There’s the factor that they won’t see the car in front of you slam on its brakes, and will not be able to brake in time, since people rarely leave enough following distance at high speeds. Also, people seem to get overly angry when I pass on the left and they drive up from behind – they’ll tailgate and whip around me on the right to floor it and squeeze back into the passing lane, barely avoiding rear-ending the guy in the middle lane I was passing. I am not one of those drivers who creates a bottleneck in the left lane, either – I pass at a decent clip and move to the right as soon as I get to following distance from the guy behind.

I used to drive a sedan, and never noticed this behavior, but now I drive a minivan. When drivers come up behind sedans in the left lane, they seem more willing to be patient, maintain a safe following distance, and let the sedan hop into the right lane before speeding off. So I think it might be because people can’t see around me and assume that I’m the person hanging out in the left lane instead of passing – rather than that I, too, am penned up behind some slower car in front of me.

This behavior makes me really nervous, and it seems to happen a lot. Other drivers of large, boxy vehicles – does this happen to you much? It makes me think it’s actually less safe to drive a minivan, because someone might easily rear-end me or the car next to me doing this. Do you agree? And in general, do you have any strategies to compensate for the challenges of driving a large car?

Topics: cars, driving, etiquette, safety, trucks, driver, tailgating, highways, SUVs, minivans