This happens so often in the Pacific Northwest, there has to be a study somewhere to explain it.

You’re driving along, in one lane of a two-lane highway. It’s not crowded. There are no cars in sight behind you, and just one up ahead.

You’re in one lane, and the car up in front of you is in the other. But not for long…

There’s something they must teach in driver’s ed in the Pacific Northwest that they don’t teach anywhere else. (OK, there are actually a lot of things they teach in the PNW that they don’t teach anywhere else (or, perhaps its things they teach everywhere else that they don’t teach in the PNW).)

More times than I can count, when I’ve been in that situation, with just one car up ahead of me, the car ahead will inevitably just move into my lane. It doesn’t matter what lane I’m in. And I always watch to see if they inevitably make a turn from that lane.

Nope. Their destination seems to play no role in the lane-changing decisions. People in the Pacific Northwest simply seem to have a natural inclination to be in your way whenever possible. It’s just an instinct.

It happened to me today. I was driving along in the right lane. The car about 100 yards ahead was in the left. Before long they just eased into the right lane. They didn’t signal. And they didn’t end up turning right.

They just determined that it was time to get in my lane and be in my way.

Naturally, I moved to the left lane, sped up, and passed them. (As one does.)

But I would love to get to the bottom of what those people are thinking. What drives them to just switch lanes like that, with no obvious purpose.

I’d like to thin it’s something, but I have no idea what it could be.