this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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In my local experience, these are actually just profoundly incompetent. Hanlon's razor.
They tailgate because they are actually incapable of maintaining a following distance (you know the kind, when the road is empty they alternate between mashing the gas and driving well under the speed limit, and somehow if you're a passenger they're totally unaware that they are doing it even if they are not distracted, how it is possible to be this bad at gauging speed and distance I do not understand but these people do exist).
Then as their malfunctioning brain randomly processes that they want to go faster, they overtake, and since the lane is clear they mash the gas.
Then when they are done and they merge back, their brain performs a hard reset and they somehow drive slower than before they passed you. They do not notice. You pass them, and they are not looking distracted; the only explanation is that their brain is doing the simpsons-monkey-cymbals.gif.
I took an Uber a few months ago and the guy had apparently just learned to drive. The entire time he was always mashing either the gas pedal or the brake, so it was constant speeding up and slowing down. I tried to tell him that he could sometimes just have his foot on neither pedal to cruise and get a smoother ride, but he looked at me like I'd just grown another head.
Reminds me of driving in LA. I did my usual Midwestern (oh there's a red light a couple hundred feet ahead, I'll start slowing now and come to a gentle stop" and the other drivers were visibly confused by this driving behavior. LA is very much a "slam on the gas, slam on the brake" kinda place. The minivan I inherited from my family in LA has wear on the break pedal that stems from this kind of driving, you have to push the pedal really hard for it to fully stop (2 mechanics have confirmed the breaks are in good working order)
Love that gif:
I think this is also a psychological effect. Back in gym class, our teachers used to tell us that slower runners should pair up with fast runners for the 100m dash, because running behind someone pushes you to run faster. The same happens in traffic, where simply driving behind another car makes some drivers want to overtake it, even if they're not actually going faster. I also observe this effect when I cycle to work and feel the same urge when I'm behind someone else, until I remind myself that, sure I can push myself briefly to go faster, but do I actually want to maintain that speed afterwards? My usual answer is "no".
True, except it works both ways. The passed car also tends to speed up during/after being overtaken like it was some unforgivable insult.