When the person in front of me is making the same turns as I am and going to what seems like the same place..

[Anonymous]

I turn off or start to go another way to make sure they don’t feel like I’m following them.

It gives me some type of anxiety or something! But I don’t want you to think I’m following you.

[Anonymous]

You have main character syndrome. No one is paying attention to you.

[Anonymous]

That's strange but okay.

Would you even do it if, for instance, it's school pick up time and you're driving to the school? Or if you are in a neighborhood with one commercial center and you are driving to that commercial center? Like basically would you do this even if there's a very good reason why you and others would all be driving to the same place at the same time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have main character syndrome. No one is paying attention to you.

Agree. OP has main character syndrome. Nobody cares that you are also going to mall, along with 5,000 others.

[Anonymous]

I do the same.

[Anonymous]

I don't even pay attention to who is in front of me, much less behind me. It would never occur to me to take a different route for this reason.

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean. There’s probably a gendered component to this: I’m a woman. A man (a) probably wouldn’t notice and (b) wouldn’t even think to change his route to make sure a stranger felt safe.

[Anonymous]

This is funny to me because when I was quite pregnant a guy getting on the same bus as me kind of shoved past me to get on the bus when it arrived, then jumped up and jostled past me to get to the front of the bus when we were getting off at the same stop, and while walking did a big "jump out ahead of these slow walkers" thing at the first intersection when we had to wait for a light. He was clearly frustrated and running late, but then when I got to my OB's office he was waiting for the elevator in the lobby. I unbuttoned my coat while we were waiting and he was sooooo visibly uncomfortable with the fact that he'd been basically pushing a pregnant woman out of his way in his hurry to get to his pregnant partner's appointment, instead of just a slow fat lady or whatever he thought at the time. He held the elevator door for me when it showed up and when it got to the doctor's floor, and was all "after you" about going to the check-in desk.

Nobody thinks you're tailing them. But drive politely all the same so that if you end up at the same place it's not awkward!

[Anonymous]

I sometimes feel this way too

[Anonymous]

I also sometimes think people are following me.

[Anonymous]

This happens to me all the time, and I just go where I’m going 🤷‍♀️ The route to my kids’ school has a very specific pipeline so I’m usually just behind another parent from school. Which is why I resist the urge to tailgate even the slowest of drivers

[Anonymous]

I follow them closely and then steal the parking spot they want. That's the way to do it.

[Anonymous]

I follow them and then turn on my high beams on my large vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is funny to me because when I was quite pregnant a guy getting on the same bus as me kind of shoved past me to get on the bus when it arrived, then jumped up and jostled past me to get to the front of the bus when we were getting off at the same stop, and while walking did a big "jump out ahead of these slow walkers" thing at the first intersection when we had to wait for a light. He was clearly frustrated and running late, but then when I got to my OB's office he was waiting for the elevator in the lobby. I unbuttoned my coat while we were waiting and he was sooooo visibly uncomfortable with the fact that he'd been basically pushing a pregnant woman out of his way in his hurry to get to his pregnant partner's appointment, instead of just a slow fat lady or whatever he thought at the time. He held the elevator door for me when it showed up and when it got to the doctor's floor, and was all "after you" about going to the check-in desk.

Nobody thinks you're tailing them. But drive politely all the same so that if you end up at the same place it's not awkward!

This is amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is funny to me because when I was quite pregnant a guy getting on the same bus as me kind of shoved past me to get on the bus when it arrived, then jumped up and jostled past me to get to the front of the bus when we were getting off at the same stop, and while walking did a big "jump out ahead of these slow walkers" thing at the first intersection when we had to wait for a light. He was clearly frustrated and running late, but then when I got to my OB's office he was waiting for the elevator in the lobby. I unbuttoned my coat while we were waiting and he was sooooo visibly uncomfortable with the fact that he'd been basically pushing a pregnant woman out of his way in his hurry to get to his pregnant partner's appointment, instead of just a slow fat lady or whatever he thought at the time. He held the elevator door for me when it showed up and when it got to the doctor's floor, and was all "after you" about going to the check-in desk.

Nobody thinks you're tailing them. But drive politely all the same so that if you end up at the same place it's not awkward!

This reminds me of this time in high school when I spent the night at a friend's house and the next day drove from her house to my summer job working in an office in our small town's downtown area. When I pulled into a parking space, a truck pulled into the space next to me, and when I got out of my car, the man in the truck got out and approached me. And then he explained that I had cut him off like 20 miles ago near my friend's house way out in the country, and he had followed me all the way into town to tell me to drive more carefully. I probably did cut him off accidentally -- I was 17 and I will fully admit I was not the best driver. He was reasonably nice about it but it also made me pretty uneasy thinking about him getting mad and then following me for almost a half an hour to my workplace. I was glad I wasn't going home! Though it also taught me to drive a bit more carefully because you don't want to upset someone who might be mad enough to do something about it either.