In the past few years, I have noticed something while driving. It has become quite more more prominent now than in my past few years of experience. Perhaps I pay more attention to it or I purposefully notice it occur more, but either way it’s happening. People will drive 40 MPH in a 45 MPH zone, and when we reach a 55 MPH zone they suddenly speed up to 60 MPH. This irritates me to no end because I will pass them in the 45 zone for going so slow, only to be passed by them in the 55 because they’re suddenly going so fast.
This happens to me without fail every single time I drive home. A car will be going slower causing a bit of traffic behind them. As soon as all those cars (myself included) pass them, they’ll buzz by a few minutes later, speeding past everyone so they can lead the pack. Of course, they almost always subsequently slow down again, and the process repeats over and over again. I don’t quite understand why this keeps happening. It’s also not really limited to one demographic, because I constantly seen men, women, young, and old do this. The icing on the cake is when these same people pass everyone and then slam on their brakes to turn.
Am I the only one who experiences this issue? It would to happen to me every once in a while a few years ago, but now it seems like it happens way too often to be just a coincidence. Perhaps I’m a magnet for this type of behavior? Maybe I’m just attracting the slow down speed up, pass then get passed kind of people on my drive home each day? Are they teaching this averaged out tactic in driver’s education classes? How is this explained in Common Core?
Zach McGeehon's Blog 