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And I am not proud of it, I know I was lucky I didn't cause an accident and I will take this as a lesson to remain calm under any provocation.
A few years back on my way to work and it is snowing. I take the on-ramp onto the highway and due to the snow sticking to the ground and no plows having hit the highway yet traffic is crawling. I match the traffic speed and go to merge but I have one of those people who considers someone merging in front of them a personal insult. The kind of person who tries to stay a few inches from the bumper of the guy in front of him.
Mistake #1 on my part but I just don't really put up with that shit. I'm a big believer in the zipper method of merging and since we were all going slow I just continued to merge leaving this person three choices; move over to the next lane, slow down or hit my car. He chose to slow down.
I don't really even think twice about these situations, there are too many assholes on the road for me to spend time concerned with them so it came as a surprise a few minutes later when a car in the next lane over ahead of me suddenly pulls a few feet over so his wheel is in the deep slush/snow in-between the lanes and guns his engine for a few seconds sending a wave of slush and snow over my windshield.
I slow down and let the wipers work as the asshat pulls in my lane in front of me and I realize it's Mr I'm_not_going_to_merge guy. Apparently he took that whole merge thing real personal and had been biding his time for a bit of revenge.
And that's when I lost it. I can only say this and there is no way to prove it but I am usually a very calm person regardless of the provocation (came in handy in the years I did customer service) but I was seeing red. I pulled out into the next lane and pulled ahead of asshat. Then I pull his maneuver back on him but I grew up driving in snow and know how to keep control of my car with very little traction. Where he hit me with a quick blast I maintained a controlled wheel spinning skid for almost a minute before he had to pull over in the breakdown lane because the front of his car was covered in a foot of slush and snow.
In spite of my confidence in my ability I know better than to do something like that on purpose and I could have lost control. More importantly I had no way of knowing how this guy would react to what I did to him, he had already proved that he can't handle a minor incident so what might he have done when he had actual real provocation and how many other innocent people might have been involved in the ensuing accident?
As soon as he pulled over I realized what an ass I was being and how badly it all could have turned out. I still think about it to this day. My advice is never provoke someone who is driving like an asshole since you never know how it will turn out (I know, I know...do as I say not as I did).
A few years back on my way to work and it is snowing. I take the on-ramp onto the highway and due to the snow sticking to the ground and no plows having hit the highway yet traffic is crawling. I match the traffic speed and go to merge but I have one of those people who considers someone merging in front of them a personal insult. The kind of person who tries to stay a few inches from the bumper of the guy in front of him.
Mistake #1 on my part but I just don't really put up with that shit. I'm a big believer in the zipper method of merging and since we were all going slow I just continued to merge leaving this person three choices; move over to the next lane, slow down or hit my car. He chose to slow down.
I don't really even think twice about these situations, there are too many assholes on the road for me to spend time concerned with them so it came as a surprise a few minutes later when a car in the next lane over ahead of me suddenly pulls a few feet over so his wheel is in the deep slush/snow in-between the lanes and guns his engine for a few seconds sending a wave of slush and snow over my windshield.
I slow down and let the wipers work as the asshat pulls in my lane in front of me and I realize it's Mr I'm_not_going_to_merge guy. Apparently he took that whole merge thing real personal and had been biding his time for a bit of revenge.
And that's when I lost it. I can only say this and there is no way to prove it but I am usually a very calm person regardless of the provocation (came in handy in the years I did customer service) but I was seeing red. I pulled out into the next lane and pulled ahead of asshat. Then I pull his maneuver back on him but I grew up driving in snow and know how to keep control of my car with very little traction. Where he hit me with a quick blast I maintained a controlled wheel spinning skid for almost a minute before he had to pull over in the breakdown lane because the front of his car was covered in a foot of slush and snow.
In spite of my confidence in my ability I know better than to do something like that on purpose and I could have lost control. More importantly I had no way of knowing how this guy would react to what I did to him, he had already proved that he can't handle a minor incident so what might he have done when he had actual real provocation and how many other innocent people might have been involved in the ensuing accident?
As soon as he pulled over I realized what an ass I was being and how badly it all could have turned out. I still think about it to this day. My advice is never provoke someone who is driving like an asshole since you never know how it will turn out (I know, I know...do as I say not as I did).
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