Why do drivers speed up and close the gap when you try and change lanes?!!

timbotambo

I was on the Aston Expressway today in Birmingham (4 lanes in the direction I was going) and I realised I was in the wrong lane when quite near Spag Junction. Nice big (2-3 seconds) gap next to me and I had to move over or run out of road so I indicate and start to move over slowly. Traffic about 50mph at this point. IMMEDIATELY as I indicate this pillock in a Merc C-Class floors the accelerator to close the gap. I'd already started to move so just carried on anyway as I knew what he was doing and the pillock puts his car right up my trumpet, half over the next lane, flashes his lights, blares his horn, and gives me various gesticulations. The thing is, the speed he was going he would have had to brake hard to avoid hitting the car in front of me anyway.

WHY the f**k do people drive like that just for the sake of being a total t**t??!!! I was trying to be polite by moving slower, I should have just indicated and moved really quick and not given him time to react!!

Incidentally, the guy driving the Merc was quite aged , maybe 70+. Really don't expect it from people like that!!

So further down the road I brake-tested him and gave him the old British tug sign. Yeah, shouldnt have but he deserved it.

Rant over!!

poppasmurf_bewdley

But Merc and BMW drivers own the road and are excused from normal driving rules and regulations. Didn't your driving instructor ever tell you that!

oldagetraveller

If it had been the other way round he probably wouldn't have even indicated his intention. Drivers of certain marques (usually German) don't know where the indicator stalk is anyway!
However, by coincidence and to be balanced, I was driving through Birmingham about three weeks ago. Not knowing the area and in the incorrect left lane (Aston Rd?) and should have been in the r.h. lane for the sliproad onto the Expressway. Very busy and nose to tail, both lanes. I indicated right and a BMW driver in the r.h. lane actually stopped to let me in front of him. So in fact he obviously didn't think he "owned the road".

poppasmurf_bewdley

oldagetraveller wrote: »

If it had been the other way round he probably wouldn't have even indicated his intention. Drivers of certain marques (usually German) don't know where the indicator stalk is anyway!
However, by coincidence and to be balanced, I was driving through Birmingham about three weeks ago. Not knowing the area and in the incorrect left lane (Aston Rd?) and should have been in the r.h. lane for the sliproad onto the Expressway. Very busy and nose to tail, both lanes. I indicated right and a BMW driver in the r.h. lane actually stopped to let me in front of him. So in fact he obviously didn't think he "owned the road".

Yes he did, but he was one of the few who was willing to let you share it.

albionrovers

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

But Merc and BMW drivers own the road and are excused from normal driving rules and regulations. Didn't your driving instructor ever tell you that!

==

Not again. It's Audi and SUV drivers nowadays. Do keep up?

C_Mababejive

If i had realised that i was in the wrong place and that it might be hazardous to move, i would have carried on to the next junction. mind you, i tend to pay attention so i rarely just realise anything.

poppasmurf_bewdley

albionrovers wrote: »

==

Not again. It's Audi and SUV drivers nowadays. Do keep up?

I have metophorically tugged my forelock in gratitude.

Mr_Thrifty

The reason they do it is because otherwise people steal their braking distance. Basically, they're trying to prevent the person who wants to change lanes from forcing their way in without having enough space to do so safely.

Think about it. If they have left a 2-3 second gap and you slot in the middle, now they only have a 1 second gap or so. In effect, you have forced them to either brake or move back just so that they're not tailgating you.

Essentially, when they see you about to push in, they close the gap to say 1.5 seconds (so that you dare not risk moving into something that small), in preference to you getting there first and closing it down to say 1 second.

anotherbaldrick

It's Eastern European registered HGV lorries that really know how to slam the door.

Strider590

That stretch of road is a !!!!! magnet, it starts at the a4540 with idiots taking the LH turn lane to go straight on (Aston expy lane is the middle lane) and then you have to contend with idiots blocking/racing. I'm glad I don't use that road very often!!!!

LincolnshireYokel

because theya re !!!!s, simple as that.

I have to turn right onto my driveway, sometimes, off an intermittently busy main road. When im sat there, holding up the traffic behind me, waiting for a gap in the other lane line of traffic, most people will shuffle back or forth to make a gap for me to nip across and down my drive. The other day the car next to my nose shuffled forward to make a gap, and before i could move the stupid little tart in the car behind him, in a pink Ford Ka, moved forward and closed the gap. I bipped my horn and gesticulated about the gap, the silly cow just waved and smiled - she closed the gap quite deliberately.. Had it been a bloke i would have got out and broke his arm. Stupid, selfish little !!!!!. We had to sit there another 3 or 4 minutes, with a queue behind me, no one moving, because of her. She was about 20 years old. The manners and driving skills of some of these stupid little girl racers really do suck donkey balls.