I have spent several hours on the 405 Freeway during extremely heavy traffic this week. I'm talking about the kind of traffic where you really feel you're moving along if your speedometer can hit 20 mph and positively racing along if you're doing 35 mph. So slow that you could take a nap between driving decisions.

And plenty of time to observe the gap closers. These are the people who are determined that no other vehicle will merge into traffic between them and the car in front of them.

If someone turns on his turn signal to change lanes, these folks will automatically hit the accelerator to prevent anyone from moving into the space ahead of them. Of all the insane and discourteous behaviors, this has to be the most stupid. Exactly how much time do they think they will save by preventing other vehicles from merging?

Not to mention which, it's illegal in California to close the gap once the other driver has signalled his intentions. But who cares about the law? Observed most in its violation.

I suspect it's a testosterone-driven aggressive thing that has little to do with saving time.