This sounds like you encountered an actual road troll, but it could’ve been one of those things akin to 2 people trying to speak at the same time, where it takes 2+ attempts before they figure out who’ll talk and who’ll listen.
The matching of your speed during your pass attempt seems like the primary offense.
The only justification I can concoct is if your passing attempt made the driver realize they were going slow enough to make people wanna pass, and they chose a stupid and inconsiderate time to accelerate. But that possibility is undermined by their subsequent braking. Maybe the braking could’ve been reflexive as they watched you and oncoming traffic approach bumpers, but that’s a second unlikely thing that’d have to be true to shed a troll label.
I knew a guy who was that kind of troll. Riding in the car with him, he’d mutter “don’t pass me” and would go faster purely to avoid being passed. So I know those trolls exist.
You say it was 5-10 seconds before oncoming traffic would arrive. That feels close to me. 5 seconds is too close to be passing in my opinion. 10 seconds sounds safe.
Having not been there myself, I’m can’t feel certain either way. But kudos to you for considering that you might be wrong. Just that fact portrays you as attempting to do right, and lends credibility to the trolliness of the other driver.
When I said 5-10 seconds, I meant there was 5-10 seconds after I pulled over before the on coming car passed me.
In that entire interaction, I had time to speed up, they had time to speed up, I speed up some more, they speed up more.
Then I presume we both saw the on coming car, realized we were getting nowhere and did the same action hoping for opposite results. They gave up to let me ahead, and I gave up to get back behind them.
Then I really gave up and pulled to the shoulder, than it was another little bit for the oncoming car to pass. And of course, the memory of timing could be completely off, but I was fully stopped when the car passed me and my pants stayed clean.
This sounds like you encountered an actual road troll, but it could’ve been one of those things akin to 2 people trying to speak at the same time, where it takes 2+ attempts before they figure out who’ll talk and who’ll listen.
The matching of your speed during your pass attempt seems like the primary offense.
The only justification I can concoct is if your passing attempt made the driver realize they were going slow enough to make people wanna pass, and they chose a stupid and inconsiderate time to accelerate. But that possibility is undermined by their subsequent braking. Maybe the braking could’ve been reflexive as they watched you and oncoming traffic approach bumpers, but that’s a second unlikely thing that’d have to be true to shed a troll label.
I knew a guy who was that kind of troll. Riding in the car with him, he’d mutter “don’t pass me” and would go faster purely to avoid being passed. So I know those trolls exist.
You say it was 5-10 seconds before oncoming traffic would arrive. That feels close to me. 5 seconds is too close to be passing in my opinion. 10 seconds sounds safe.
Having not been there myself, I’m can’t feel certain either way. But kudos to you for considering that you might be wrong. Just that fact portrays you as attempting to do right, and lends credibility to the trolliness of the other driver.
When I said 5-10 seconds, I meant there was 5-10 seconds after I pulled over before the on coming car passed me.
In that entire interaction, I had time to speed up, they had time to speed up, I speed up some more, they speed up more. Then I presume we both saw the on coming car, realized we were getting nowhere and did the same action hoping for opposite results. They gave up to let me ahead, and I gave up to get back behind them.
Then I really gave up and pulled to the shoulder, than it was another little bit for the oncoming car to pass. And of course, the memory of timing could be completely off, but I was fully stopped when the car passed me and my pants stayed clean.