I was decelerating in a HS glide over the previous ¼-mile … She stopped accelerating but maintained a steady 52 - 54 mph? This was ok given my decel was going to match her speed almost perfectly as I glided into a quasi-close/distant D-FAS. Then she brake checks me while extending the buffer between her and the 18-wheeler ahead of her by maybe 15 car lengths :angry: We are talking below the speed limit brake check and I was maybe 4 to 5 car lengths off her rear bumper at 52 mph while still holding a decelerating glide? Fortunately, I only needed a slight tap of the binders before pulling off the “Revenge” :)

___Ok sweetheart, you want to play that game? I pulled out the playbook for Aggressive Hypermiling 101.

___Laying the ground work.

___Nobody was in the left lane for maybe 25 car lengths behind which setup the perfect payback … As soon as I saw her brake lights, I immediately pulled a HS pulse with my turn indicator to move into the left lane. Using her for a 3-car D-Accel, I slingshot around. I was clear by maybe 6 car lengths ahead on the left and traveling at maybe 60 mph. I pulled back into the right lane in a FAS and was in a powerless glide while catching up to the 18-wheeler for a great D-FAS ahead. I then held a ¾ mile Glide down the other side of the bridge and slope and part way up the next incline ending up at 45 mph before pulsing back up to a more normal HS P&G range. She was stuck behind the whole way while I was decelerating because the car in the left lane had now caught up and was passing both of us while I was in one heck of an extended long glide. Only to keep my fuel consumption at an absolute minimum of course :rolleyes: When she passed, I gave her a smile and waved. I am sure she is thinking about it even now ;)

___Payback is a B$@*+ and in this case, two birds were killed with a single stone :D

___If ya all can’t beat em, you have to “learn” em :angel:

___Good Luck

___Wayne

That's a great story, Wayne. :) Using hypermiling to stuff an aggressive driver...

OK,,, I'm paranoid now. I haven't had any driving issues since all our winter weather.

psy

Only one guy on the planet could even think of that kind of payback for an unwarranted brake check. That's hilarious.

For the most part I've learned to let this stuff go, but I definitely get the urge to do something stupid from time to time. For example, yesterday I was coming home via my usual route that passes an elementary school in a 25mph zone. I did the usual thing which was to DWL up the hill and level off to cruise at about 30mph, which is about the closest I can come to the limit without getting run off the road on a daily basis. Just as I did that, some jerk in an Impala flew up behind me and started riding my bumper, then made an illegal pass within seconds inside the school zone. I was about to switch on the brights and then something just told me to let it go. I can only hope that he'll try that later in the spring when the police set up shop behind the barn opposite the school.

About four years ago on a spring day, a co-worker and I drove to lunch - windows down. We were waiting in traffic in front of a school. Some punk behind us was reving up his big black pickup with tinted windows. :rolleyes: Really stupid since there was a patrolman in plain view of everybody. The policeman turned and drove away. Immediately, the pickup raced to the right of me, practically on the curb, as there was no lane to the right of me.

I instinctively did my barroom bellowing: "I HAD TO KICK BUTT!!!" as he passed. While in hindsight, I should have expected my co-worker to get on to me, he made a federal case of it at the time, after work...the next day...at least six other times including three years later. :confused: You see, this poor guy seemed to remember every slight in his life indefinitely (issues, issues...). Seemed oblivious to the fact the jerk in the pickup truck would have laughed his butt off if he knew about this misguided lecturing.

I've backslid to that degree a time or ten, but I can't call up enough humility to describe it here.

I will describe a payback many years ago. A guy was riding my a** through the city streets. Can't remember now why he couldn't pass. We got to a particular red light at a three-lane road -- two in our direction and one in the opposite. After about a quarter mile, the middle lane became a left turn lane with double yellow lines. At the light I was in the front of the line in the left lane and he was behind me. I deliberately stayed even with the car in the right lane until the absolute last minute, pulling over just soon enough to avoid crossing double yellow where the left turn lane began. Meanwhile, he was riding me so close I couldn't see his headlights. I tapped my brakes repeatedly, but that just got him more fired up. Finally when I got over he floored it and passed. Of course now he was passing across the double yellow line and was in the left turn lane. Almost immediately the police car behind him (which neither of us had apparently seen -- it was dark) cut its lights on and pulled him a short distance up the street. I stopped, asked the cop if he had seen everything (which he had), and offered to testify if needed. The cop said, "No, I don't think so. I'm about to lock him up for drunk driving." :woot:

Yesturday was pretty good for me... THe temps warmed up, it was 25F in the morning and about 35F last night on my way home. I only got 38 on the way to work but managed to get in some good p&g action on the way home as there was much less traffic at night. Managed 47mpg on the way home. This morning was warmeer yet, 30F but I got caught in some grid lock for awhile, and only got 38mpg again.

