Driving etiquette: Anything to do about jerks that are bullying others?
 

Today, I saw a line of cars in the next lane on the highway, and one of them had the high beams on. At first I thought maybe he was just absent-minded and didn't notice that his high beams were on. After observing for awhile, I decided that he's a jerk trying to bully the drive in front of him.

I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could think of to do, except maybe cut into the lane and turn on my high beams behind the jerk.

Any suggestions?

got a concealed firearms permit? :D

Well, with power mirrors you can always reflect his high beams back to him! I've done this a couple of times. If the idiot driver is behind me I will speed up to the speed limit and pull into the far right lane (If I hadn't done so already) then ignore them. If after a while they are still there I'll flash my brake lights to try and coax them to pass. Since my truck has auto dimming mirrors high beams don't bother me. The brighter the light gets, the darker the mirror gets.

-Jay

Let the driver flick the lever on the bottom of their rear view mirror to get rid of 75+% of the glare, and ignore him. It's not worth it.

I know this is a joke - but as a concealed handgun license holder, firearms advocate, IDPA competitor, and guy who's dealt with too much damn media in the past year - don't suggest that again. Please. Sheeple already have this vision of knuckle dragging morons looking for the smallest excuse to kill somebody, when that conception couldn't be further from the truth.

I spent 2 days with CNN and the reporter and camera person both commended me, saying they didn't imagine that somebody of my age (ripe "old" age of 24) would be so active about something they believe in, have facts to back everything up, and approach things from a logic standpoint. Any license holder in any state of any age doing something stupid or making a comment like that basically erases what other people are working for.

Best thing is to just move away and let them sort it out. If the person in front of the person with the high beams on is driving at or near the speed limit, then nothing really need be done. If he is having trouble with the car, and you can safely run interference for him so he can get off the road, then do so. (Did this once for a guy who had his hood fly open while driving down a road near here.)

Not much you can do for the guy with the brights, unless you are the kind of guy who likes to get in the middle of bar fights. Best to give the idiot (maybe, there may be extenuating circumstances) room to go around the person in front of him.

I usually go around the speed limit on most roads...had a lot of people whiz around me, but almost never have any problem with them. It's tough, but if you don't let such folks get under your skin, they usually don't give any problem.

Indeed, that's the problem...I have no interest in doing that. I just sympathize with the one driver, and wish the other driver would not be a jerk. I hate those jerks. Headlight glare and tailgating are bad enough without people doing them specifically to be bullies.

Maybe that would have been a good time to be driving my truck, and actually pull the "I'm bigger than you" card by squeezing in-between and slowing. Mr. T can step into a bar fight between two 120 pound skinny guys and you can bet nobody gets hurt. He pities da foo who keeps trying to fight after that! :D

At times, there was more than ample room for the jerk to pass. If there were extenuating circumstances, as in the jerk had a genuine reason to be in a hurry, he would simply have passed the other car. He obviously just felt like he owns the road and others should bow to his will.

I totally understand and respect that sometimes people actually need to get somewhere fast -- maybe due to bad planning, or maybe due to circumstances beyond their control. In those conditions you don't wait for someone to get out of the way, you observe their pattern and use whatever pavement is available to get to your destination faster.

It's not like the lead driver was going particularly slow. It's a 65mph highway, I was doing 70mph in the right lane, and they were passing in the left lane at maybe 75mph. I don't do much saving the world, but that was a time that I really wanted to help a stranger.

The driver being brighted could simply slow down to let the other guy get around him.

OTOH, I had a guy once on my tail that had decided it was THE place to be. I had to manuever in traffic to scrape him off on other vehicles several times before he got tired of it and moved on. You just can't help some people...

yea those people are dumb... you like move over or slow down to try to give em a clue that you want them to pass but most of em are too dumb to realize it.

if its clear they seem to like my bumper i either flash my brake lights and if that doesn't work i usually just engine brake and then they finally get the clue to back off...

Take the plate, toss your cell to your passenger, get 'em to call 'em in to the highway patrol as an aggressive/unsafe driver, give 'em a wide berth.

There really isn't much you can do from behind; at least not safely. When people are behind me doing that I just start coasting down slower and slower until they pass. Most of the jerks can't be troubled too much to go slow so they pass. By the time you get to ~20 mph they just about always go around.:p :D