It’s a nice thought that we’re apparently not the only ones with this problem. Last weekend we asked you to honestly admit when you accelerate a little when you were overtaken. And to explain why you do that. We received more than a thousand responses on various platforms; many expressions of recognition and frustration, but also a few honest answers. We’ll pick a few for you.
A certain Max and a few others confirm a suspicion we already had: ‘For me it often happens because when I am overtaken I also look at the speedometer to see how fast I am driving. If I have not been paying attention and am driving slightly below the speed limit, I will drive faster (again).’ Another takes the overtaking car as an example and adjusts his speed: ‘So I can go a bit faster because the lease car next to me also knows how fast it can go here (without getting a fine).’
Accelerating as punishment
In an anonymous comment, someone claims that he punishes people if, for example, they were on their phone earlier or were not paying attention at a traffic light: ‘Those people need a lesson and that is why I drive really fast if they want to pass me, they have to keep their heads, learn a lesson.’ Not everyone in the comments agrees with this attitude, by the way.
Also read: At these times, speed checks are disabled in the Netherlands
Another blames our performance society: ‘The system here in the Netherlands is focused on self-reliance. Egos are stimulated and cockiness arises. In the car, people feel anonymous.’ Another response agrees: ‘Many do not want to be defeated and instinctively you drive faster.’
Are you slowing down yourself?
This reaction places the blame on the other person: ‘If you have already passed me three times before and you pass me again because you were not paying attention, then I also think: and now you just stay behind me.’ Another person thinks that the other car is not going faster, but that you are going slower: ‘If you drive behind it, you are driving out of the wind. As soon as you want to pass it, you actually get a headwind, which makes you seem to go slower and therefore pass it more slowly.’
Or could there be a scientific basis? ‘I think it has to do with airflow. A kind of lateral slipstream is created whereby you “pull” the car you want to overtake along with you. If your difference in speed is more than 3 km/h, the effect is much less. It also usually happens in trajectory control situations and much less when there is no “evil eye” nearby’, a reader believes.
To avoid being cornered
A certain Harry accelerates when he is going too slowly, so that he does not get stuck behind a truck: ‘I accelerate when the idiot next to me, by overtaking slowly, creates a long line of cars. If a truck then appears, I am trapped. To avoid that, I accelerate so that I do not have to hang behind the truck for another 5 minutes.’
A certain Hanzo also catches himself doing it: ‘If I don’t use the cruise control, I notice that I also automatically accelerate a bit when slowly overtaking traffic. I think that is an unconscious mechanism because we are taught to drive with the traffic. Without cruise control, the speed fluctuates a bit anyway and if you then overtake at 1 to 2 km/h, that is extra noticeable. But according to me it is not to irritate and it is not a conscious action either.’
Also read: This is how fast people really drive on the German Autobahn
Or is it hatred against Dacias?
An anonymous reader suspects a completely different motivation: ‘Regularly people who suddenly accelerate a lot when I overtake them. Dacia haters I think. Jealous that a cheaper car can overtake them? No idea.’ But not everyone agrees: ‘A Dacia driver who overtakes?! That doesn’t sound very credible.’
