A Classic Case of Ass Hole Sense of Entitlement
Well it's been almost a year since I added any stories here so let me add 1 from tonight's drive. Here is the picture. I'm sitting at the 620 light on Parmer going north. There is traffic lined up in the lane to my right and a few cars in the left most of 2 left turn lanes. No one right behind me but traffic is coming up as we start forward. Now here comes a white Range Rover up the right left turn lane. He flips on his right turn light just after he passes me. He has to come to a stop because the cars in front of me are obviously regulars and expect people to try and force a cut in line and bunched up tight. The guy whips in right behind me in the, about 5 car length, hole still left by the on coming traffic. For some reason the guy in the Range Rover and his passenger seem to think him not being able to gain any spaces is all my fault and comes up on my bumper and they flip me off. At this point still pretty much a typical day in Austin traffic. Now a couple of cars turn out of the right lane allowing him to pull into the right lane and actually pull ahead of me if he wants. I did not pull into that lane because I could see my lane was going faster at the moment plus there was a concrete truck several cars up. Well this guy pops into the right lane confirming by opinion of his skills but then does the unexpected. He pulls right up next to me and rides the dividing line. Now I'm wondering just what kind of nut I have here. We loose a couple more cars in the right lane and a hole opens up big enough I could get in front of the guy in front of me (who is not keeping up with the line in front of him) and actually do the speed limit if this guy was not sitting beside me. If you have read my other pages you know, many Austin drivers can be easily manipulated because they just don't think ahead. This guy was no different. I slowed a bit and of course my shadow did too. When I had managed to get a few car lengths between me and the truck in front of me, I punched it. My Montero is NOT fast by any means but surprise is a good tool against the slow witted and I had plenty of time to get in front of him. Of course this pissed him off again and he tried to get up on my bumper but by then I was already in front of the truck. From there, I moved in front of the car in the right lane and back to the left. So fine I now have some space between him and me right? Nope we come up on another light and all the cars behind the concrete truck merge left except for this guy. So here he comes once again to park right next to me. After a bit he moves up behind the concrete truck. Probably thinking he will some how get ahead of me. But of course most of the people in front of me are trying to get around that truck so it's smooth sailing the rest of the way home. I can just imagine him messing with one of the people behind me that would not let him out from behind that mixer. It looked like he had plenty to choose from.
The behavior of expecting people to come to a halt to let them cut into line is not at all unusual around Austin. At least while driving. Few people would ever think to try this else where. And unfortunately you frequently run into people like this guy that get hostile when you don't go out of your way help them with their quest to drive at everyone else's expense.