I let everybody in front of me. I give everybody space. Not to the point of stopping, but I just don't speed up when one car merges and I always leave room. It doesn't matter to me if it is 1 car or 5 cars. It costs me what, like 6 seconds of driving slightly slower? This drives my husband crazy. Everybody here is aggressive and honestly when I just decided to let everyone in front of me driving became less stressful. Plus, I think it improves the flow when everyone can just merge in and no one is halting.

Do you want to really find out?

I am a cautious driver, generally stay at the speed limit, and never hog the left lane like some slowpokes.

But when I need to change lanes, and signal to do so, and the person at the 5 or 7 oclock position speeds up, I start my lane change anyway.
I drive a 2005 toyota matrix. I can bet, without even guessing, their car is a lot nicer. (me to a valet recently -- "careful with this car my good man, its worth a thousand dollars....!" {confused look by him})

No, I'd never drive into someone else. (Its too much hassle, too dangerous. I've been rear-ended, not horribly, its quite off-putting.)
But do you you really want to find out with your nicer car.

Anonymous wrote:
I don't think any driver wants to damage his own car with a collision - however, some are willing to let you think it, and some are comfortable with driving aggressively at close range.

I'm Parisian, and in Paris this is par for the course: the streets are narrow, the traffic hellish, the cars zip by, the motorcycles even more so, and you'd better have lightning reflexes to insert yourself where you want to go, otherwise no one is going to wait while you hover. I HATE it, because I'm the anxious and slow type

Many people in the DC area come from other places, so I have long thought this area's peculiar driving style comes from a mix of different driving expectations.

I agree with this comment. I moved here from Boston, where people don't let you in so you basically have to create a space by nosing in, and where you can't leave what I was taught in driver's ed was a "safe following distance" because someone will zip right into that gap. I've had to relax and learn to be a bit less agressive here.

Just let people in. Don't be a jerk and speed up or block. It's not worth it.

I honestly think some people are crazy enough to be willing to hit you. I witnessed some crazy stuff the other day. Two cars trying to merge in from different lanes. One car zoomed around the other, and literally stopped on the freeway in front of the other car. Neither car was at fault from a merge perspective. It was just two cars trying to get into that one lane at the same time, but the one driver was crazy. We all had to stop behind them. I was about to hit the horn, but thought to myself that the front car driver is crazy and he might have a gun. This is the state we are in now.. afraid to honk at people to move for fear of being shot at.

OP - please learn how to zipper.