To be annoyed at cars flashing to overtake?

[moutonfou]

I was on a dual-carriage way, traffic in the inside lane going about 65mph, me in the outside lane overtaking several cars steadily at about 70mph (okay, maybe it was a couple over that...). And then someone comes up behind me at 80+mph and starts flashing me, presumably to get in so he can continue to speed.

AIBU to think the overtaking lane is for overtaking and as long as I'm doing that, I've every right to be there? And that there's no god-given right to travel at 80mph even if that's your thing?

As I said before, if I can safely do so, I always move over for tailgaters because I don't want them ramming me up the backside if I have to brake suddenly but when I can't there is only so much I'm prepared to exceed the speed limit no matter how fast you want to go. Plus, if there's a slow moving vehicle in front of me, that means I can't go any faster, so you flashing and weaving within touching distance of my back bumper achieves nothing. I hope the twat who tailgated me the whole way down the inside exit lane where I was slowing down because I was leaving the fucking freeway learned something when he ran right over a bike rack that had fallen off some vehicle into the middle of the lane. See, I had time to move over to the outside because I could see it was there far enough ahead of me. He, only intent on getting where he was going as fast as he could, hit his gas, steamed on through and ran right over it. Don't know what damage it caused to the underneath of his vehicle that made him have to pull over to the shoulder but I hope it was nothing trivial.

Interesting thread.

I'm a car junkie and into fast sports cars (typically German ones).

Between buying my old car and getting my new one I had a gap and hired a small runaround for 2 weeks (aygo).

Obviously I was at a disadvantage acceleration wise, but I definitely noticed a tendency for people to drive up my ass even when doing speeds on or over the limit.

Normally I rarely get people not pulling over. I assume they see a sports car approaching behind and pull across - even if I'm not going much faster than them. The rare occasions they don't it's pretty obvious they are distracted (e.g. I can see them chatting away to a passenger). I wait politely at a safe distance for about 2 mins and only then if no joy would I flash my lights.

In reverse though I've had boy racers drive behind me in an obvious attempt to make me go faster and spur some sort of race off.

Depending on the road/conditions I either pull over and slow down so as to make it clear I'm not going to engage or I change down a gear and floor it for 10 seconds to show they are wasting their time and then slow right back down. Usually the former.

I do think however the car you drive impacts how you are treated on the road - even if your driving remains consistent.