C. E. White wrote:
> The following happened this morning on the way to work.
>
> I live in Raleigh, NC. In the morning I take Wade Ave. to I-40 to go to
> work. It starts out as a fairly narrow 4 lane street (2 in each direction,
> with some left turn lanes, but not one at every potential left turn) and
> lots of stop lights. As you head out of town it widens first to a nice wide
> surface street, then a controlled access highway and finally merges with
> I-40. I am in the right lane behind a plumber's van, so my vision ahead is
> limited. At every light, my line takes off quickly, pulls ahead of the
> people occupying the left lane, but before I can pass the van (which is
> going slower than I want to), my line tops out and the cars in the left lane
> catch back up, preventing me from passing. Finally, because a car in the
> left lane is turning left, there is a nice opening in the left lane. The van
> moves over to the left lane first and I see that the van is not the reason
> my lane is acting strangely. There was a Prius in the right lane in front of
> the van. I move over behind the van, so I do can pass the Prius. Before I
> can complete my pass of the Prius, we have to stop at a red light. When the
> light turns green, the Prius driver floors it and immediately pulls to the
> left in front of the van. In my opinion, it was a total MFFY move. There is
> not another left turn off the road from there to Barstow, Ca as far as I
> know. Not only that, the Prius driver doesn't even have the good sense to
> outrun the van. The van driver is clearly irate. He is tailgating the Prius,
> flashing his lights, etc. We are now on the controlled access portion of the
> street (past the I-440 exits). The right lane is clear, so I move back to
> the right. I leave room for the van to do the same, but apparently he wants
> to intimidate the Prius driver. I prefer not to be involved, so after
> waiting a significant period of time for one of them to move right, I just
> pass them both. Eventually, after I am maybe 3/8 mile ahead, the Prius
> driver gets the message and moves over. Meanwhile a Mitsubishi Eclipse has
> entered the left lane between the van and me to pass a slower vehicle. The
> van driver gives him the flashing light treatment as well. As soon as the
> Eclipse passes the slower vehicle, he gets out of the vans way. The van
> never changes back to the right lane (but most people don't as they approach
> I-40). Just before I reach I-40, I have moved back to the left lane of Wade
> Avenue (the right lane turns into an exit only lane at this point). The van
> catches me just as we reach I-40 (but never feels the need to flash me). As
> soon as he hits I-40, he moves as far to the left as he can (the road is 4
> lanes, then briefly 5 lanes wide going west at this point). He is really
> moving, maybe 75 or 80 in a 65 zone. I never see him again.
>
> So who is the MFFY in this story -
>
> a) The Prius Driver
> b) The Van Driver
> c) Me
> d) The Eclipse driver
> e) All of us
> f) None of us
> g) a + b
> h) a + b + c
>
> Is there a JLEDI in this story?
>
> Oh yeah, I arrived safely at work and it took about the same amount of time
> as it always does (20 minutes). I never saw the van or the Prius again. I
> assume the Prius was somewhere behind me, and the van might be half way to
> California for all I know.
>
> In my opinion, the Prius driver was a jerk. But so was the van driver.
> Rather than waste his time trying to intimidate the Prius, he could have
> just passed him. The Eclipse driver did nothing wrong, and was probably
> flashed because the van driver was suffering from road rage. Of course, I
> was totally blameless - well except people who are KRETP Nazis probably
> think I should not have passed on the right - even though it was perfectly
> legal - and except for the people who think the van driver was right for
> intimidating the Prius - they probably think I should have taken a few
> minutes to harass the Prius as well. The only excuse I can make for the
> Prius driver is that as the road widens into a controlled access highway
> (but before I-40), there are acceleration ramps entering Wade Avenue from
> I-440, Blue Ridge Road, and Edwards Mill Road. He might have though he
> needed to be in the left lane to avoid the traffic entering from those ramps
> (particularly the I-440 Ramp). However, he made his move to cut off the van
> well before we encountered any traffic entering from those ramps, and to be
> honest, traffic was pretty light on that portion of the road. If he had out
> run the van I don't think there would have been an issue. However, moving
> over to cut someone off and then not accelerating to a speed above the guy
> you cut off is a true MFFY action in my opinion.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ed White

I'm not sure about how to estimate Scott's opinion...other than to say
that as a general rule, anyone who drives is a MFFY waiting to happen.

My take would be "H" - definitely not the Eclipse driver as he did move
back to the right.