Some of the stuff you guys are pulling would get you shot up here! I used to be an aggresive driver but there are too many gun toting pick em ups round here, it's a real gamble to mess with anyone. I try to just let things slide if I can. Also since I installed a scrolling LED licence frame I put the message that says "best tank avg= 46mpg" That gets people to switch lanes before they get up on my bumper for sure! Of course in the end sometimes I end up passing them later on, and that is my friends, the ultimate payback. When you can stick to YOUR game and not pay them any attention and still pass them later, that's the best feeling!

i don't know if it helps or hurts that i have a license plate frame that reads: Hybrid math
55MPH=55MPG

i get cars that come right up on me when i am going 60 in the 65 MPH 4 lane. i figure if there's a lane next to me, they can pass. sometimes they come right up behind and seems like they read it and then back off.

then again, i do get several times of the big pickups that just can hardly be bothered to click off their cruise control, so wait until they get as close as they can before they manage to whip into the left lane in front of whoever is behind them in the left lane. i even see semis do this.......now that's kinda scary.

i get cars that come right up on me when i am going 60 in the 65 MPH 4 lane. i figure if there's a lane next to me, they can pass. sometimes they come right up behind and seems like they read it and then back off.

When people do this around here it seems to be because they are oblivious, blabbing on their cell phones, and don't notice how fast they are going. They whiz up behind me, the tiny scrap of their brain that is not engrossed in their conversation notices that I am going slower, and some of them slow down and settle in behind me. Eventually they notice that they are going slower than their importance warrantsand they get into the fast lane and zip by. Of course most people on the road these days are jabbering on their cells - illegally on handhelds - so it's hard to make a correlation. And who am I to complain: I probably don't pay as much attention as I should when I'm on my (hands-free) cell, though I'm not speeding. I DO notice that my mpg is lower when I'm on the cell so I avoid using it.

then again, i do get several times of the big pickups that just can hardly be bothered to click off their cruise control, so wait until they get as close as they can before they manage to whip into the left lane in front of whoever is behind them in the left lane. i even see semis do this.......now that's kinda scary.

Yes this is what scares me most. Especially the ones who don't bother to fully change lanes and pass me with their right tires in my lane. I'm usually towards the right in RR mode, hoping this will indicate that I'm going slower than most. I tried driving at the speed limit (65) but everyone passes me anyway, so I decided to go back to 55-ish.

Every now and then people get under your skin, but often it's not personal "I'm more important than you"; it's simply that either (a) they're on the phone, (b) they're drunk, and/or (c) they just don't drive very well. Doing what excel did - whatever nets YOU the best mpg in the situation without being unsafe - is the best solution.

I actually did see someone pass another car in the LEFT lane by going into the LEFTHAND breakdown lane along the median strip. And the other day an idiot passed several of us on the right using the merging lane at an onramp (this moron had not come down the onramp).

My commute has several places where the 2 right lanes merge, and often drivers think nothing of passing me on the right. Mostly they're going fast enough it doesn't affect or bother me, in fact I WANT them to pass me, much better than having them hovering on my tail. It's the tentative drivers who can't decide whether to merge in front of me or behind me that make me nuts.

Basically I say anyone who wants to pass me, please...be my guest. You're less of a danger in front of me than behind me.

...Almost immediately the police car behind him (which neither of us had apparently seen -- it was dark) cut its lights on and pulled him a short distance up the street. I stopped, asked the cop if he had seen everything (which he had), and offered to testify if needed. The cop said, "No, I don't think so. I'm about to lock him up for drunk driving." :woot:


Glad to hear the wheels of justice catch up!

