The Cut-off
It used to be that if someone cut you off on the highway, they risked almost certain “Death by Road Rage.” Over recent years the Cut-off has become so common that it’s almost considered acceptable driving. We don’t even seem to care anymore.
It’s still a dangerous game.
It has always amazed me that so many drivers are totally comfortable placing their lives, and the lives of their passengers, in the hands of complete strangers. They depend totally on the skill of other drivers to keep them alive - and out of traction. When nasty happens to them it’s always the other guys fault – but that doesn’t alleviate the fact that – well, “nasty happened to them”.
So it is with the “Cut-off”. The Cut-off dives in and out of highway traffic lanes, always cutting too closely in front of another driver. The Cut-off is always relying on other drivers’ skills to keep them out of disaster.
Cut-offs will also plow out of a side street or parking lot into oncoming traffic without ever hazarding a guess as to whether someone is bearing down on them. Whoops? Crunch Time!
There are basically two types of Cut-offs for us to Driverthink about.
The first appears to be fundamentally a local or city driver who has now decided to step out onto the highway. Within city congestion the rule of thumb can often be, “watch out in front of you, and let the drivers behind you beware”.
This may work in the congested city, where speeds can often reach a blistering twenty miles per hour, but I’m not sure it really works on a highway at seventy or eighty. Also inherent in this driving style, is to never acknowledge any activity going on in the rear view mirror.
The second Cut-off is the aggressive driver who takes a “me first” attitude. This driver considers it your job not to hit him. He may know you’re there - but he really doesn’t care. It’s his road and if you’re where he wants to be, he’ll just - be there, no matter the risk.
In either case the Cut-off carelessly places his physical well being at the mercy of other, perhaps not so skilled, drivers.
So where exactly, do we draw the line between a high speed driver who’s simply moving along, and the Cut-off?
If you’re pulling out in front of someone and that driver has to hit the brakes to keep from killing you (or coming very close to it), you’re cutting him off. It’s really pretty simple. He shouldn’t even have to touch the brake pedal.
Okay. So, assuming we have even the teensiest survival instinct, how do we not cut someone off? It’s pretty basic stuff.
First, if we’re about to pull out onto a road or in front of someone on the highway, it behooves us to look first. If someone’s about to hurt us, we won’t know it if we don’t see it – and we won’t see it if we don’t at least take a look. In order to accomplish this looking thing on the highway, it’s nice to remember we have things called Rear View Mirrors. This all seems pretty basic – until you watch a Cut-off, driving at any speed outside of the driveway.
If we’re changing lanes on the highway, we also want to maintain our speed during the lane change. If the traffic we’re moving into is already on their brakes, then we’re going to be on our brakes if we plop ourselves in behind them. This is going to force the driver we just dropped in front of – to either hit the brakes hard, or hit us.
Finally, there’s what I like to call the “Speed Lane Change”. This concept works really well when driving the highway if all lanes are moving well. You’re passing a slower vehicle in another lane. If you’re moving comfortably faster than she is, and there’s plenty of room in front of her, you can easily glide in ahead of her without causing her to brake for you. Just make sure you keep moving after you’ve done the deed.
The “Speed-Lane Change” works particularly well if your driving a truck – or perhaps at night, when the vision in that rear-view might not be quite as acute as you’d like. The “Speed Lane Change” may not be a politically correct driving technique, but in reality it’s one of the safest lane changes you’ll ever make. And Driverthink is all about reality!
If you think you might be a Cut-off driver, Driverthink would ask you to pause and reflect. Do you really want to place your life in the hands of all those other drivers on the road?
I don’t. The Cut-off may have become acceptable, but it doesn’t work for me!
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