Occasionally, I have to pass a slower moving vehicle (primarily big rigs). So sure enough, I'm being overtaken on the left by a car moving 8 or 10 mph faster than me. No problem, except that I'm coming up on a truck that I need to pass. What happens. The faster car slows to my speed blocking me in and I have to cancel the cruise control to slow enough to get behind the car passing me. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN MORE THAN ONCE IN A TRIP? I honk, I motion, but the clown will not speed up or slow down to let me get around the truck.
Some observations:
- I think cruise control is a big part of the problem. People set it and, for whatever reason, just don't want to unset it. I think this is why you see many cars directly pacing each other, side-by-side, on the freeway, or passing each other with only a tiny bit of overtake. It is not the safest way to travel. The person passing should do it deliberately and get out of the other driver's blind spot, also clearing the way for other vehicles to overtake the slow one.
- If I'm in that middle lane and I see someone ahead in the right lane coming up on a slower truck, I know see he's either going to put on his brakes or come into my lane. I expect him to signal and come into my lane. If that doesn't happen early, then I have to make a choice: slow down (so he can get in my lane before he hits the truck--but he should have done this earlier so I wouldn't
have to slow down) or maintain speed/speed up (and hope he stays in his lane until I get past him). I suspect the drivers you see are choosing to reduce their speed rather than trust that you won't change lanes into them.
What the other driver (coming up on the truck) should do:
1)
Well in advance, check to see if the next lane is clear. When it is
2) Signal for the lane change,
accelerate enough to generate significant overtake
3) Look again and change lanes
4) After passing the truck and giving him safe buffer distance, signal, look, and change lanes back to the right.
If a truck comes into my lane while I'm beside him, it is a bad thing for me. A tractor-trailer has a total length of about 75 feet. A typical car is about 12 feet long. If a driver overtakes a truck with just 5 MPH of overtake, he'll have some part of his sheet metal beside the truck for about 14 seconds--that's a long time. I prefer to overtake slightly faster to reduce the amount of time I'm beside that truck. And I get over early to reduce the chances I'll get boxed in or that anyone will perceive that I'm about to become a conflict for them.
Re "Honking and motioning"--not advisable