Why do people speed up when you try to pass them?

I bet most of the drivers in these trucks that speed up don’t even have a foot on the throttle pedal. The passing truck brings with it a wave of air that pushes the slower truck up to a higher speed like a tail wind. I can feel it in my 4 wheeler when a truck passes me. Thats why I will drift a little more to the right so the passing truck can break thru the brick wall of wind my truck makes. Back before cruise control was the norm when your foot controlled the hammer this was less of a problem. You just relaxed off a hair to let the passing truck break thru your air and move on.

 

I used to speed a long time ago, and when I started driving trucks it finally clicked why I shouldn't. Now I actively try to drive the speed limit, not even 1 mph over. In all the years I've been doing this, I have yet to be run over. That person who is doing 15 over is probably making up the same flow of traffic excuses that everyone else likes to pretend are the rules. If you feel it's fair to break the rules, why criticize somebody else for doing it? You can't expect people to know anybody else's secret rules for speeding, but the signs along the road are spelled out the same for everybody.

 

I like to see how fast they are willing to go to keep me behind them.

 

That would be hilarious two of them racing side by side at 75 mph. “I’m winning!” “No IM winning!”

 

I almost started an identical thread last week, after a day when three different drivers did the same thing to me. I’m a company driver in a company truck that’s governed to 70 (and if those radar-equipped speed signs are to be believed, goes 71).

Mine has all the usual stuff, adaptive cruise control (which only actually slows my truck down if I’m not paying attention, keep your foot on the throttle and it keeps going 70) and the radar for the cruise control that also lets me know how fast the vehicle in front of me is going. So I know that the guy in front is going 68, and has been for a while. I slide over into the passing lane and steadily overtake his truck. I come up alongside, and even pull ahead about half a truck length. And he starts to accelerate…

 

It’s herd mentality. Mostly subconscious. Like how cars drive bunched up all the time. People are more comfortable with others around them like a little herd of sheep. Plus some competition, ever run horses and have someone pass you as you are running along and feel your horse kick it in another gear?

 

Quit acting like you NEVER go over the limit. Take your holier than thou attitude elsewhere. If even the DOT gives us 5 over, then I don't care about 5 over. I don't usually go more than 2-3 over. But there is a huge difference between "breaking the rules" by going 2 over and "breaking the rules" at 15 over. We had a company driver who wouldn't go over the limit. Someone shot at him in Jackson last year. Huge hole in the side of his truck, bullet went through his armrest and lodged in the passenger door. So go the speed limit and get shot. Yea, that's safe.

I've never had a ticket or accident and drove 3 different companies and 5 different types and styles of trucks in every state except Maine and North Dakota and I'm knocking on a million miles. I'm doing ok, thanks.

 

Can you say for sure, why the driver was shot at? Random bullet, intended for someone else, or was he directly targeted? And if he was targeted, the reason for being so? Methinks it wasn't for speed.....

 

I've never been shot at or rear ended for driving the speed limit. There are probably a ton of drivers out there consistently driving across the country 15+ mph over the speed limit, without any accidents or getting a ticket. Why are they any different than you?

But hey, keep coming up with excuses for why you are entitled to not follow the rules but you expect everybody else to. The irony is that they seem to have the exact same reasons as you do to justify why they do it.