Charles, Charles, Charles.
What would you have me do???
You’re doing 80. I’m doing 75. The car in the right lane is doing 70.
I can’t speed up. Traffic in front of me is also doing 75.
Should I slow down to 65 to pull behind the car in the right lane? That would piss you off even more.
I’m sorry you speed demons get angry and offended. You will just have to learn to live with your problems.
If the traffic in front of you is doing 75, and you are doing 75, then there is no reason for anybody to be tailgating you.
We were talking about the case where you were blocking free access to the open highway, not a case where all the traffic in the left lane was moving at the same speed.
But I would never get mad at having to slow down a few seconds while someone moved into a slower lane. I don’t even get mad if someone in a slower lane signals to move into the left lane to pass an even slower car. It’s just a momentary inconvenience, and if the left lane is otherwise clear it’s easy enough to catch back up to where I was before.
But it’s not me that you have to worry about. It’s the fast drivers who don’t have any courtesy. They are going to tailgate, putting you at risk. They are going to try to pass you on the right even if there isn’t space, and cut back into your lane with inches to spare if they have to.
In short, they are going to threaten your life. Better to simply slow down, pull over, and let them pass, than put yourself at risk. Worse, they might pull a gun and shoot at you. Or just get mad enough to follow you off your exit, wait til you stop at a light, and come over and try to pull you out of the car and beat you to a pulp.
I’d rather have other cars on the road be ignorant of my existance. So I try to drive so as to not make anybody irritated at me. That includes moving over when people are going faster, and not tailgating people who are going slower.