I'm not quite certain as to what happens to us as people when we find ourselves behind the steering wheel of a car. I have seen some truly meek individuals morph into a completely different person. The competitor. There seems to be this very territorial instinct to protect the lane that one is driving in here in my local area. It's so bad that people will take the opportunity to get into the lane that they need to be in to take an exit about 2 or 3 KM's out on a two lane city street, just to be sure they will get through to the off ramp. Heaven forbid that they use both lanes all the way to the exit...The whole zipper effect is completely lost on these people.
There are the others as well who will essentially play frogger down both lanes trying to jump up a few cars by cutting off whoever is in their way, passing on the left or the right with complete indiscretion. Motorcycles are often guilty of this. Our local traffic, as bad as it is, is extremely orderly in comparison to a place like India. While I visited there a 3 lane road would swarm with 5 lanes of traffic all jumbled together, moving forward in waves like ants following a dripping Popsicle. There was no use of signal lights, just horns blasting everywhere in some sort of system that allowed them to weave in and out of each others way, avoiding oncoming traffic while carrying their entire family on a scooter. I didn't see one accident, nor one incident of road rage; and somehow traffic seemed to flow.
Locally, I think it leads back to that territorial thing. The quick hurry up to the car that is directly in front of you in order to prevent someone in the other lane from getting in front of you somehow. The funny part is that nobody seems to care at all if that person in the other lane goes miles ahead of them...in the other lane; or if they pull in behind them...apparently that is ok as well. It's only that two car lengths in front of them that they are so damn adamant to protect. Picture this, an elderly driver puts on a blinker indicating that they would like to move from the inside lane into the outside lane because they will need to turn onto an exit up ahead. The middle aged soccer parent see's the indicator light and squeezes up closer to the car ahead to prevent that driver from getting in front of them in their lane. No way is Grandma getting in front of me. Get in line sister. Grandma misses her exit and ends up lost in a traffic circle that takes her to the other side of the city. It's ridiculous.
It's as if commuting is some sort of Olympic time trialed event. If I let that person beside me move their car in front of me into my lane, I may lose upwards of .5 secs from arriving to my destination!! That would kill my time! Screw that...Speed up!!
It's worse it seems when merging onto a road. How many times have you been in a car that was merging from an on ramp to pull on to the highway? A sole car travels on the lane you are merging into. It's a 3 lane highway. Not another car in sight and yet this person says...yer not merging in front of me buddy. Instead of moving over to the next lane with some sort of courtesy that one would think would exist, they keep their pace...maybe even speed up..so that the person merging in has no option but to floor it and pull some Dukes of Hazzard thing off, or hit the brakes to find their spot behind the King of the Road.
People are using their cars like dogs use fire hydrants. It's a bit insane when you actually take yourself out of the picture and just watch what is happening. People will actually get furious about someone putting on their indicator and moving into a space in front of their car. The rage boils over and the person that got "cut off" tramps on the pedal at the next opportunity just to fly by the offender in order to cut back in, and then slows to the speed limit. Now that they are back in the proper order, it becomes permissible by the highness for that road peasant to pass on the left, as long as it stays in the left and doesn't move back into the lane until at least one more car up ahead has been passed.
What's the end result of all of this. Frustration, road rage, accidents; and people arriving to work, the grocery store, and sporting events just as quickly as they originally would have, had they just waved that nut job in who had the audacity to want to get into the lane that they owned. The only real difference in driving with a bit of courtesy would be arriving to your destination in a great mood.
I'm not sure if the culture will ever change here in this regard, but I would encourage you to try for one day letting whomever puts their signal light on beside you into your lane with happiness. I'm betting you may get the same feeling you did the last time you held the door open for that nice old lady at the gas station who stopped for directions to get back to the other side of the city.