Nope, I did not notice her gaining any speed. Could that have been a mistake? Possibly...honestly, I was in the middle of rush-hour traffic, in the right lane, folks were merging like crazy and I wanted to be in the middle lane quick. So I looked in my mirror, saw plenty of room to merge, and I did it.ZooTech wrote:Devil's Avocate here...
First off, her response after the fact was downright unnecessary and childish, so don't think for a second that I'm defending her threatening reaction to what happened. BUT...I can't help but wonder, CNF, if you only looked in your mirror long enough to see if someone was in the next lane and where, without pausing long enough to notice if she was gaining on you at all. I get this all the time whether I'm in the cage or on the bike. I'll just be cruising along, minding my own business (in the left/passing/fast lane) and just when I'm about to overtake some "slow and easy wins the race" kinda guy following a semi or whatever, the guy jerks his car over into my lane and proceeds to pass the semi (or whatever) at 1mph faster than it's going, causing me to literally hit the brakes. This happened to me last summer in my Stanza while I was on my way home from work. The freeway was relatively empty, save for a late model Honda Accord following a semi about a quarter mile ahead of me. I was running 75mph with the cruise control on, just listening to music. When I was about two car lengths away from overtaking said Accord/semi combo, the Accord driver decides to jerk over into my lane and proceed to pass the 65mph semi @ 66mph. I had to hit my brakes to keep from rear-ending the guy, and ended up riding his "O Ring" so he couldn't play it off like I wasn't there. Little did I know the freakin' State Troopers had an airplane in the sky that day and I ended up with a $103.00 ticket for "Unassured Clear Distance".
Moral of the story is, take the time to notice if the vehicle in your mirror is gaining on you at all. If you had simply waited 2-seconds longer to change lanes, the lady probably would have been past you by then and this never would have happened. It's easy to lay the blame on her, especially since she was a jerk about it, but you may very well be guilty of the "Me first" syndrome in this scenario.
The car in front of me was about as far as the car in the other lane. So if she WAS gunning it before I merged, she would have ended up tailgating that guy pretty quick. Could that be a possibility? Sure.
Cutting people off is sometimes an honest error. If that had been the end of it, fine. My mistake, sorry lady.
Does that mean she needs to use her vehicle to 'teach me a lesson' and threaten my vehicle, my life? I don't think so. Even if I had cut her off on purpose, revved my engine and flipped her off while standing on my bike and smacking my butt at her, that doesnt give her the right to behave as she did after the incident.
