mistercindy
New member
I don't know how many tens of thousands of miles I've ridden on busy Dallas highways, but over the years its been a lot. Yesterday, riding home during rush hour, a very odd thing happened to me for the first time.
I'll paint the picture. I was riding north in heavy traffic on Cental Expressway in Dallas approaching NW Hwy. Its an eight lane highway: four north and four south. Rush hour traffic typically slows to a stop several times around NW Hwy to Royal Lane, and yesterday was no exception. I was in the far left lane: the fast lane. There was a normal sized shoulder to the left. As usual, I was in the right hand third of my lane, which is where I usually ride in the far left lane. I'm there for two reasons. One, I can see traffic between the lanes ahead of me better. Two, if I want to change lanes its only a couple of feet away.
So, we're moving slowly and traffic comes to a stop. Its enough of a stop that I need to put my feet down. A fraction of a second after I stop I notice a white car immediately to my left in my lane pull up next to me. He couldn't have been inches from my left hard bag. I figured, "What the..?" I look down to be sure and, sure enough, I'm in the left lane. When traffic moved forward I gunned it a bit to get in front and away from him. In my rear view mirror I see a recent model white Cadillac with an older man with short and nicely cut conservative whispy white hair. He looked like an affluent retiree. Hardly the testosterone hell-raising type.
Traffic is moving very slow and in a few seconds I figure he just goofed up and I wasn't thinking about it. Then traffic stopped again and, he did it again! His left wheels have to be a couple of feet into the shoulder. In any event, now he's pissing me off. I look into his car and he's glaring at me. Again, "What the....?" So I gun it a bit to get around him and we continue on.
Traffic stops again, only this time I stop, again in the right third of the lane, but this time a good two car lengths behind the guy in front of me. Sure enough, this guy does it again! I briefly considered kicking a little dent into his new white Caddy. Instead, I gunned it to the middle of the lane and stopped. Now I'm going to communicate. I turned around and looked at this guy and he's angrily mouthing something. Traffic has begun to move again, but I'm ignoring it for a moment to let this guy know he's being a serious jerk. That lasts maybe three or four seconds. But now when I continue I'm on full alert for this jerk, and I remain good 50 yards behind the car in front of me so I have room to maneuver if I have to.
After a couple hundred yards he violently moves and accelerates into the lane to my right. You may criticize what I did next, but I was not going to have that nut in front of or next to me, so I pull into that lane. He pulls back into the fast lane, and so do I. By this time I've had enough, and I gunned it and quasi-lane-split (not legal in Texas) by a half dozen cars to get away from this idiot.
And that was the end of it. He stayed in the left lane five or six cars behind me and didn't act odd again. But I sure had my eyes glued to my mirrors before I peeled off into the HOV lane.
I have absolutely no clue what got into this guy. We had no incident that I can recall. I didn't recognize him or the car. I have no... clue... whatsoever.
Sorry for the long-ish post, but its hard to say in a few words. Thoughts?
I'll paint the picture. I was riding north in heavy traffic on Cental Expressway in Dallas approaching NW Hwy. Its an eight lane highway: four north and four south. Rush hour traffic typically slows to a stop several times around NW Hwy to Royal Lane, and yesterday was no exception. I was in the far left lane: the fast lane. There was a normal sized shoulder to the left. As usual, I was in the right hand third of my lane, which is where I usually ride in the far left lane. I'm there for two reasons. One, I can see traffic between the lanes ahead of me better. Two, if I want to change lanes its only a couple of feet away.
So, we're moving slowly and traffic comes to a stop. Its enough of a stop that I need to put my feet down. A fraction of a second after I stop I notice a white car immediately to my left in my lane pull up next to me. He couldn't have been inches from my left hard bag. I figured, "What the..?" I look down to be sure and, sure enough, I'm in the left lane. When traffic moved forward I gunned it a bit to get in front and away from him. In my rear view mirror I see a recent model white Cadillac with an older man with short and nicely cut conservative whispy white hair. He looked like an affluent retiree. Hardly the testosterone hell-raising type.
Traffic is moving very slow and in a few seconds I figure he just goofed up and I wasn't thinking about it. Then traffic stopped again and, he did it again! His left wheels have to be a couple of feet into the shoulder. In any event, now he's pissing me off. I look into his car and he's glaring at me. Again, "What the....?" So I gun it a bit to get around him and we continue on.
Traffic stops again, only this time I stop, again in the right third of the lane, but this time a good two car lengths behind the guy in front of me. Sure enough, this guy does it again! I briefly considered kicking a little dent into his new white Caddy. Instead, I gunned it to the middle of the lane and stopped. Now I'm going to communicate. I turned around and looked at this guy and he's angrily mouthing something. Traffic has begun to move again, but I'm ignoring it for a moment to let this guy know he's being a serious jerk. That lasts maybe three or four seconds. But now when I continue I'm on full alert for this jerk, and I remain good 50 yards behind the car in front of me so I have room to maneuver if I have to.
After a couple hundred yards he violently moves and accelerates into the lane to my right. You may criticize what I did next, but I was not going to have that nut in front of or next to me, so I pull into that lane. He pulls back into the fast lane, and so do I. By this time I've had enough, and I gunned it and quasi-lane-split (not legal in Texas) by a half dozen cars to get away from this idiot.
And that was the end of it. He stayed in the left lane five or six cars behind me and didn't act odd again. But I sure had my eyes glued to my mirrors before I peeled off into the HOV lane.
I have absolutely no clue what got into this guy. We had no incident that I can recall. I didn't recognize him or the car. I have no... clue... whatsoever.
Sorry for the long-ish post, but its hard to say in a few words. Thoughts?