Ooh ooh, another driving-style rant thread. Heh.
.
For the whip-into-the-pinchoff-lane people, I've been
finding that leaving the normal huge gap actually gives
them someplace to go, gets them the F away from me, and
I can just keep warp-stealthing toward the neckdown at an
almost unchanged pace which gets me to it at the same time
whether a few people zip around and jump into the gap or
not. As long as they do it semi-safely, I'm fine with it.
.
As the pinchoff nears and I see more bogeys on my six,
sometimes I'll decide when it's no longer safe for them
to pass and slide just the tiniest amount one way or the
other to close off the gap. That's out of necessity if
the barriers are coming up and they look like they're going
to try it anyways. Thereafter, it's all about the yuppie button.
.
I'd love to tell any of these yahoos who think mashing a
pedal is a big accomplishment, that it's WAY more of a
challenge to handle all the on-ramp people gracefully
without simply bailing out of the righthand lane. The
large gap helps but sometimes they're just 100% clueless
and don't plan at all and don't even look for other traffic
until the lines are forcing them to merge. Average line-
of-traffic insertion speed seems to be around 50 - 55,
which isn't a big hit for someone going for MPG, but it
varies quite a bit. Had one yesterday that actually needed,
and when I say "needed" in this context it's serious, a
blast o' the horn. And that didn't even produce the usual
"oops" swerve, they just kept comin'. Fortunately I was
already at 60 amps of regen and far enough away...
.
[edit: now that I think about it, my horn may be somewhat less
loud with the grill-blockers still on.]
.
_H*

hobbit,

WTH is your post smashed all the way to the left like that? It makes it very hard to read.

hobbit,

WTH is your post smashed all the way to the left like that? It makes it very hard to read.

BailOut,

What he did was hit the return key instead of letting the browser control the wrap around. For what it's worth, I can handle this better than the very long images that forces members to use the horizontal scroll bar to read.

BailOut,

What he did was hit the return key
instead of letting the browser control the wrap around.
For what it's worth, I can handle this better than the very long
images that forces members to use the horizontal scroll bar to read.

Being that we are all hypermilers here,
I think we should all stay alligned to the right
for ease of forum post traffic flow ;)

I pulled out the playbook for Aggressive Hypermiling 101.

Tried that this morming. :D

People that enter the road skipping the rightmost lane into the passling lane get on my nerves. If it were possible to put my thoughts of this action in a video it might not be allowed here. :o I picture that driver's pants halfway slipping off their butt as they do this.......anyway he then went back in the rightmost lane - in my way. We were approaching a queue waiting to get on the access road to the freeway, so I cut the corner at a gas staion, gliding and getting ahead of him. I boarded the access road jumping a lane in front of him. :D

Hi Chuck:

___Sounds like we need to name and find an acronym for this new technique? BTHSPFASRR-BLOCK :D :D :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

That stuff gets to me less and less now, and I think ignoring them helps tourque them up a notch as well.

When confronted with an enraged driver, I simply pick up my cell phone and hold it right in front of me as they pass. Since I usually have shades on, it's hard for anyone to know if I'm looking at the phone or the road. Most of them think I'm text messaging or reading email and give not a second thought. Guess it's no fun flipping someone off if they are not willing to see you do it.

I'm also seriously considering a "Student Driver" sign on my car. Since I now follow traffic laws religiously (well maybe not all full stops), student driver gives the only logical reason why anyone would be so law abiding. Goes contrary to the cell phone trick though.

I always take comfort in the fact that the floor-it-pass-and-break-hard BS they pull cost them about a dime a pop (quarter in a Hummer). Kinda like getting someone to burn cell minutes to harass your answering machine.

11011011

you know what, its been awhile since other drivers really piss me off, i'm more irritated by drivers who turn without signalling. I usually blast my music loud enough to ignore what's behind me really, but I try to be considerate and reasonably speed up but most of the time I just let human nature do its course.

Whatever happens happens, but I'll be darn sure its never going to be my fault and if there are two lanes... screw you! There's a passing lane for a reason, use it noobs. Its not my problem that ignorance fails to make you realize what I'm really achiving on the pubic roads.

To totally catch up with this thread from a while ago, my posts
are "smashed" because I type all my lines at 80 chars or less like
I've done for 20+ years, and something in the form-submit mechanism
doesn't pick up whitespace so I have to fill in otherwise blank
lines with *something*, thus the bare periods. I'm still not
sure why the whitespace problem exists, but almost all forum
software seems to strip it in a really stupid fashion so I've come
up with this compensation mechanism.
.
Shorter lines are well known to be easier to read; every newspaper
layup jockey has known this for years. The spew-across-the-page
habit that browsers seem to have definitely detracts from the
readability that a post might otherwise have.
.
_H*

Pfft, don't even get me started. You haven't experienced poor driving etiquette until you drive L.A. :rolleyes:

Basically take all of your stories and combine them. Thats how many times I deal with this each day. :mad:

My favorite one was the brand new Mercedes speeding toward me in my lane! Apparently the cell phone was more important than certain death to that driver. Thankfully I had room next to me to dodge her... (yes, that right. She didn't bother to get out of my way until after I had passed her! :eek: )