"You make really good sense. We all have to make allowances for other vehicles on the road, even if they're doing something we don't like or even if they're doing something really stupid."
Thanks. Yep, like it or not we have to share the road with a lot of people, some of whom honestly just aren't very skilled or knowledgeable in the rules of the road or the operation of their vehicle. And that "idiot" who's trying to merge in at the last moment may be a tourist or out of towner who didn't realize they had to be there until the last moment. I try to be forgiving and understanding - it's not a race, after all - although it really tries my patience sometimes.
I'll admit, sometimes I toy with the obvious agressive idiots who think they're more important than everyone else on the road. My favourites are the ones who weave from the left to right lanes to try and get ahead 1 or 2 cars (while you're sitting in the middle or left lanes in a line of cars). I like to let them make their move and then position myself so they get stuck in the right hand lane behind some slow vehicle. I'm probably aggravating their already limited brainpower, but it's so satisfying - you can see them practically chewing their steering wheel when you shut the door on them like that.
I love you.
I never play any sort of freeway games. It's just not smart, and could get you into an accident, or worse.
If an idiot thinks that lane swapping is really going to speed them up, I'll get enough satisfaction out of passing him later down the road in the same lane I've been in all the time.
You said something about tourists, and you're right. Lots of people on major interstates are on them for the very first time. You and I know which lane to be in as you pass through our own cities to make life easiest for us, but the poor tourist or other out of towner hasn't a clue. It can be a real problem, especially where three or four freeways intersect.
When I give directions to out of town visitors to our home here in Saint Paul, I tell them which lane they need to be in to navigate the spaghetti-like maze of I-94 through St. Paul. It's got three other highways merging into and out of it, plus left exits and all sorts of other confusion. But, if you drive it, you can get in one lane, stay in that lane, and ignore all the confusion around you until you get to your exit. It's not always the right lane. It's not always the 2nd lane from the left. It's a lane that continues all the way through the city as the freeway expands and contracts around it.
Tourists are completely at a loss with this mess, and I give everyone a wide berth. It's less stressful for me, too.